You all may or may not remember the incident involving Michael Richards ('Kramer' on Seinfeld) that happened a couple years ago. He was performing a stand-up comedy routine at the Laugh Factory when he began verbally attacking a black audience member. What interests me most about this clip, in relation to the readings for this week, is how other members in the audience react as he goes on his racist tirade. It is evident that some members are confused but several people continue to laugh, even when the jokes have clearly "crossed the line". This clip emphasizes just how blurry comedy can be in terms of being offensive enough to shock without being too offensive. Perhaps Richards has no credibility with what he is saying because it is not even remotely funny, but why then do people continue to laugh?
*WARNING*: extremely offensive and explicit language. (pretty disgusting racial slurs)
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/307809/seinfelds_kramers_racist_tirade_of_craziness/
I really wonder what he was trying to do with this. Apparently he was trying to quiet down rowdy members of the audience by being more obnoxious than them, but he clearly took it too far. I am curious as to if he knew what he was doing would get lots of attention, perhaps furthering him (all press is good press idea) but instead it backfired because it was one of the reasons he retired the following year.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that people continue to laugh. I wonder if people are really laughing at the things that he is saying (laughing with him) or if they are laughing because he is yelling crazily (laughing at him). From the video, it seems like people got up and left.
ReplyDeleteI think the laughter may have just been natural response to an awkward situation - sometimes when you don't know how to react, you kind of laugh along. That's what the context (a comedy show) was signaling to the audience to do, so they just laughed. The laughter could also have just been an action that tides people over until they can orient themselves to the new situation/context and realize that the jokes had gone too far - it seemed like this was the case because people stopped laughing as the clip went on when the realized how offensive Michael Richards was being.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what do you guys think about the audience member calling him a "cracker-ass mother-f*cker"? To me, it seems like it's fighting fire with fire...
Yeah, I thought that too. Instead of taking the high road, that audience member sort of did the same thing back, though only one time instead of repeating it. I think in general the "c" word isn't considered as bad as the "n" word... I think I've heard that the former was created in response to the racism of the latter term... does it make it less offensive? Seems so, but I'm not sure.
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