I Was a Big "Kramer" Fan...

I won't be able to watch him again, either. That was disgusting.

I'll still watch and probably laugh at Seinfeld. But it will never be quite the same.

Two things occur to me.

The first is that he had no career before Kramer, and has had none since then. I mean, if he's doing the rubber chicken circuit in comedy clubs, that doesn't speak well to his management of his career since the end of Seinfeld. It is entirely possible that he lost it because he's been under a lot of pressure, and the stress got to be too much for him. None of which changes the blatantly racist nature of his comments. He was rubber room material in that bit.

The other thing of which i am reminded is Andy Kaufmann. Many people considered him a comic genius. I just considered him a putz who was willing to try anything to keep his mug in front of an audience, such as his ludicrous offer to box a woman. I agree that it would be absurd to claim that "Kramer" was indulging some kind of avante garde humor--and would consider it as stupid a claim as that Kaufmann was a misunderstood comic genius.

WTF was that all about? I don't feature him living that down, and he ought not to either.

Man, that's the first time I heard anyone say what I always thought about Kaufman - so overrated, especially after he died...

Here' a clip from cnn.com. Seems like he's not all there...a professional comedian who can't handle being heckled?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tEcz9T3MuL4

More power to you, then, Snood, but I won't be able to.

I remember when I went off Demi Moore - she came on Letterman when she was 8+ months preggers and did a bunch of backflips, cartwheels and other gymnastic manoeuvers, completely endangering her unborn baby. I remember shaking my head at her asinine antics; however, it got worse. She came on a month after said baby was born and repeated the performance with her baby in a front snuggly. Ever since, I have disliked her intensely. Her point? Who knows.

Racism is not only ugly, but (to me) it's a sign of inferior intelligence, so I no longer want to watch him... he's too Trailer Park Boys.

Yeah, I hear ya Mame...

...actually my Seinfeld watching is kinda up in the air....

I don't know.

That's why it would make interesting discussion. I haven't reached a meta-opinion about it. I wanted to explore it a bit before I dismissed it as what it appears to be.

In one of my classes, we're entering Modernism and post-modernism in another--and reading Joseph Conrad's beautiful, sacred desire to protect words and own them really resonated with me.

When I used to watch Andy Kaufman, I hated it. It made me uncomfortable and I couldn't understand why anyone would characterize it as funny or humor.

Richards was on stage. He said what he said quite intentionally. God knows Richard Pryor said it enough--but Micheal Richards-- He called a specific guy a nigger. If I'm not mistaken, the guy turned around and called him euphemisms for Caucasian. What does that make Richards? What does that make the guy? Does Richards owe the guy an apology? Does he owe snood one? Does he owe me one? What about the guy?

The whole thing seemed desperately stupid and embarrassing for humankind. What does it mean?

What do you think about it?

Yeah, no **** . . . he once came on stage on Saturday Night Live, put an old-fashioned portable record player on a straight-back chair, and put on a 45 of the Mighty Mouse theme song, and proceeded to lip-synch to the song. Then, without having said a word, he packed up and left the stage. There was polite laughter and applause, but the crowd had been silent throughout the bit. Years later, i was stunned to hear a comedian (whom i will not name) claim that that "sketch" was evidence of his "comic genius." It was so "un-funny," and was to me evidence of the poverty of his humor.

There is a video, and i don't know where to find it, of the time he got into the ring with a professional woman boxer. He had gotten incredibly misogynistic, and had issued a challenge. It was the only time i ever really laughed at him (including when he did his lame "Latka Gravas" bit on Taxi), and then i only laughed because he was so pathetic. She chased him around the ring and he ended up on the canvas begging her not to hit him. I guess i'm flawed, because i never "got" his "humor."

Slappy is absolutely right, no one who is going to be a professional comedian can lose it to a heckler. To me, this is evidence that this joker is not and never was a professional comedian. I don't know if anyone here ever saw video of Rodney Dangerfield live, but anyone who heckled him was doomed to be humiliated for long minutes on end. God help anyone who ever heckled Rodney. If this joker were really a professional comedian, he'd have heckled right back and he'd have had the audience laughing at the hecklers.

Bottom line, this guy is a racist clown, and not a funny clown by any stretch of the imagination.

...that about covers it, for me...

I didn't watch the video- -assumed it was of a stumblebum comedian on his way down the toilet. That he proved to be a racist makes it certain I will not click on it. I do not tolerate racism of any sort.

Awfully pathetic.



Ever see "Last Comic Standing?" They had a show where one comedian would sit in the audience and heckle the comedian on stage. None of the heckled comedians had to resort to profanity or epithets.

I've seen Last Comic Standing, but I must've missed the heckling part. I just saw the straight-up competition.

That was part of the competition (I only saw that episode and one other, happened to be on at the gym when I was working out). They had to switch off in teams -- heckler, hecklee, then vice versa. With an audience. It was pretty funny -- you definitely got a feel for how being able to handle hecklers is a big part of the art of stand-up.

When I did stand up in the early eighties I had a starter pistol and on two occasions I went ballistic and ran into the audience and shot a heckler with it...... man it was great. Both times the guy fell out of his chair and the room got real quiet for a minute then the place would burst into laughter.

Word got out though and no one would let me do it anymore.... said it was over the top. hmmph. Pussies.

Now THAT'S funny I think hecklers are a$$holes. People who stand up there and give it their all deserve a standing ovation, in my opinion. It has got to be one of the hardest things to do... and when it involves comedy! whoa, even harder.

My sisters and I attended an "Amateur Comedy Night" at a local club (not in my town, thank heavens) and the one guy was particularly bad. He would rival our Bad Jokes thread here.. in fact, he would win it He was so terrible, but he was also very young... What I admired about him was that he had the guts to go up there and sweat it out ... you have to give him that. Anyway, one of my sisters was heckling and making asinine comments like, "You think you're funny? Well, you're NOT!!" ... yeah... I was moritified... we hustled her the hell out of there, toute de suite - comedy is subjective and comedians are sensitive. Don't need to be rude.

I saw Artie from Howard Stern and Andrew Dice Clay a couple weekends ago. Dice got booed...badly. Couple people got thrown out for trying to approach the stage and yell at him.

The thing is, Kramer is a professional. He was not on "Amateur Hour" I can see him getting pissed off, but the way that he reacted was totally over the top. If he had been smart, there were many options that he had to put the hecklers down, without resorting to what he did.

I have a few thoughts. Perhaps he was drunk, or stoned. My other thought was that he is really not doing well professionally, was feeling very threatened, and reacted totally inappropriately

I don't care what his 'excuses' or 'reasons' were - this is how he thinks and that's what's important. If you don't think a certain word, no matter what provocation there might be, you won't say it. If it isn't in your head, it can't come out.