Video: Michael Richards euthanizes moribund career; Update: Richards surprised to discover he’s a racist
posted at 11:04 am on November 20, 2006 by Allahpundit
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What’ll the excuse be? Drug dependency? “Exhaustion”? A Gibson-esque three-beer buzz? Or will it be irony?
Extra credit: which lefty blogger will be the first to say Richards should audition for that new right-wing Daily Show?
Update: Pathetic.
Letterman asked Richards if he would have responded to the heckler in a similar vein if he had been of a different race.
“It may have happened,” said Richards. “I’m a performer. I push the envelope. I work in a very uncontrolled manner on stage. I do a lot of free association — it’s spontaneous, I go into character. I don’t know. In view of the situation and the act going the way it was going, I don’t know. The rage did go all over the place it went to everybody in the room.”
Richards seemed baffled by his own reaction on stage.
“I’m not a racist, that’s what’s so insane about this,” he said…
“Having apologized, is there much more that you can do?” Letterman asked.
“I just have to do personal work,” Richards replied.
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I understand that he’s also an anti-dentite.
there it is on November 20, 2006 at 11:14 AM
He was quite deranged back in the Friday’s show days…
benrand on November 20, 2006 at 11:15 AM
No excuses, but when a person has a breakdown, it’s always ugly.
stonemeister on November 20, 2006 at 11:15 AM
I cried a little when I saw that. Hard to say how anyone can begin to explain their way out of that one. Wasn’t it TMZ that broke the Mel Gibson story too? I’ve not heard of it before or since other than this one.
starflyer on November 20, 2006 at 11:15 AM
Richards did everything he could to frame his rant as too-clever irony, but stick a fork in him regardless. It’s time for the recurring gay Puerto Rican to scare some sense into him. “Who…are you talking to? If you are not talking to me, then you must be talking to someone!”
Kid from Brooklyn on November 20, 2006 at 11:20 AM
Live stand up always is rough. If you can’t handle hecklers, you don’t belong on the stage.
As to his disgusting choice of words. No doubt, drugs, alcohol, sleep deprivation, twinkies or some such will be to blame.
doufree on November 20, 2006 at 11:23 AM
Really? I just laughed my ass off.
Enrique on November 20, 2006 at 11:23 AM
Ouch! It’s always the people you least expect. Tsk tsk.
robblefarian on November 20, 2006 at 11:24 AM
This video is TORTURE to watch. As a big fan of Richards, it is a horrific spectacle.
Is there a more likable character is TV history than Kramer? Not in my book, which is why watching the video makes me wretch.
It will be interesting to see what happens now. For years and years we have been treated to manufactured outrage from the race baiters when it comes to racist behavior (i.e. the TV ad ran against Harold Ford that had the come on from the white woman). That was racist??? Really?? I guess I didn’t get the nuance of that bit of racism.
“Institutional” racism gets so much attention for the very reason that actual outright blatant racist behavior is such a rarity. If there were as many racists in this country as some would have us believe, macaca would not have been the biggest story in the history of time.
But to see a white person, repeatedly and in a fit of anger, hurl the “N” bomb like that to black people without any sense of irony or humor – I can’t think of the last time I saw that.
Maybe it was a botched joke.
Rosetta on November 20, 2006 at 11:26 AM
I think he thought at the time he was going for the irony, in an edgy, Lenny Bruce, pushing the boundries kind of way. But if his publicist hasn’t quit already, it will probably be that he was hepped up on goofballs.
Dudley Smith on November 20, 2006 at 11:31 AM
pathetic
urbancenturion on November 20, 2006 at 11:31 AM
Harsh.
Christoph on November 20, 2006 at 11:32 AM
I guess when you career is in the toilet, you’ll do any thing for some press, good or bad.
E L Frederick (Sniper One) on November 20, 2006 at 11:32 AM
certainly not gumballs 8)
urbancenturion on November 20, 2006 at 11:33 AM
Yikes!
SouthernGent on November 20, 2006 at 11:40 AM
Comedy is much harder now since Cohen/Borat has taken off. Richards is just “pushing the envelope”, right?
BJ* on November 20, 2006 at 11:41 AM
It would be best for him and everybody else if he would just ride off into the sunset never to be seen or heard from again.
rplat on November 20, 2006 at 11:41 AM
I will not watch, lest any future episode of Seinfeld is ruined.
Kind of ironic that Larry David had a Curb episode that had (in the show) a black actress that was pissed off at LD over the lack of diversity (and that she was denied a part) in the Sienfeld cast.
There has also been much racial play with the Wanda character. She is wicked funny.
Rich on November 20, 2006 at 11:44 AM
Sorry for the double post. I thought my original get zapped for some reason.
Rosetta on November 20, 2006 at 11:44 AM
Biaatched Joke, I assume.
fogw on November 20, 2006 at 11:45 AM
If the press captured that then they need a new camera.
iNeXuS on November 20, 2006 at 11:53 AM
Hecklers were the match and MR was gasoline. You think this will hurt his career? Whatever, it’s the new dance all washed up celebs are doing! Look at OJ!
Drtuddle on November 20, 2006 at 11:57 AM
To paraphrase Cosmo Kramer – “He’s OUT!”
Slublog on November 20, 2006 at 11:59 AM
Dumb remark-yes
rage issues-possibly
racists- I think idiot is a bit more accurate.
-I would need to see more behavior before I would call him a racists… I mean damn we dont even call Sharpton/Byrd/or J.Jackson racists and they have more than prooved their credentials…
words are words…
DarianCounts on November 20, 2006 at 12:00 PM
That is embarrassing, racist, and deadly to his career.
If there is a plus side, maybe some in America will see what racism truly is. When leftists falsely call those opposed to illegal immigration or affirmative action “racists,” people lose perspective.
januarius on November 20, 2006 at 12:06 PM
Psychopath on TV. And off.
Lazarus on November 20, 2006 at 12:15 PM
TMZ is a paparazzi shop that uses cheap videocameras instead of just still cameras. They’re actually part of AOL, but an outlaw shop within the megacorp. TMZ has broken all sorts of stuff, but you’d only be aware if you were haunting the celeb sites, and I’m one of the very few that reads MM.com, HotAir, Insta, Corner, WSJ, along with wwtdd.com (what would tyler durden do), pink is the new blog, the superficial, defamer… Most of y’all will be thoroughly disgusted by what’s on the celeb sites. Noit exactly family viewing.
Richards is doing this for fun, and working on new stuff, solely to keep busy. No one remotely involved with Seinfeld has any need to work. Heck, their agents, managers, gardeners, cocaine dealers, poolboys, and 3rd assistants can all retire thanks to the up front and residual payments they’re getting. As you may know, Julia Louis Dreyfuss is now insanely rich 2x over, as her dad’s a shipping/industrial tycoon worth billions and she has a ridiculous nest egg from Seinfeld. But she’s still working.
Resent them for their politics, which aim to destroy the system that produced them and condemn those with less money to a future as peasants, but don’t go after their careers.
libertarianuberalles on November 20, 2006 at 12:19 PM
Disappointing to say the least.
Benaiah on November 20, 2006 at 12:21 PM
C’mon, this is nothing. Apparently all he has to say is: “It was a botched joke,” and all will be forgiven.
Mancipium on November 20, 2006 at 12:26 PM
Why is he doing stand up? He seemed more than capable of making a career as a character actor. More money in that, I would think. Sad.
spmat on November 20, 2006 at 12:27 PM
No excuse for this kind of ‘comic’ relief.
From Protein Wisdom:
…because they can only laugh at racist jokes…
I disagree. Especially when I’m in stitches daily. Just one example – “global orgasm”. I can’t wait for the next topic. The subjects and topics abound and we have lots of capacity to laugh. And I don’t have even a splinter of a racist bone in my body.
Entelechy on November 20, 2006 at 12:29 PM
doufree,
Exactly. That was a disgrace, and there was nothing remotely funny about it.
Pablo on November 20, 2006 at 12:31 PM
I was never a fan of the show but I do of course know how huge that show was and how popular it was to its MANY fans. Several of my friends are going to want to cry if they watch this.
Yakko77 on November 20, 2006 at 12:31 PM
The two guys were heckling him, right? They were black. Richards is Jewish. Is it possible that Richards perceived their heckling to be racist or anti-Semitic, and got the (ill-advised) idea that it would be “ironic” to respond in an over-the-top racist manner?
We have no idea what happened before the video began — what the hecklers said to him that might have (in his mind) justified such behavior. On the other hand, maybe years of “Seinfeld” stardom created a prima donna attitude in Richards’ mind, where he felt entitled to abuse people this way.
There’s got to be some explanation. A multimillionaire TV star, an experienced performer, doesn’t just “go off” like this. It doesn’t make sense.
Ali-Bubba on November 20, 2006 at 12:36 PM
You’ll all love this, TMZ is owned by CNN’s parent Company, Turner.
americanpundit on November 20, 2006 at 12:38 PM
He’s just establishing his bona fides to host the Golden Globes.
BacaDog on November 20, 2006 at 12:38 PM
Ironic… He didn’t say anything that you can hear on any RAP album today. Why all the fuss?
PinkyBigglesworth on November 20, 2006 at 12:42 PM
How sad.
Troy Rasmussen on November 20, 2006 at 12:42 PM
Kramer is not out yet. This is just the Friends Attack Machine at work.
BohicaTwentyTwo on November 20, 2006 at 12:44 PM
I truly wish I had never seen this video. Seinfeld will never be the same for me again, and it was my favorite television show. I am black and generally chill about stuff like this, but Richards went too far. His words cut too deep.
TheThink on November 20, 2006 at 12:49 PM
It seems like a meltdown to me. I wish I hadn’t watched it either, TheThink.
CrimsonFisted on November 20, 2006 at 1:00 PM
Brilliant!!
Yakko77 on November 20, 2006 at 1:00 PM
Apparently nobody cares that people were calling Richards “cracker a**” and “F***ing white boy”. Typical.
Scot on November 20, 2006 at 1:00 PM
Everyone is missing what is really going on.
Plagiarism gone amok.
This is just old, dusty, LP-era stolen Lenny Bruce material so clumsily reworked that it just isn’t funny anymore, -because this guy can’t tell jokes, only act them.
He should do something really edgy -and put on some weight and star in a biopic about Theo Van Gogh.
(He can fund it, surely…)
profitsbeard on November 20, 2006 at 1:03 PM
I watched the video… no big deal. Using racial slurs doesn’t make you a racist; especially when used by a comedian. And what happened before the video started, it’s out of context.
If people try to demonize Richards over this short clip of him during a comedy routine, then it’s those people who should be condemned. If there is something I hate more than liberal rejects, it’s self-righteous finger pointers… so if you’re a self-righteous finger-pointer you need to shut up.
Opinionnation on November 20, 2006 at 1:10 PM
According to this report, Richards has “made amends” and performed at the Laugh Factory the very next night. Not exactly sure how you make amends for something like that.
Dudley Smith on November 20, 2006 at 1:11 PM
I don’t understand standup comics, but he held the microphone to his mouth the whole time, so I assume that he thought this was comedy in some form. I don’t.
I also saw a video on YouTube last night of some black scumbag on C-Span, calling for the “extermination of white people from the earth.” I wonder if that will get as much play?
Jaibones on November 20, 2006 at 1:14 PM
I would not defend what he said, but I think we’re talking more of a case of horribly bad judgment than of raaaaaacism.
It is important to note that many comedians (Mencia comes to mind) do “ethnic” humor, and that many black comedians in particular use the n-word in their routines. But I think it’s like how us Southerners don’t mind Jeff Foxworthy doing “redneck” jokes, whereas if some guy from New York or Chicago started in on that, we’d be offended. No matter how many times black people use the n-word, it will never result in a license for white people to use it.
Ali-Bubba on November 20, 2006 at 1:23 PM
The silver lining?
The audience reaction completely undermines the “America is a racist nation” canard.
DaveS on November 20, 2006 at 1:25 PM
Absolutely. The absolute last thing we should do as a society is criticize people who, due to racism or bad judgement, insult others using vile racial epithets.
Anything else would be un-American, unpatriotic and worst of all – ’self-righteous.’
/snark
Slublog on November 20, 2006 at 1:43 PM
CRAZY MAN !!! Richards did a crazy guy character who lived alone in a trailer park, talked to himself and yelled at the neighbors out the door, while cleaning his rifle. That was on the old Fridays show. I got a couple chuckles off it. His brand of humor seems edgy anyway. This was surely unacceptable in the real world. Given the benefit of doubt, I hope Richards was only trying to perform comedy. That was not funny.
sonnyspats1 on November 20, 2006 at 1:43 PM
…there are *PLENTY* of other genuinely amusing people in the entertainment industry than this guy’s ever been or looks to ever be again.
There’re already enough loose cannons, moral deviants, cloud-castle landlords and broken toys being paraded before us for our amusement. Hollywood and its attendant industries daily produce enough offensive crap for us to waste our money on. One more psycho more or less resuming a career busing tables is no real loss.
…as a person, he may need help. As an entertainer, he’s expendable.
Puritan1648 on November 20, 2006 at 1:48 PM
I think you just proved your own point! HA!
robblefarian on November 20, 2006 at 1:49 PM
By the way, if anyone thinks I am equating a bad comedian angrily calling a black heckler a “f-ing n-gger” while on stage, with a black “academic” soberly calling for the “extermination of whites” in a prepared speech at Howard University, I am not.
I just thought it would be timely to point out that racism is not peculiar to a race or an environment. I believe that there are degrees of racism; but I also believe that there are apologists for racists, as we have seen with Mel Gibson and will see with Richards.
Jaibones on November 20, 2006 at 1:56 PM
Caution! Sorry, should have mentioned above: be prepared for graphic language and shocking commentary if you follow that link.
Jaibones on November 20, 2006 at 1:57 PM
My point, among others, is that you’re a loser if you feel it necessary to criticize an incident like the out-of-context clip of Michael Richards… the point is: save your criticisms. That’s something the commenter slublog wouldn’t get even if I spelled it out. But I’ll try:
If people try to demonize Richards over this short clip of him during a comedy routine, then it’s those people who should be condemned…
Yes, you’re an idiot or a loser (the condemnation) if you feel it necessary to demonize Richards over this. Especially, when more pressing issues may warrant ’society’s’ outrage.
Opinionnation on November 20, 2006 at 2:11 PM
Man H.E. Pennypacker, what happened?!
Anyway, I agree with libertarianuberalles above, Richards and the rest of the Seinfeld cash do not work because they needa “career”, generations after them could survive of that Seinfeld money.
You do realize of course, that Seinfeld has been off the air since 1998?
It looks pretty appalling, but as someone else said, what is the context? Reading the story we know it was in response to heckling but the camera didn’t start rolling until Richards’ tirade. (honest question) How would you feel about the incident if we learned that the black hecklers had been saying “boo, you suck, we should put you and the rest of your family in an oven”, etc. Depending on if anti-semetic heckling was occurring, we could be looking at an entirely different situation. In that scenario, Richards’ may not have even been in a genuine rage, just launching back epithets in his over the top exaggerated style.
Obviously I have no evidence that this is what happened, I’m only trying to say that there is at least one way this could have been a lot different than it appeared on this video.
He could also be a complete nutcase and druggy, but I’m just laying out a possibility, because he appears to lose it for some reason… is it genuine rage from someone losing it or on drugs? Or is it part of what he think is an act, after making comments he thought were somehow okay.
So here’s the path though folks. Gibson makes racist comments against Jews, the Jewish Michael Richards makes racist comments against blacks. Outrage ensues. Now black comics will continue their racial humor and be cheered for it. And John Kerry will continue botching jokes about the troops.
RightWinged on November 20, 2006 at 2:14 PM
You’re two for two. Wanna try again?
robblefarian on November 20, 2006 at 2:19 PM
Trenchant arguments there. Piercing. Rich and compelling, even.
I do not believe Richards should be ‘demonized’ over this incident, but people should feel free to criticize this sort of behavior as inappropriate without being called ’self-righteous finger pointers.’
But go ahead. Keep “spelling it out.” It’s amusing.
Slublog on November 20, 2006 at 2:23 PM
We would, except that Kramer started in on the racial slurs first. I mean the cracker this and that came after he said something about forks.
Esthier on November 20, 2006 at 2:25 PM
Hey, the guy should look at the bright side.
He could have a bright future as a Senator from West Virginia.
I mean, he can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?
Readymade on November 20, 2006 at 2:25 PM
I mean if Kramer had only responded with racial slurs after being insulted with racial slurs, that would be one thing. But that’s not what happened.
Esthier on November 20, 2006 at 2:26 PM
I’m sorry, but there’s a difference between what he did and a joke that Chris Rock would do. If he had put it into a joke, that would be one thing, but he didn’t. He was going after those two guys.
Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not. I don’t know.
However, it doesn’t seem probable, because of what happens afterwards. One of the black men did launch into racial slurs, but they weren’t Jewish racial slurs, they were generalized white slurs. There’s no reason to believe either of the two men knew there was a camera rolling, so why would he start off with such a horrible joke about Jews but then switch to something so soft as to call him a “cracker” after being subjected to a series of racial slurs concerning the lynching of black people?
I just cannot imagine that they’d start off with Holocaust jokes but end with cracker jokes.
Esthier on November 20, 2006 at 2:32 PM
Now that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout! Hear Hear! (or is it here here??)
robblefarian on November 20, 2006 at 2:34 PM
I’m pretty sure “hear”.
Esthier on November 20, 2006 at 2:35 PM
Thanks!
robblefarian on November 20, 2006 at 2:41 PM
As someone who attends comedy shows on the Sunset Strip quite regularly, I can tell you that his outburst was actually pretty tame, considering.
Personally, I despise hecklers and if you have the *ahem* balls to heckle a comedian mid-routine then you deserve whatever they dish out.
The Ugly American on November 20, 2006 at 2:41 PM
Just so I understand…..
We are to prioritize the “pressing issues” and restrict our condemnation only for #1 on the list? So, I guess until we evacuate Iraq and the cops in my town catch the pedophile on the loose here, I can’t project moral outrage over anything else?
BacaDog on November 20, 2006 at 2:44 PM
He’s cooked, but there is one thing he could say that might help. “I’m a Democrat”
flagwaver on November 20, 2006 at 2:46 PM
Funny this is that WILL be forgiven by the left with a mere “I’m sorry – insert lame excuse here”. However, If he were a conservative he would be a clear representation of the conservative cabal.
x95b10 on November 20, 2006 at 2:51 PM
Not my little Kramer!!!!!!!
jjjen on November 20, 2006 at 2:55 PM
Did someone provoke him to that end?
It did sound as if someone in the audience pulled a “Materazzi / Zidane” on him, Kramer… ? Who knows?
Well, this one thing is for sure, everyone can be consider or classified as racist at some point in their life.
The questions is what will you do with it? Work through it… or explode in hate?
I once had a liberal friends, a minority like myself, and he was totally cool and anti-racist until oneday when he lost it… not completely but he lost it and let some racial slurs fly… I reminded him of his anti-racist Graduate level course that he thought at the University.
ar_basin on November 20, 2006 at 2:59 PM
I’m sorry to say you misunderstood…
I love Seinfeld. I love the Kramer character. But I don’t care if Michael Richards went on a tirade or said the word “nigger”. If you want to care, go ahead.
Opinionnation on November 20, 2006 at 3:07 PM
As Steve Martin said, “comedy is not pretty.”
Oh, wait: that’s not comedy.
Constantine on November 20, 2006 at 3:15 PM
I think the portrait of a racist graphic is unfair. Three billion muslims could say the same thing about a guy who goes around calling himself “allah.”
EF on November 20, 2006 at 3:21 PM
: )
ar_basin on November 20, 2006 at 3:26 PM
I don’t know. I look at it and see a loathsome, offensive brute…and yet I can’t look away.
Slublog on November 20, 2006 at 3:27 PM
I heard the guy in the audience using racist language, but somehow that doesn’t receive any attention. I guess it’s o.k. for some black dude to spew racist rhetoric in response to racist language? So that means the next time some black guy says something racist to me, I can respond in kind and nothing happens, right?
Here’s something else to ponder. I didn’t hear what the hecklers said that set off Richards. Maybe they said something anti-semitic? He should of took the high road and ignored them, but what did they say. Oddly, TMZ doesn’t include the whole incident on tape. I’m suspicious of that.
jaleach on November 20, 2006 at 3:30 PM
What the hell are yo utalking about? Why would anyone on the Left feel the need to stick up for Richards in particular? Talk about going over the edge. You know someone has become a little too bitter about politics that they try to warp everything around it, even things that have nothing to do with politics like this.
Also,
Not a big surprise, but it’ll probably flop. The only people who were ever really good at conservative humor are the creators of South Park, and even then it was only successful because they were crude – they’re not a couple of altar boys. I just can’t see “conservative humor” working out that well since conservatism, especially on a news channel, is naturally going to be constrained by its unwillingness to engage in humor that involves sex, drugs or other immoral behavior in anyway. What are they going to do? You can only make so many jokes about hippies and dumb activist celebrities.
Also, I feel obligated to point out what everyone knew I was already planning to say: Fox is fake news.
Just so we can get that over with.
Grebrook on November 20, 2006 at 3:40 PM
Very funny bit…
Wade on November 20, 2006 at 3:41 PM
Au contraire, dear boy. You fruitcakes are the gift that keep on giving.
As opposed to those stalwart champions of the truth at the networks, MSNBC, and CNN? Like the time Uncle Walty told the truth about the Tet Offensive on CBS? Sure, whatever you say Grebrook. Keep sucking on that opium pipe. Or your car’s exhaust pipe. You’re delusional.
jaleach on November 20, 2006 at 3:45 PM
It amazes me that this is the most common response Republicans can come up with when confronted with Fox’s bias. Moaning about the other networks. You have no right to bitch about CNN or MSNBC (Tucker Carlson, Joe Scarborough, Lou Dobbs and Glenn Becks are all closet liberals, now?) if you know Fox is pure propaganda and you love it.
Grebrook on November 20, 2006 at 4:21 PM
He was out of line, but why do some of the comments here seem to say that unprovoked racism is out of line, but provoked racism is ok. I’m only allowed to be racist when some one is first racist to me? How does that work?
Also, I can understand why the comment was posted about the black dude on C-Span. I hate the hypocrisy too. But it kind of annoys me that whenever a white dude is accused of racism, we have to defend it by pointing out examples of other races being racist. It just seems sort of… racist. Heh.
CorinthianJest on November 20, 2006 at 4:26 PM
But what you can’t do is be un-funny. Which he was. The unforgivable sin.
urbancenturion on November 20, 2006 at 4:33 PM
Has it been said yet??
NO SOUP FOR YOU!
lorien1973 on November 20, 2006 at 4:33 PM
The problem you have here is, of course, the fact that every study done to attempt to measure media bias shows Fox to be the most centrist of all networks, including the broadcast networks.
Is Fox biased to the right? Sure, if you include all of the opinion/debate crap. The hard news isn’t all that biased at all though. Conflating the two says more about the complainers that it says about Fox News.
DaveS on November 20, 2006 at 5:07 PM
Transylvania 6-5000 will never be the same…
jugger on November 20, 2006 at 5:09 PM
More of this tiresome nonsense. Carlson is famous for opposing the Iraq war, calls it a disaster, catastrophe, etc. Scarborough ran a segment a few months back asking seriously the question of whether Bush is an idiot. They’re conservatives the way Alan Colmes is liberal. Stop goddamned whining already, Grebrook.
Allahpundit on November 20, 2006 at 5:10 PM
Incorrect. Only one studia ever done showed Fox was “centrist”. And this same study claimed the Drudge Report “leaned to the left”. Thus it’s no surprise. All studies done by Media Matters noting the ratio of conservative/Republican to liberal/Democratic guests shows Reps leading 2-1, almost 3-1 in some cases. The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes, for example, have never strayed below 63% in their percentage of Republican guests during any 30 period surveyed. H&C broke the 70% mark in one month.
What are you talking about? If you “include all of the opinion/debate crap”. You do realize that this “crap” you speak of constitutes the largest bloc of Fox News time slots on any given day? If their opinions are all conservative Republican and their debates are stacked with conservatives and Republicans, isn’t that entirely what you’re discussing when you talk about media bias? Hard news? As in what? Traffic accidents, forest fires and celebrity gossip? Hard news on Fox slants to the right when it comes to politics because they pick and choose what looks good for Republicans and what looks bad. Hence why David Kuo and his bombshell about Bush mocking evangelical Christians was utterly blacklisted by Fox News, which preferred to scream about Harry Reid’s land deal instead, or better yet, Nancy Pelosi having illegal immigrants in her vineyard?
Grebrook on November 20, 2006 at 5:14 PM
Boy, my post where I said, “I don’t give a $hit” was deleted but you can say “goddamned”? I’m so confused!
EF on November 20, 2006 at 5:15 PM
for conservatives, comedy doesn’t involve politics. At least it doesn’t for me. That being the point. I like to keep my politics and my fun-time seperate. Lefties, by and large, are incapable of that. Their politics is their identity, i.e. they have to have it positively inserted into nearly everything they watch. Conservatives are perfectly content with theirs being omitted from discussion. Thus, Larry the Cable Guy.
Don’t get me wrong, I like a bit of humor in my politics, ala Rush Limbaugh, Ingraham or Beck, but I’d rather my comedy not include politics at all, with some exceptions.
spmat on November 20, 2006 at 5:18 PM
Carlson is a libertarian-Republican, so if you don’t like him, that’s understandable. But you’re honestly going to write off Joe Scarborough, an actual former Republican politician, because of one segment in which he entered with a rather ridiculous question? You’re also forgetting that Scarborough has his own show, so you can’t really compare him to Colmes, who essentially is just Hannity’s tag along as he crosses the country doing specials on illegal immigration, evil activist judges and outrageous liberal academics. Dobbs is basically Pat Buchanan’s clone, and then Glenn Beck, I don’t see how you can claim he’s anything other than a pure right-winger who is not constrained by any bias on CNN. He says what he wants and brings on the guests that he wants.
So these men are least have their own shows, and even if they don’t, MSNBC still brings on actual Republicans to debate the issues. Olbermann’s show seems to be the only one that doesn’t really include right-wingers. Are you honestly going to sit here and tell me, with a straight face, that you think conservative, pro-life, anti-stem cell research Democrats like Kirsten Powers are the right fit for debates with ultra-conservatives like Michelle Malkin, who’s attacked Ronald Reagan for “being too PC”? Or better yet, Pat Caddell or Mort Kondracke?
My point is simple, Allah. Why do you bitch about the so-called “mainstream media”, while praising Fox? You’re not stupid. You know it’s systematically biased, and it’s a lot more biased than CNN or MSNBC, if they are biased. Roger Ailes is a former Republican media consultant for Reagan and Bush the Elder. One would have to be functionally retarded to believe that does not influence Fox. There’s a pretty big difference between bomb throwers like O’Reilly or John Gibson and Jack Cafferty over at CNN. The difference being that Cafferty is basically this angry liberal creature that crawls out of Wolf Blitzer’s attic once a day for a few minutes while Gibson and O’Reilly control the editorial direction of their own shows. There are no real liberals at CNN that have their own show and use them as a pulpit to spew talking points. Cavuto, O’Reilly, Gibson due so on Fox, and to a lesser extent, Hume, and Kasich and Paul Gigot’s WSJ team on the weekends. Over at MSNBC you’ve got Olbermann and allegedly Matthews. Any other angry liberal commentators at CNN or MSNBC I’ve missed?
Grebrook on November 20, 2006 at 5:41 PM
Ok Fox News is biased toward the right. The rest of the msm is biased toward the left. Fair and balanced?
sonnyspats1 on November 20, 2006 at 5:48 PM
He’s been dead to me since I found out that he was the reason Fridays has never been released on DVD.
“I can handle it!”….guess he got his characters mixed up.
TBinSTL on November 20, 2006 at 5:51 PM
Here’s a link to the study on media bias, sanctioned by that bastion of conservative thought known as UCLA. I wouldn’t be so quick to pooh-pooh it.
BTW, Grebs, the Kuo thing got tons of run on FNC when it first broke.
Kid from Brooklyn on November 20, 2006 at 5:54 PM
Walter Cronkite et. al declared the Tet Offensive a VC victory despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and CNN’s founder is an avowed socialist. One would have to be functionally retarded to believe this does not influence the MsM, particularly in light of recent events, and their coverage. Particularly when journos’ voting trends have been, historically, about 90-10 for the dems. Do you really want to decry Fox’ bias while defending the honor of the sycophant media? Who’s really the functional retard here?
Kid from Brooklyn on November 20, 2006 at 6:06 PM
Not a big surprise, but it’ll probably flop. The only people who were ever really good at conservative humor are the creators of South Park, and even then it was only successful because they were crude – they’re not a couple of altar boys. I just can’t see “conservative humor” working out that well since conservatism, especially on a news channel, is naturally going to be constrained by its unwillingness to engage in humor that involves sex, drugs or other immoral behavior in anyway. What are they going to do? You can only make so many jokes about hippies and dumb activist celebrities.
Also, I feel obligated to point out what everyone knew I was already planning to say: Fox is fake news.
Just so we can get that over with.
Grebrook
Every comedy show before 1965 was conservative, and many after. Check the TV Guide archives. Many comedians of the era considered jokes obout sex, drugs or using profanity something other than true creative talent. One throw back comes to mind , Bill Cosby.
sonnyspats1 on November 20, 2006 at 6:17 PM
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