On outbursts / In the style of the White Rabbit
typed for your pleasure on 23 November 2006, at 2.22 pmSdtrk: ‘A girlfriend is…’ by Vena cava
Unfortunately, despite the fact that we’ve got a month until Festivus, it’s pretty much been cancelled this year, on account of Michael Richards acting like a complete fucking twat. Now, I’ve seen the video of him ranting onstage, and followed that up with his apology on Letterman, and I’m still trying to assess it all.
Stand-up comedians get heckled all of the time; it’s part and parcel of the trade. Richards has been in that business for a long time, and I’m certain that he knows there’s a professional way to handle hecklers, and then there’s the other way, which is to let them get to you. You could say ‘yeah, he lost his rag, but people who get angry say a lot of things they don’t necessarily mean in the heat of the moment,’ and I would agree. But he didn’t stop with a sentence — he just went on and on with it, to a disturbing degree. To me, that indicates that he wasn’t just going for the shock value, this was a nerve that obviously got touched, and he was off shouting things that might well have been inside him for quite a while.
Me? I hate plenty of people. Tons. Do I hate them because of their skin colour or race? No, I despise them because of how they behave. And ultimately, that’s how Richards should’ve conducted it. If they were making a ruckus, well hey — that, as they say, is showbiz. But the shit that he’d said isn’t stuff that you just say off the cuff. He shouldn’t have said it. He honestly shouldn’t have been thinking it, but you can’t control how people think. Unfortunately.
A lot of people remarked that after this, his career has been effectively shot in the face, but unfortunately, Mel Gibson is still working; more than likely, with his best pals, the Jews.* However, Gibson probably has more money than Richards — as he told his arresting officer, he owns Malibu — so there’s that to consider.
Then there was his apology on Letterman. Before I’d seen it, I was quite sceptical, as I just saw it as him really trying to cover his ass after the fact. In day-to-day affairs, I’m much more of a cynical individual, and personally, I think most people are lying much more often than they tell the truth. But watching the apology segment from start to finish, he does appear somewhat sincere — he’s realised he’s made a grand mistake, and seems penitent about it. He was visibly getting frustrated at points, mainly cos Letterman’s audience was at points laughing… I don’t know if they thought he was making some misplaced attempt at humour, or if they were laughing cos they simply didn’t know how to react.
I guess if Richards is genuinely honest about wanting to make amends, we’ll see how he goes about it in the next couple of weeks. I did notice one thing, though; his apology was a general one to everyone present that eve, and to ‘Afro-Americans’ *coughshockinglyoutdatedcough* everywhere, but he didn’t really specifically say he was sorry to the two hecklers.
It’s occurred to me that I’ve talked more about mainstream media with this single post, than I ever have in the entirety of ‘Shouting etc etc’, which means that this was almost a waste of a post. But I’ve loved ‘Seinfeld’ for years, and it could be argued that the only reason that I’m writing this is that it’s due to a performer that I enjoyed, making horrible remarks that affect me on an obvious level.
So! Onto other news: I dreamt last night that I had taken a nap for an hour, cos I had to go to class later that eve, in order to turn in my final paper. But when I awakened (in the dream; yes, it’s rather meta), it was still sunny out, but I knew that I had overslept by several hours. I’d attempted to check what time it was, but my alarm clock and my watch both read 7.77. Well, my watch read 7.77, and the clock was 7.73. Understandably, I was panicking cos I had no idea what the hell time it really was…
As an aside, you notice there’s no speaking clock anymore? I don’t know when they finally got rid of it, but you can no longer dial (area code) 555.1212, and hear the Robot Lady announce, with unerring precision, what time it was. Or is. If they fired her, at the very least, I hope she has a decent job now.
‘Even a stopped clock is right twice every day. After some years, it can boast of a long series of successes’
— Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
And speaking of automata and mainsprings, new YouTube videos are up, cos it’s that time again (pun not intended). Happy 23rd, and Happy Cholera Blankets Day! Go listen to the new Ricky Gervais podcast!
*Don’t get me wrong; in Mad Max, he was a badass, but then he started crapping on about that stupid religious cult he’s in, and therefore lost all respect from me, as well as anyone else with a functioning brain in their head
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
Roll up your windows on December 25th, 2006
And when I woke up, my pillow was gone! on July 8th, 2007
November 24th, 2006 at 3.16 pm
“he’s realised he’s made a grand mistake, and seems penitent about it.”
Just like the teenage boy caught with his sister’s panties stuck under his mattress, he can’t change who he is or what his motivations are through some “sincere” apology. I’m sure he’s sincere. He sincerely doesn’t want his career ruined by this and will probably say or do anything he can to get the heat off.
Its clear he’s an insular urban fellow who isn’t used to rubbing shoulders with other classes and races. As many people in that situation tend to do, they over-generalize the unknown “other” and buy in to stereotypes. Reinforce that with a few negative interactions, the importance of which are inflated due to the pitiful sample size of experience they’ve had with the “others”, and you get a bigoted racist.
Anger and wine don’t usually cause you to say things you don’t believe, they just cause you to say things you’d rather not have said.
This is something the Aussie goy-boy Mel and kosher Richards have in common: they’ve outed themselves and now can’t unsay the things they’ve said.
November 24th, 2006 at 3.20 pm
I read that link to Mel’s Catholocism.
He’s a fundamentalist Catholic! I had no idea they existed.
How can a church built upon the idea that the pontiff is infallible have a sect that claims reforms the holy see saw fit to institute in the 60’s are invalid?
I mean, is the Pope infallible or not? I’d think that question is more fundamental than wether or not you can eat meat on Fridays or wether God used the big-bang to creat the universe.
By stating that Vatican II is invalid, they would also by necessity be denying the infallibility of the Pope. Wierd!!!