Southpaw Jones

Tuesday, i-i-is that y-you? TUESDAY?!? tuesday?

November 21, 2006 By: Southpaw Jones Category: Paw Prints, Interesting?

Southpaw Jones presents
Is This Interesting?
Thoughts/feelings that just might not matter:

I don’t want to make light of what is probably a horrible, career-ending situation, but I just don’t completely trust this Michael “Kramer” Richards thing. He went on a nasty, racist rant Friday night, and then he apologized on the Letterman show last night. It’s all over the news, duh.

I’m not a huge fan of the guy, and I don’t really know what purpose it could serve to orchestrate such madness, but part of me can’t believe that such a perfectionist could really lose control to that degree in a public setting.

This is the guy who would crouch in a corner working out facial expressions and body movements while the rest of the Seinfeld cast was sitting around enjoying themselves. He would get impatient when they ruined takes by laughing. He knows his body, his brain, his mouth, and how all actions may be perceived.

Ok, it could be drugs, alcohol, or a pure mental breakdown. But for the sake of Turkey Week blogging, let me list a few reasons I doubt the reality of the situation:

1. Richards goes way back to the original days of “dangerous” comedy. He partnered with Andy Kaufman on at least one major prank (see below) that had people talking for decades. He admired Kaufman who ”was out to fool everyone, and most everything was fixed.”

2. David Letterman has long been a host for deep, dark pranksters like Andy Kaufman. Kaufman appeared on his morning show and his late night show many times, including the famous incident with pro-wrestler Jerry Lawler.

3. Michael Richards is no stranger to pressure, from stand-up to improv to live TV. I do not buy the excuse that he lost it due to inexperience.

4. There is a whole new generation of “dangerous” comics like Sacha Baron Cohen and Johnny Knoxville. Part of me wonders if the old guard like Richards and Letterman are out to show who the kings are. The O.G.s, if you will.

5. The original incident smells fishy to me. The convenient placement and shakiness of the camera, the sight of a blurry man awkwardly “losing it” on stage. It’s a train wreck you can’t take your eyes off of. When was the last time you couldn’t take your eyes off Michael Richards?

6. The man in the crowd yells out, “”It’s not funny. That’s why you’re a reject, never had no shows, never had no movies. `Seinfeld,’ that’s it.” That’s a pretty clear, thought-out assessment from an upset heckler. It’s almost Shakespearean.

7. I felt like I was watching a strange, uncomfortable Andy Kaufman sketch last night. Why was Seinfeld scheduled to be on Letterman Monday night? Why did he allow Richards to take some of his interview time for a very awkward apology? WHY ON EARTH would Richards choose the Letterman show to do something like that, then say, “I don’t even know if this is the right place…” And absolutely no public statement until the Letterman show? Everybody knows you don’t wait to apologize! Everyone except John Kerry, of course.

8. Seinfeld says at one point, “Stop laughing. It’s not funny.” Kaufman appeared on Letterman in a neck brace years ago to say, “I don’t know why you’re laughing. I’m not trying to be funny.”

9. Richards has been in show business all his life, and he goes on Letterman THREE DAYS after the incident without a prepared statement or any clear thoughts? Via satellite with a depressing, drab background? Using the word “Afro-American” over and over when EVERYONE knows it is a dated term? It’s strange.

10. I refer to the Number One Rule of Professional Wrestling (of which Letterman was a childhood fan): If it happens on-screen, it’s a work.

It’s all too much for me, even if my doubt is silly and unreasonable. Of course, this all begs the question, “What is funny about what happened?” Well, what’s funny about an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm? What’s funny about Gary Busey? Or Joan Rivers? Failure, folly, and falling are the foundations of comedy, after all. Perhaps I’m in denial that a great comedian from a great generation of comedians could fall so fast and so thoroughly. But if we soon see a “reality” show called Michael Richards: Prat Fall from Grace, I’ll know I’m right.

I don’t want to believe that Richards lost it. I don’t want to believe that Letterman has mellowed. And I think Seinfeld might be bored enough to take part in something like this. If nothing else, all this conspiracy theory makes me want to get out my Andy Kaufman tapes…thenk you veddy much.

Southpaw Jones presents
And Another Thing…
More verbosity with velocity and viscosity:

Here’s a chunk of a Speaking Freely interview from the First Amendment Center, Ken Paulson speaking with Michael Richards, Feb. 28, 2002:

Paulson: One of the themes of the show is freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and you were on a show that pushed some envelopes in the late ’70s called “Fridays. Saturday Night Live” certainly was a ground-breaking show, and then ABC brought on “Fridays” …

Richards: Yes.

Paulson: As a rival trying to do things —

Richards: Well, they were produced by the same people, actually, but they wanted the West Coast version.

Paulson: I see, and what was the West Coast version?

Richards: Well, that was it, “Fridays.” It really didn’t take, although we were on the air for nearly three years. But it wasn’t as popular as “Saturday Night Live.” There were a few characters I did on the show that became popular. Those were characters that I developed out of my stand-up act.

Paulson: Of blowing things up.

Richards: I think it was battle boy burning army men. I used to burn army men onstage, something we did as kids, burning little toy soldiers, and then — then I played kind of a lounge guy who went and talked to the girls but never got very far without spilling a drink on them or making a fool out of himself.

Paulson: And it’s easy to forget that was really a new kind of comedy at the time. I mean, it was — it was about breaking down barriers. There was political satire. There was drug humor.

Richards: Well, the biggest barrier that went down was the sketch we developed with Andy Kaufman on “Fridays.” That’s when we broke the fourth wall. And America thought that he had, indeed, broken out of a sketch because he didn’t want to do it.

Paulson: Yeah, could you set that up for us? Because a lot of us have heard about it, but I actually wasn’t aware that, you know, the cast was misled. There’s lots of different stories. What’s the truth about —

Richards: There aren’t many people who knew about it.

Paulson: OK, but people were in on it. Andy Kaufman came in.

Richards: Yeah, and in the movie, “Man in the Moon,” that’s not correct. That’s not how it happened because the network didn’t really know about it either. No one, as a matter of fact, knew about it, except Jack Burns, myself, Andy, and one of the other producers, John Moffet. The cast did not know.

Paulson: So at one point, Andy Kaufman appears to lose interest in the skit and gets irritated —

Richards: And says he doesn’t want to do the sketch and leaves the other actors hanging out. And then they open, and we’re live on television. And Andy didn’t want to do the sketch because he felt there was some material in it about drugs, and he didn’t want to do anything that had anything to do about drugs. So I got up and threw the — and got the cue cards and threw them in front of him, and he tossed water on me. And then Jack Burns, who was in on it, made a rush for Andy. Then Andy got physical with Jack, and then I’m calling out, “Cut to commercial. Cut to commercial.” And a couple of crew guys went up to get Andy, who was on top of Jack. And they thought that Andy was really out to do some harm.

Paulson: So how long did it take before the rest of the cast got it?

Richards: We kept the lid on that for a couple — for — actually, for a while, a number of days, until Andy came back on the show a week — I think it was two weeks later. And now he was hooked up with a woman that he had met who had gotten him to become a reborn Christian, and he was singing Christian songs and atoning for what he had done two weeks earlier on our show.

Paulson: So what do you make of Andy Kaufman’s approach to —

Richards: But America hated him. The letters came pouring in.

Paulson: Yeah, they did.

Richards: And everyone was out to kill Andy.

Paulson: He must have trusted you to let you in on it or to make you a member of the — of the skit. Did Jack Burns approach you, or did Andy Kaufman come to you?

Richards: No, we came up with it together.

Paulson: Oh, really?

Richards: We were tossing it about, yeah, ’cause Andy wanted to do something interesting.

Paulson: He always did something interesting.

Richards: Yeah, to fool. He was the great trickster.

Paulson: And from that —

Richards: Speaking quite freely, he did, indeed, you know, fool everyone, because you’re not supposed to do those kinds of things on television.

Paulson: So what was your take on “Man in the Moon” overall? Was that 90% right, based on what you knew?

Richards: 90? Yeah. I can’t say. I know too many people associated with it. I mean, I think it could’ve been more accurate, but then, on the other hand, there’s much in it that’s — it’s useful if you understand the — the premise, Andy’s premise as a comic. He was out to fool everyone, and most everything was fixed.

Southpaw Jones presents
Quotopia
Freshly-picked quotes from the ol’ reference collection:
Pure entertainment is not an egotistical lady singing boring songs onstage for two hours and people in tuxes clapping whether they like it or not. It’s the real performers on the street who can hold people’s attention and keep them from walking away.
Andy Kaufman