On Monday, comedian Michael Richards blamed a couple of hecklers for his lost temper and racial comments and said he was sorry for the incident that occurred at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood on Friday.
“I was at a comedy club trying to do my act and I got heckled and I took it badly and went into a rage, and said some pretty nasty things to some Afro-Americans, a lot of trash talk. For me to be in a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry. I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this,” the 57-year-old former
Seinfeld actor said on
The Late Show With David Letterman. He joined Jerry Seinfeld, who was the original guest of the show, via satellite to apologize for the slur.
The incident occurred on Friday, when Richards was performing at the Laugh Factory. Two of the people in the audience heckled him saying he wasn't funny to which Richards shouted, “Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a (profanity) fork up your (profanity).” He then proceeded to taunt the men further with racial comments and a heated exchange between him and one of the men followed. A clip of the exchange was circulated on the internet and CBS also aired it before the David Letterman show began.
Earlier, Seinfeld said he was 'sick' over the incident and asked that Richards be allowed to apologize. “I'm sure Michael is also sick over this horrible, horrible mistake. It is so extremely offensive. I feel terrible for all the people who have been hurt,” he had said.
Richards' rants irked Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada, who said he would not be allowed back in the club till he apologized for the remarks. “We have made it clear that Richards is no longer welcomed here. The Laugh Factory is a comedy club, not a forum for personal attacks,” a statement released by Masada said. However, Richards did perform at the venue again on Saturday, after he promised to issue an apology for his comments.
On the show, Richards, who played the eccentric Cosmo Kramer in
Seinfeld, said his comments became all the more unwarranted given the political situation in the country and the Hurricane Katrina fiasco. “There's a great deal of disturbance in this country and how black feel about what happened in Katrina, and, you know, many of the comics, many of performers are in Las Vegas and New Orleans trying to raise money for what happened there…I'm really busted up over this and I'm very, very sorry to those people in the audience, the blacks, the Hispanics, whites — everyone that was there that took the brunt of that anger and hate…” he said.
The incident is reminiscent of Mel Gibson's drunken anti-Semitic rants earlier in the year where he blamed Jews for 'all the wars in the world'. The rants irked Hollywood and threatened to put an end to his illustrious career, which is still on wobbly grounds due to the incident. For Richards too, the comments might prove to be harmful career-wise. “I think it's a career ruiner for him... It's going to be a long road back, if at all,” Richards' publicist Michael Levine said.
