November 22, 2006

Kramer goes Krazy(er)



Seeing as I'm not a member of any minority group, I'm most likely not qualified to comment on this Kramer incident. But then again, I’m no great advocate of political correctness. One interesting aspect of this story is that it has further burnished what Jim Pinkerton of Newsday calls the ‘You Tube phenomenon’ where one incident or comment instantly circulates around the web until it snowballs into a major story that is on the lips of almost every single American with access to electricity. Other occurrences of this include the George Allen 'Makkaka" comment and the John Kerry "botched joke" about the troops. I'm not judging this phenomenon to be a problem; merely that it exists and that it is intriguing.

Of this Kramer incident, an African American comedian by the name of Patrice O’Neal quipped, in his own inimitable way, “I didn’t think the dude was racist until he apologized! I assumed he was doing some sort of Andy Kaufman esque -I only know what I’m doing- routine.”

It seems that this ‘You Tube phenomenon’ forces people to publicly repent which often results in making a bad situation worse. However, with the Kramer incident, there’s not a whole hell of lot worse it can get. If you haven’t seen the painful footage already you can get your ear/eye full here. Oh Kramer, what were you thinking? He certainly is old school…as in pre-civil war era old school, ouch.

3 comments:

fHold said...

I think you are right in that services like YouTube give more exposure, and thusly stronger reactions. What might the public reaction to Mel Gibson's recent incident have been if there was footage of it we could all watch? Anyway, what disturbs me as much as Richard's tirade is the public reaction to it, at least on the discussion boards I've read.

Progressive Pinhead said...

Jaz, what do you think about Congressional pay?

C-dell said...

Racist comments do not serve anyone any good. Racism is a horrible thing it means that you have either hate or superiority in your heart. Hate is something that festers. Superiotity complexes lead to a person's down fall. I think that Richards has superiority in his heart. You can't hide that for long.