Couple Horrified By Richards' anti-Semitic rant

[Sapphire Blue]

A couple describes the anti-Semitic rant Michael Richards went on during a past comedy show: http://us.video.aol.com/video.index.adp?mode=1&pmmsid=1775870

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. "horrified?"

I'm sorry, but horrified is "oh my god! did you just see that bomb blow up those little kids!!? Oh my GOD!" Horrified is watching the towers fall and people jumping 50 stories to their deaths.

These people look fairly relaxed and their voices show no emotion.

I hate misleading headlines. :(

[matt819]

2. Okay, we've established a few things here

Michael Richards is probably not a real nice guy. Certainly he's a less than funny comedian.

Here's the question. If he's a racist and an anti-semite (and I suspect some other allegations will pop up soon), then how is that the RW has latched onto the assertion that he's a liberal? Does being an actor mean being liberal? I should think Mel Gibson would put paid to that notion.

[Kahuna]

30. I've boiled it down to him being your typical freeper. He hates

everybody. Bet he refers to Indians as towel-heads too. He's just not a nice man.

[bridgit]

3. yes but someone said he was 'a jew', so isn't it OK...

:shrug:

[everythingsxen]

4. No, actually he is Catholic

and a 33rd Degree Mason.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16838

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Richards

His publicist claimed he was Jewish to avoid a scandal involving an anti-Semitic rant.

I personally believe that it is brought up so often that "he is Jewish" is to give rise to anti-Semitic attacks and justify attacks on Jews. But that's my own conspiratorial brain on that one.

[bridgit]

6. that was not the behavior of even a 3rd dg mason...

touting masonic connections will not save him here

[AlienGirl]

10. I'd normally say something about you and Masonic conspiracies here

But I won't.

This time.

Tucker

[everythingsxen]

16. I just think it's crazy

that he's a frigging 33rd degree mason. That's just creepy. Those guys are usually like Presidents and stuff.

[AlienGirl]

17. Most of the 33rd Degree Masons are just rich people

[bridgit]

21. most correct, in addition to which; a goal of becoming a mason being...

the control of your emotions...a 33rd dg mason would then by that extension BE in control of same, and not all over; and then OFF the freaking map where the monsters are :thumbsdown: it's simply not tenable as a masonic degree of that order

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

23. the 33rd degree is an honorary one

that is bestowed upon a man by his fellow Masons, and not one that can be bought. If this fellow is Catholic, however, why is he a Mason? Their fraternal organization is Knights of Columbus. Last time I knew, Catholics didn't become Masons-but maybe that's changed.

[bridgit]

27. that Catholics have had creative, extensive relations with masons...

is a given http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/roman_catholic_freemason.htm there would have been little other way on earth to construct cathedral interiors without their knowledge...but i hear you talking :hi:

to note a mere handful:

(King) Umberto Agnelli
(Patriarch) Athenagoras I
Tobias Axelrod
Foster Bailey
Admiral G.W. Baird
Achille Ballori
M.H. Barroso
Bernard Mannes Baruch
Harry L. Baum
Jonathan Blanchard
John Wilkes Booth
John C. Breckinridge
George Herbert Walker Bush
Senator Byrd
Plutarco Elias Calles
James Cameron
Henry Clausen
William J. Clinton
Howell Cobb
James B. Conant
Copin-Albancelli
John H. Cowles
Adolphe Cremieux
Francesco Crispi
Aleister Crowley
Delmar Darrah
Morris B. de Pass
Richard DeVos (Amway)
Walt. Disney
Sen. Bob Dole
Gerard (Papus) Encausse
Gerald Rudolf Ford
(King) Frederick II
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Rev. Billy Graham
James Graham
J.J.J. Gourgas
Manly P. Hall
Mark Hatfield
Jesse Helms
Christian A. Herter
J. Edgar Hoover
Col. Edward Mandell House
Jessie James
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Jack Kemp

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

35. Ha ha

included on the list of 33rd Degree Masons would be my Uncle Al and my father in law Sid.

[bridgit]

36. sure, why not, so's Ernest Borgnine & a bunch of guys hubby knows...

that don't even care to be listed so why not Sid & Uncle Al :shrug:

http://www.algebra.com/algebra/about/history/Ernest-Borgnine.wikipedia

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

37. Just explaining why I knew

something about the Masons of the '50s and '60s, that's all.:)

[bridgit]

38. sure i got'cha, it's all good, don't know if you drink...

so i guess it's :donut: :headbang:

[aquart]

31. Nobody in the main cast of Seinfeld should be poor.

[QMPMom]

33. Interesting. Masons are usually very anti-Catholic.

[AlienGirl]

5. Michael Richards is Catholic

[bridgit]

7. so am i, and i found his behavior very strange...

[AlienGirl]

12. I was merely pointing out that he is not Jewish

as was suggested by your post.

Tucker

[bridgit]

13. no i hear'ya hon, it's all good...

:)

[Scurrilous]

29. The 'someone' was his spokesman.

'Kramer' apologizes, hires crisis expert

<snip>

"As for reports that Richards shouted out anti-Semitic remarks during another standup comedy routine in April, Rubenstein confirmed his client did, but that he was only role-playing.

"He's Jewish. He's not anti-Semitic at all. He was role-playing, he was playing a part. He did use inappropriate language, but he doesn't have any anti-Semitic feelings whatsoever," Rubenstein said."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061123/ap_on_en_tv/michael_richards


Richards wants to apologize directly to Black community

<snip>

"He (Richards) has come under intense criticism for his comments, which have included denunciations from several community groups in Los Angeles, and the owners of The Laugh Factory said he was not welcomed at the club until he offered an adequate apology.

Also among the critics was the Anti-Defamation League, the most prominent Jewish organization, which released a statement Monday criticizing the rant of the Jewish comedian, whose faith has been in question.

"He is Jewish," Rubenstein said. "I don't know about what other reports have said. I am his spokesman and I am telling you he is Jewish. You got that directly from me."

http://www.chicagodefender.com/page/local.cfm?ArticleID=7668

[bridgit]

32. there'ya go, thought i'd heard that somewhere...

:hi:

[msongs]

8. must be a prelude to their lawsuit - went to a comedy club and got offended! nt

[everythingsxen]

9. I found that post a little odd...

could you possibly clarify that a bit?

[bridgit]

11. maybe it's like walking into an arts & crafts shop and falling down on purpose...

tripping over an errant mat or other...on purpose-like, it happens all the time in the claims industry :shrug:

[everythingsxen]

14. Wait so are you saying that this couple

who is Jewish and was offended by anti-Semitic slurs are just faking it so they can sue....

But the blacks who were offended by his anti-Black slurs are not?

Wow. That's quite a double standard.

[bridgit]

19. non-sense...

[AlienGirl]

15. Actually, insurance companies have detectives to investigate that kind of thing

Unless they could reliably predict that antagonizing him would cause him to go on a tirade of ethnic slurs, how could this be a set-up? :shrug:

Tucker

[bridgit]

18. boy they sure do, but many claims are settled to simply make them go away...

without ever under-going investigative process...though this is traipsing off target clearly; if people don't want to listen (not you) then they won't, that much is ever clear :)

[AlienGirl]

20. Again, unless they knew that he was prone to this kind of rant it couldn't be a set-up

And if they knew in advance that when antagonized he regularly spouts bigotry, then this is obviously a habit for him.

Tucker

[bridgit]

25. i think he himself BEGAN to allude to it in his so-called apology...

on Letterman; he as i say began to mention (but shut himself down nearly in mid sentence) that he was going 'into character', which i thought to mean the 'crazy Cosmo Kramer guy'...but that dog won't hunt in either event, that is no defense; though that others may well have keyed upon that as a possibility :shrug: in that performers are out there for all to see & maybe have notes taken upon their every action :shrug: who can say for sure

i'm already made the point elsewhere...i think, my former boyfriend did stand-up; was a comic writer, i've been at that very club in LA, knew the owners, knew & hung with many stand-up guys & gals both all over cali & NYC, seen some very-very sharp, smart people in the game...some have a wonderful little bag of pretty little tricks for hecklers, my X did, many others do...this Richards guy maybe had no business, funny or otherwise, on this, or as it turns out: that, or any stage

[brettdale]

22. Oh please

Im guessing, you are now going to get a lot of people saying Michael Richards used bigoted language during his stand up, years and years ago, they will hire lawyers and claim millions in compenstation.

"Sticks and stones" people.

[Sapphire Blue]

28. Hmmmm...

This is from Robert Fulghum's book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten...

In the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific some villagers practice a unique form of logging. If a tree is too large to be felled with an ax, the natives cut it down by yelling at it. (Can't lay my hands on the article, but I swear I read it.) Woodsmen with special powers creep up on a tree just at dawn and suddenly scream at it at the top of their lungs. They continue this for thirty days. The tree dies and falls over. The theory is that the hollering kills the spirit of the tree. According to the villagers, it always works.

Ah, those poor naive innocents. Such quaintly charming habits of the jungle. Screaming at trees, indeed. How primitive. Too bad they don't have the advantages of modern technology and the scientific mind.

Me? I yell at my wife. And yell at the telephone and the lawnmower. And yell at the TV and the newspaper and my children. I've even been known to shake my fist and yell at the sky at times.

(snip)

Don't know what good it does. Machines and things just sit there. Even kicking doesn't always help. As for people, well, the Solomon Islanders may have a point. Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts...

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[everythingsxen]

26. So you feel the same way...

about him screming the N word at black audience members then too right?

[flying_monkeys]

34. Jeez Louise, does this mean EVERY person in the audience

is now going to come forward for their own 15 minutes of fame?


Only in America....