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>>>>> "that there is a tremendous amount of anger and rage in the US as a result of the wars that the nation has instigated (the reasoning is not clear - rage at the apparently unjustified deaths? A general sense of cultural violence)"
I think it may be in terms that soldiers are mostly from poor segments. War (well, like everything else really -- but war is like the foam on the cup of fucked-up things) is just another shaft fucking and abusing poor people. That always tends to create a divergence and separation of sorts. And, like you said, the general sense of cultural violence, unjustified deaths and the other things that seems to pop-up every two weeks or so...
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I don't know.
But since we're giving opinions and judgments, here's my take.
I don't know, just substitute the heckler with a guy in a club (or whichever other social scenario) making regards about Michael Richards' girlfriend. And he starts to talk back until he ultimately explodes and unleashes the same very thing he did on stage. In my imagination it wouldn't play very differently from what happened at stage. That was no stage-play here in my mind. That was a pathetic and desperate Last Effort in making himself sound like a on-the-edge comedian and more ahead than his audience on the theme of race&racism, and even not being able to hold it right and snapping ("it shocks you... u see what's buried beneath you dumb mother fuckerrrrs!"). A racist guy who doesn't consider himself racist but would, can and will explode at any time and drop the n-bomb with furious intent and who knows what else if he wasn't on a less crowded place.
Simply put, it sounded like a racist joke some people in my high-school used to make inside their comfy houses, away from blacks or the real world. Where they would role-play dialogues as if they had slave-farms and "as if they were extremely racist", "so absurdly racist to nowadays it was fun", "it was okay because they weren't racists, and that's why it was funny". "All in good fun", "they're not racists", "they fucking hate racists motherfuckers and everything".
And the show, Seinfeld... I loved it when I was 13-14. I still think is very well done, but c'mon... it appeals at the most prejudicious places inside us. It's funny, ok. And I'm sure many black, hispanics, gay people and other minorities thought it was funny too (others, not so much. From memory alone, I can spot the Puerto Rican Day episode controversy). It's funny because it mentioned things out loud that were unspoken social taboos. It's like when you see the first person in your life to say "doo-doo" and "shitface" in public when you're 6 (or how just by including the word "fuck"/ "this fucking _______" and talking about his dick, a stand-up comedian would double his laughs), it's a stupid knee-jerk laugh reaction on something that wasn't usually commented. In Seinfeld (and Curb Your Enthusiasm) it's people's dislikes in being in subways, taxis(!), public spaces, socializing with the help mostly. At most parts, the social scenarios with lower classes folks (sure, you could put some poor white people in the mix, as well -- sure, "they rub us in the wrong way too, no?").
And of course, there were all sorts of social dislikes -- Close-Talkers (just a bizarre-fantasy replacement for/ two degrees separate from "goddamn it, this guy makes me look like a fucking fag when we're together! Goddamn queer! What does he want, to kiss me?!"),
Some could say it's just generalized misanthropy and social discomfort. But c'mon... it's a white-male-straight thing mostly, no matter how spread the butter is on the bread.
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" tries to put itself in a safe spot by stating itself out loud many times that it's just misanthropic in general and that blacks (in-show) have the wrong impression of Larry David, Seinfeld and the shows. There's one episode where Larry is trying to be nice, funny and likable to a black dermatologist he just met (he's Richard Lewis' doctor) and says "oh, he's your doctor? Wow, even with all the Affirmative Action thing?" and the episode is about the social discomfort of Larry feeling threatened amidst black people. In the show (and I think in real life) Larry is a liberal. "He's not a racist", everyone and the show keeps trying to tell us and the black people at the living room. It seems simple to me, Larry David (and Richards) doesn't consider himself racist, he sees no traces of racism in him and when he says inappropriate things "was by accident and he didn't mean them". Ok then, so go on and speak racists things at any time, now that we know you don't really mean them.
They seem like people that racism for them is just bad etiquette on the dinner table. The only thing from keeping them from saying things like that is social and professional exclusion, and a racist fear of retaliation. It's just a new form of racism and separation, "I don't even want to get near that guy, I might say something stupid" (which, really, wasn't it the entire point of Seinfeld? That ).
And Michael Richards' apologies? He was too creepy in his paused-2-think pace and incoherent ramblings. But, still... I don't know. He said some things that if I had READ them I'd taken as some nice soundbites of apologies and awareness of the significance of what he's done. But there's something there that's just weird (but again, I would be nervous and weird alone for being in national tv, even more if I had just unleashed those things). I already made too many judgments from very few evidence.
And the scary thing: when Richards says the "50 years ago we'd had you upside down with a fork up your ass", the audience laughs -- not like the few that later just seems to be laughing at a man on stage having a complete nervous breakdown as if he was those sidejokes from Simpsons of celebrities going nuts or fucking themselves up to a point of absurdity. They actually laugh at the "humorous" remark.
And Wonderstar said it best in my opnion, without judgments and too much opnions (unlike myself): "racial slurs were the first weapon that came to Richards' mind and mouth, and to be honest I think that says something unfortunate about him." |
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