Given the whole Michael Richards heckler scandal, The Late Show with David Letterman really lucked out Monday night since Jerry Seinfeld was one of the scheduled guests. Apparently Seinfeld got Kramer Richards to give his side of the story, asking him to come on the show and Letterman agreed to it.
Richards apologized for his actions and denied he is a racist:
Richards:For this to happen - for me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap. I'm deeply, deeply sorry. And, um, I've got - I'll get to the force field of this hostility. Why it's there. Why the rage is in any of us, why the trash takes place, whether or not it's between me and a couple of hecklers in the audience or between this country and another nation.
Letterman: Michael let me interrupt here for a second. Let me ask a question, had the people doing the heckling or the people not paying attention, had they been white or Caucasian or any other race what would have been the response then?
Richards: It may have happened. I'm a performer. I push the envelope. I work in an uncontrolled manner on stage. I do a lot of spontaneous – I don't know in view of the situation and the act going where it was going, I don't know. The rage - the rage did go all over the place. It went to everybody in the room. But you can't - you know it's - I don't - I know blacks could feel - I'm not a racist. That's what so insane about this and yet it's said. It comes through. It fires out of me. And even now in the passion and the feelings as I confront myself.
After Richards spoke his piece, Seinfeld explained his reasoning for having Richards come on and thanked Letterman, “I know how he works on stage and none of that justifies what happened but I've been talking to him today and I just - he's someone that I love and I know how shattered he is about this. And he deserves a chance. That's I wanted him to come on. He deserves a chance to apologize. That's all he wanted and thank you for letting him do it.”
David Letterman handled the exchange admirably and turned on an appropriate amount of seriousness, which he always has in reserve for situations like this. No doubt this will be a nice November sweeps ratings boost for Letterman.
Video is available at YouTube (for the moment) andAmy’s Robot has downloadable video.
