The First Amendment. It’s in there.

Michael Richards – Back in the day, people were not allowed to bring recording devices into a live performance. The performer had rights to his / her material not being distributed without compensation. Evidently, those days are gone as evidenced by the YouTube video of Michael Richards going off on some hecklers at the comedy club where he was performing.

 

Had that been the case here, we would probably never have heard of the incident where Richards went off on a rant calling the hecklers nigger and acting stupid on stage. As it happened though, someone video taped the incident, decided they were offended by what was said, and tried to get some money out of the situation (if not money, at least some notoriety).

 

Was Michael showing good sense in going off on the hecklers? Certainly not. Was it his right to go off on them? It certainly was. Who was hurt by the incident? Michael Richards. He is the only one who was damaged in the least by his words. Were the hecklers hurt? No, they were trying to goad Michael into acting stupid, evidently they were not enjoying his comedy routine, understandable, but does that give them the right to ruin everyone else’s evening by shouting him down? I personally don’t think so, but hecklers have been a part of stand-up since its inception, so maybe my opinion doesn’t carry much weight on this topic.

 

What about the person who video taped the incident? If they were offended, it was their own fault as comedy clubs are a place to expect rude humor and offensive language. They were actually harming Richards by taping the incident. We also have to wonder how much of his act they were taping, were they trying to make money off of his routine by selling bootleg copies of the performance? We will never know the answer to that question, but before throwing Richards under the bus, it is something to consider.

 

Personally, I don’t think that Michael Richards’ type of comedy translates to stand-up well, but that is not for me to say. I do feel that he has been turned into a pariah unfairly by people who weren’t even there.

 

Somehow we managed to go from Michael Richards to Don Imus without batting an eye. Don never even uttered the notorious “N word” in his remarks about the Rutger’s girls basketball team. Don Imus did what he was paid for, and very handsomely at that. He pushed the edge of the envelope.

 

Evidently, the envelope he pushed that morning was on the desk of the self appointed spokesman for blacks everywhere, Al Sharpdon. Al got his posse on the case and managed to bring enough political correct pressure to bear to cause NBC to fire Imus, without cause.

 

Imus had a contract that required him, as a condition of employment to push the edge and be controversial, but pressure from some self-righteous bigot got him fired. Here again, I personally don’t care too much for Don Imus, I don’t care for the edgy humor, but the man has a Constitutional Right to do it so long as he has a platform and a desire to use it.

 

People like Al Sharpdon want to call what Richards and Imus said “hate speech,” and want it prohibited. When we start shredding the Constitution and censoring free speech, Al Sharpdon and his ilk need to beware. His speech is as hateful or more so than anything Richards uttered, and much more hateful than what Imus said.