Michael Richards came under fire for making a racist rant during a comedy club show in 2006. The actor’s career has yet to recover since then, as the industry and fans ultimately canceled him. He recently resurfaced with a new memoir, Entrances and Exits, apologizing for his past mistakes and sharing his lessons so far.
During a recent appearance on The View with show hosts Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar, Richards seemed to get defensive about the slur that got him ostracized years ago, but Behar did not have any excuses.
Joy Behar shuts down Michael Richards’ excuses for racial slur
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After Hostin took a trip down memory lane to open the conversation with Richards, the 75-year-old responded by saying he got into his Seinfeld character, Krame,r and used the N-word in a space where he assumed would receive it lightheartedly. He added that it was in a bid to respond to an unruly audience member who yelled that he was not funny.
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On hearing this, Behar corrected Richards, telling him that the slur is not acceptable anymore. Refusing to back down, Richards insisted that the word was very much in use in his own sets.
Richards says he canceled himself
Although Richards had severed and tainted his legacy in the comedy industry, leading to his sidelining, he believes he made the decision to step out of the spotlight by himself. While discussing his long hiatus with Hoda Kotb on Today on the day of his book launch in June, he explained that his long hiatus was not a result of the public’s verdict but his personal decision to withdraw and reflect.
Since the infamous outburst, he has been spotted a few times and made a few attempts to win people’s hearts again. He appeared on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee show in 2019 and the premiere of Unfrosted a few months ago.
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