Maybe I’m wrong, but I think the immorality of Kramer’s racist stand-up was exaggerated. It was absolutely offensive and 100% not acceptable. There was nothing funny about it, and there was no possible current setting in which that would be okay. Especially when the audience member became upset, Kramer needed to drop the show immediately and apologize. However, it is obvious he did not mean it as real. I believe he was trying to shock the crowd by being offensive and picked the wrong thing to be offensive about. From what I can tell, the n-word and racism to Kramer are so absurd, that the bit was to make fun of racists by taking on the role of someone that would believe in it to show how stupid it is. It was a caricature. Unfortunately, our society is still racist and the victims haven’t healed yet because it’s still ongoing, so it didn’t land right at all. His white privilege made him tone deaf, so it was less about him being purposely racist and more about showing how racism is still alive. It also gave racists a possible pass at being overly racist if he were allowed to get away with it. I think in the future, society will either not care about it as much or find it makes sense because they will agree with the spirit in their time.
Again, i am not excusing his standup or saying it was okay. It was not okay. But, I also think it’s not what people make it out to be. In fact, he owned it and apologized for it a lot. He was clearly regretful and wanted to point out how much it hurt him as well. This made him a perfect target for mob justice using shame as a weapon because he believed he deserved it and would not fight back. It ended his career, and he’s been in hiding ever since. He was one of the first celebrities to be canceled by social media. The only time I remember him coming back out was on an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and he looked like a broken person. The backlash was so intense, that even South Park made a show about it called With Apologies to Jesse Jackson (S11E1).
I understand I might be misunderstanding the situation, so I do not mean to profess my opinion as fact and am open to other interpretations.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think the immorality of Kramer’s racist stand-up was exaggerated. It was absolutely offensive and 100% not acceptable. There was nothing funny about it, and there was no possible current setting in which that would be okay. Especially when the audience member became upset, Kramer needed to drop the show immediately and apologize. However, it is obvious he did not mean it as real. I believe he was trying to shock the crowd by being offensive and picked the wrong thing to be offensive about. From what I can tell, the n-word and racism to Kramer are so absurd, that the bit was to make fun of racists by taking on the role of someone that would believe in it to show how stupid it is. It was a caricature. Unfortunately, our society is still racist and the victims haven’t healed yet because it’s still ongoing, so it didn’t land right at all. His white privilege made him tone deaf, so it was less about him being purposely racist and more about showing how racism is still alive. It also gave racists a possible pass at being overly racist if he were allowed to get away with it. I think in the future, society will either not care about it as much or find it makes sense because they will agree with the spirit in their time.
Again, i am not excusing his standup or saying it was okay. It was not okay. But, I also think it’s not what people make it out to be. In fact, he owned it and apologized for it a lot. He was clearly regretful and wanted to point out how much it hurt him as well. This made him a perfect target for mob justice using shame as a weapon because he believed he deserved it and would not fight back. It ended his career, and he’s been in hiding ever since. He was one of the first celebrities to be canceled by social media. The only time I remember him coming back out was on an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and he looked like a broken person. The backlash was so intense, that even South Park made a show about it called With Apologies to Jesse Jackson (S11E1).
I understand I might be misunderstanding the situation, so I do not mean to profess my opinion as fact and am open to other interpretations.