Angry in the Great White North

Michael Richards was caught on tape spewing racial insults at a heckler at a comedy club:

Michael Richards exploded in anger as he performed at a famous L.A. comedy club last Friday, hurling racial epithets that left the crowd gasping, and TMZ has obtained exclusive video of the ugly incident.

Richards, who played the wacky Cosmo Kramer on the hit TV show "Seinfeld," appeared onstage at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Kyle Doss, an African-American, told TMZ he and some friends were in the cheap seats and he was playfully heckling Richards when suddenly, the comedian lost it.

The camera started rolling just as Richards began his attack, screaming at one of the men, "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass."

It goes on.

Richards is already on Dave Letterman making his apologies:

Michael Richards said Monday he spewed racial epithets during a stand-up comedy routine because he lost his cool while being heckled and not because he's a bigot.

"For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry," the former "Seinfeld" co-star said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman's "Late Show."

"I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this," Richards said, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself in a clip from the show played on CBS before "Late Show" aired Monday night.

His co-star from Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld, apparently told Richards to appear on the late night talk show to make his apologies.

I wonder if Richards' agent is working the phones lining up more talk shows for Richards to appear on. I bet they've got their fingers crossed hoping that Oprah will let him explain to America just what a jerk he is.

And that's where I start to wonder. Could the incident have been a strange attempt to restart Richards' floundering career?

Since Seinfeld wrapped up in 1998, Richards has been in the very short-lived and widely derided Michard Richards Show in 2000, in a TV adaptation of David Copperfield, and provided his voice for a minor character in the upcoming Cat Tale. Rather thin stuff.

Given that Cat Tale has not been released and is an animated movie, Richards runs the risk of having his voice contribution replaced over this incident.

But given the lack of work, it might not seem all that significant. On the other hand, all this publicity is getting him noticed.

I don't think that his outburst was planned or calculated to be a career enhancing move. But I do wonder if the subsequent "apology circuit" is.

The problem is that, in the Jewish and Catholic sense at least, public humiliation, and therefore publicity, is not an element of contrition. "Rend your hearts and not your garments", writes the prophet Joel.

Is Richards truly sorry in his heart for what he has done, or is he fearful of the consequences? And are his actions motivated by a combination of fear and of a need for self-promotion instead of true contrition? Though most people would not put it in so many words (or quote the Book of Joel), they can sense an insincere apology when one is offered. If Richards is being insincere, and people pick up on that, he'll be lucky if he is even a trivia question five years from now.

I guess one way to tell is if he only says sorry when being watched by a camera.