Having a conscience
Posted on December 4, 2006 - Filed Under Philosophy |
Unless you’ve been living underneath a rock, by now everyone and their brother has heard of the Michael Richard’s racist rant that was "caught on tape". I’m sure it will be released. Right next to "Girls gone wild" DVD will be "Kramer gone wild".
I have ultimate respect for Seinfeld. During it’s 9 year run on television, I faithfully watched and laughed just like millions of other American’s. At one point, I was so nutty that I refused to answer the phone during Seinfeld time.
"What? My brother got ran over by a lawn mower? Um, I have to call you back. Seinfeld’s on."
Long after the show fell silent, Michael Richards was "caught" doing his rant on stage. I honestly thought he was on something while doing his rant. It made no sense.
The follow up, as we all know, was his grand apology on David Letterman with Jerry Seinfeld looking on. Since then there have been numerous other interviews and more public apologies issued.
Someone the other day made an interesting comment. "Well, before no one was talking about him. Now he’s getting all kinds of publicity."
I guess it’s no big secret that Season 7 of Seinfeld is selling out at a record pace, more than Season 6 did. And Season 7 was released almost one week after the Kramer rant dominated the internet.
Am I sensing a large publicity stunt here? Someone could say "There’s no such thing as bad press." After all, you can’t walk 10 feet without a newspaper, magazine or television talking about this incident with Richards. "Public outcry" has been splashed all over the media. If the public is so upset, why are sales of the DVD are soaring?
Joe Public: Yeah! That Kramer guy said all those nasty things!
Slinging insults all over stage against the blacks and the jews! What a bastard! Ok, let’s go buy
Season 7 now.
Then there’s the sick attempt by OJ Simpson to cash in on the murder of his ex-wife. His book, "If I did it" actually cracked the top 50 on Amazon before being yanked off. And there was a television show in the works? I would almost respect this debacle had OJ announced all proceeds would go towards "Battered Woman Shelters". Actually I almost got that last sentence out before the back of my brain said "Yeah right".
Who are these people? Has it really gotten to the point where these people must do grotesque and unspeakable acts in order to generate the all mighty dollar?
Of course I can see why the kid with leukemia is selling ad-space on his head. It’s only his life that depends on it.
If you liked that post, then try these...
Round Robin on October 23rd, 2005
One hard lesson to learn: How to manage people.
One red paper clip on July 12th, 2006
The ingenuity of some people never ceases to amaze me.
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3 Responses to “Having a conscience”
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In an age when fame is coin of the realm, people are taking doing everything they can - save for showcasing talent - to get their name out there. The Kramer tirade is part and parcel of the same climate that allows Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton to be household names.
What can turn this sorry situation around? Well, Kramer’s rant is clearly a case of pushing the limits on the theory that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” And we’ve just witnessed the collapse of OJ’s most recent bid for the public’s attention. Hopefully the pendulum is already swinging back in the right direction.
To turn the situation around would require people to actually carry through with some kind of large-scale boycott. But that will never happen.
I am so ashamed. Ive been living under a rock. lol