Kramer. All that nasty business with the racism soured my Seinfeld viewing experience for a bit; I was part way through the box set of series seven at the time when someone gleefully sent me the video evidence on YouTube. Thankfully I have learned to see him differently; he’s still funny, just less lovable, instead slightly weird and creepy. It’s as is there’s something bubbling below the surface that is somewhat unsavoury, nevertheless we’ve all known people who we thought were odd, unpleasant even, but still made us laugh. This adjustment of attitude is something akin to an optical illusion where an object or representation can be made to appear as either hollow or protruding, and one can flip between the two choosing which aspect is perceived at a given time. Arguably the principle characters in the show keep him at arms length anyway, and any true fan knows that the best thing about the show was the dialogue between Jerry and George, and that Kramer was just the clown at the party. I mean, he’s friends with Newman for god’s sake.
Maybe I’m taking this a bit too far now and yes I need to get out more. I just need one person to agree with me here to prove I not crazy, sad yes, but crazy no. I know that Michael Richards and Cosmo Kramer are different people, one real and one complete fiction, and that it’s only a somewhat dated situation comedy show. So yeah, I’m over the shock of that whole nasty, depressing, unpleasant incident you might say. I’ve gotten over it in my own way.
The Larry David connection is intriguing, as far as I know one of Hollywood’s true liberal, environmentalist, scourge of Republicans everywhere, and ‘friend of Lesbians’, if Michael Richards was harbouring some dodgy views, how come, as it seems, everyone was in the dark about it? One can only speculate.
.