Michael Richards addressed his 18-year-old comedy club meltdown where he hurled racial slurs at a heckler, telling the hosts of The View he “cancelled” himself out of Hollywood after the incident.
While performing at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles in 2006, Richards was captured on camera hurling racial slurs as he insulted a heckler who told he wasn’t funny. Richards is best known for starring as the character Kramer on Seinfeld from 1989-1998.
“I don’t believe in cancel culture,” Sunny Hostin told Richards. “I believe in consequence culture, and you’ve paid a lot of consequences.”
Richards, who is promoting a new memoir titled Entrances and Exits, walked through some the experience from that infamous night before he warned that he’s “not a normal man” and his comedy leans towards the eccentric.
“I’m not a normal man… there’s a lot of eccentricity going on in my kind of comedy and certainly I could never have created a character like Kramer without being slightly touched so I went into character. I work in a comedy club environment where the N-word is used a lot and I decided I would let it loose…” Richards said.
“It’s not used anymore. Those days are over,” fellow comedian Joy Behar responded.
“Well, for me they certainly are,” Richards said.
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“I cancelled myself out. I’m out of there,” he said of show business.
Richards has only occasionally acted since the incident, appearing on shows like Kirstie and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The comedian said he’s still “very emotional” about the incident all these years later.
“I felt I got hit, so I’m hitting back. That person went low, I’m going lower,” he said.
Watch above via ABC.