It was far from hilarious, full of the ‘N’ and ‘M’ words, was demeaning, and was outright racist. When Michael Richards stepped on the stage of ‘Laughter Factory’ in November 2006, it was, if taken in his ‘slurry’ stride a ‘mother of a PR disaster in the making’. Richards’s belligerent banter not only caused uproar at the event, but soon spread through the blogosphere to inflame and infuriate the sentiments of others. For those at the event and those watching it later, his banter and his argument with the four African-Americans who protested was filled with ‘ick factor’ to the brim.

Richards who played and had his glorious days as the comic character ‘Kramer’ in Seinfeld was performing at the Laughter Factory in West Hollywood on the fateful day of November 16, 2006. Kyle Doss who was among the group that Richards addressed, shed light on what conspired before the point that the video recorded. Doss and his group (of 20) had arrived a bit late and unintentionally were loud as all of them were ordering drinks. Michael Richards’s PR disaster started off with him saying, “Look at the stupid Mexicans and blacks being loud up there.” And he continued a while before he heard Doss say that his friend didn’t think he (Richards) was funny. This was what triggered Michael Richards’s racist rant.

The camera phone video that recorded the whole affair has Richards begin (by shouting to a heckler – Kyle Doss) with “Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f*****g fork up you’re a**!” which was followed by the N-Bomb of “He’s a n****r!” His racial epithets continued with him having a verbal spat with the African-American hecklers and another one who protested his remarks.

Richards later apologized to the four African-Americans personally and also made a public apology when he appeared on the ‘Late Night Show with David Letterman’. He even called up civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to apologize for the fiasco. Richards later claimed that the racial barrage was fueled by anger and not by bigotry.