Even Seinfeld is pulling this crap?

Good morning again, class. Today's chapter is titled "How to Spot a Sneaky-assed Marketing Ploy to Sell your Season 7 DVD", and it's brought to you by the nice folks from the 90s sitcom Seinfeld.

On Friday, November 20th, Michael Richards, the actor who played the character Kramer on Seinfeld, apparently went a bit nuts after being heckled by an audience member during a stand up routine at The Laugh Factory, in West Hollywood, CA.

Here's the clip of that little outburst (from TMZ.com and YouTube):



In case you didn't pick up on it, the guy who was heckling Michael Richards was a black guy. If you didn't catch that, go back and watch it again. Makes way more sense with that tidbit of knowledge.

That sure was ugly to watch, wasn't it? Real ugly.

Now if you watched TV at all over the weekend, you may have noticed there were a zillion commercials for Jerry Seinfeld's appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman on Monday night. I think there was one mention on every commercial break on CBS while I was watching football on Sunday, mixed in with those super-annoying John Mellencamp Chevy truck commercials.

Come Monday night on Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld addressed the situation (wouldn't you know it?) with his old castmate via satellite. Here's a clip of that one:



He's sorry, he's not really racist, he just lost his temper, blah blah blah. Seemed a litte insincere on the "Afro-American" part, though. Whatever. It's over, right? Wrong.

I have noticed a bunch of commercials for the DVD release of Season 7 of Seinfeld here lately. I wonder if this whole thing might be a publicity stunt to keep Seinfeld on the lips of people who just might be interested in a brand new copy of the Seinfeld Season 7 DVD?

Let's break it down:

1.) Michael Richards is the Seinfeld castmember most affected by the Seinfeld curse

The "Seinfeld curse" is a name given to the phenomenon that none of the castmembers of Seinfeld has been able to successfully get anything going after Seinfeld came to an end in 1998. Of all the castmemebers, Michael Richards has been seen the least. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Elaine) tried out Watching Ellie, did a bit on Arrested Development and is now working on Old Christine. Jason Alexander (George) fired his first shot with Bob Patterson (which didn't last a month) and Listen Up, in which even the stupid-fat-guy-with-an-insanely-hot-wife formula couldn't help it stay on the air. Jerry went on tour with his comedy special I'm Telling You for the Last Time, and has been in a few American Express commercials. Michael Richards, however, had one short-lived sitcom in 2000 called The Michael Richards Show and hasn't been seen since.

If you were going to pick one castmember to take a fall for the show, wouldn't you probably pick Michael Richards?

2.) Doesn't it seem awfully coincidental that Jerry Seinfeld is on Letterman at just the right time to address this whole incident with Michael Richards? Don't they usually schedule these things a while in advance? What an amazing coincidence!

3.) Did you notice how the person who filmed the (planned) outburst has great seats and is able to film the whole thing?

At first I was thinking it was odd that there was a camera there in the first place. It obviously wasn't being taped professionally. Then I remembered camera phones. But what struck me after that is the fact that even though the guy heckling is over on the right of the stage somewhere, the person taping is center stage, a few rows back fron the front. Notice also how the person making the video never shows the black guy in question? You hear him, but you never see him. Again, what an amazing coincidence!

4.) Michael Richards is a 3rd degree Mason

This is true, but I mostly just wanted to make sure you conspiracy guys were still reading.

5.) I've been thinking that racism is the new pseudo-lesbianism or the new batshit-crazyism.

Let's face it, actors and actresses are attention whores. The attention of perfect strangers is what motivates them.

Remember back in the early 90s when you first started seeing girls making out and grinding each other in clubs? A friend at the time told me they did this not because they were gay, but because of the attention guys gave them when they did that.

Same thing with actors/actresses being apparently batshit crazy and outrageous. Tom Cruise has enjoyed a fair amount of publicity since jumping on Oprah's couch. Angelina Jolie got pretty popular after word got out of her weird habits, including walking around with a vial of Billy Bob Thorton's blood in a necklace. Ever notice how a celebrity who's career is faltering suddenly gets a big boost by the sex tape that was "discovered" by a construction worker at their house? How many times have you heard that now? I refuse to believe those people are that crazy. I think it's on purpose.

After Mel Gibson's drunken racist episode a few months back got him in the news so much, maybe that's the new thing that you'll be seeing celebrities doing in the near future. Maybe that's what Michael Richards is trying out now. I hope not.

6.) Actually, another though just occurred to me. What if AOL/Time Warner planned this to try to tank Sony Pictures? AOL/Time Warner owns Castle Rock Entertainment, which originally produced Seinfeld. The Seinfeld Season 7 DVD is being released by Sony Pictures, which is presumably not owned by AOL/Time Warner. Maybe AOL/Time Warner's pissed. The video of the outburst was released exclusively on TMZ.com, which is an AOL/Time Warner website property.

Hmmm, that last one has a ring to it.

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This post is tagged Michael Richards, Seinfeld, AOL, Time Warner, Sony, Castle Rock, David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, fake, and racist