When Comedians Go Bad

No, it's not the latest Entertainment series on E4 but it could be, or one of those Top 100 Most Excruiating Moments in Showbiz - what was Michael Richards thinking of?

Richards who played Cosmo Kramer in Seinfeld, that's for anybody visiting from Mars by the way, would probably got away with his racist outburst in a previous era but now everybody wants to 'capture the moment' and he was caught on the video camera of a mobile phone belonging to a member of his audience having what can only be called a mental abberation.

Richards was onstage at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Apparently he was being 'playfully heckled' when suddenly he lost it.

The camera started rolling just as Richards began his attack, screaming at one of the men, "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass."

Richards continued, "You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now motherf**ker. Throw his ass out. He's a nigger! He's a nigger! He's a nigger! A nigger, look, there's a nigger!"

The crowd is visibly and audibly confused and upset. Richards responds by saying, "They're going to arrest me for calling a black man a nigger."

One of the men who was the object of Richard's tirade was outraged, shouting back "That's un-f***ing called for, ain't necessary."

After the three-minute tirade, it appears the majority of the audience members got up and left in disgust.

Richards hasn't had the most sparkling career since Seinfeld finished in 1998, like most of the cast to be honest and his outburst comes just a week after the latest boxset of the Seinfeld series was launched in the U.K - I've just bought my copy - perhaps I should send it back or never open it as a protest.