Jerry Seinfeld's Web Series Closes Season with Michael Richards Catharsis
It's been nearly six years since Michael Richards stunned attendees of his stand-up act at The Laugh Factory in LA with a now-infamous N-word tirade directed at an African-American heckler.
Since then, there's been no rest for Richards — still best known as Cosmo Kramer — who has been all but shunned by the entertainment community, and has remained mostly invisible since.
But he's emerged from hiding for the season finale of his former Seinfeld co-star Jerry Seinfeld's web series, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, and he's brought his baggage along with him.
"I busted up after that event seven years ago," Richards says, misremembering the date of the incident, in one of the show's most personal moments. "It broke me down. It was a selfish response. I took it too personally. I should have just said, 'Yeah, you're absolutely right. I'm not funny.'"
The episode ends with Richards getting a redemption of sorts, as Seinfeld tells his friend and once-TV-neighbor to finally put "this bag" down. The exchange is followed by a scene of fans crowding around Richards, who appears to still have a few jokes left in him.