Allen Funt Culture

The Michael Richards tirade is up on the net, no surprise. But as I watched it, I wondered about two things. First, at what point do celebrities or even common people begin to change in their speech when there is the constant threat that in Mirandaesque terms "anything you say can and will be used against you." The rant is not funny. But it reminds one of a lot of what one might see on HBOs Deff Comedy Jam - except done by a white guy. Clearly, we need to redefine the limits of propriety. But I am not sure how.

Second, even with the technology, at what point do all these U-Tube and other spot videos become inappropriate? Shouldn't some cultural norms be self enforcing rather than ruled by gotcha? Funt had a long running show called Candid Camera which got people into absurd - and mostly tasteful situations - "sometime, somewhere, when you least expect it" - but it can be virtually guaranteed that someone will be there with a video when some second tier celebrity jerk makes a fool of himself as Richards did. But the change of always being on the record has some troubling implications.

Would George Allen have lost even without the "maccaca" video? I think probably so. Should he have lost? Let's see how Mr. Webb performs. Did we benefit from the manufactured discussion on tragedy TV about the meaning and reference of the "word" Allen used? I think not. Did we benefit from hearing Mel Gibson's drunken tirade? Again, I am not so sure. So we have a technology that can aid us but can also vulgarize our culture. We need to think about balance here.

By the way, I was struck by two things in the video. First, the Black guy who responded seems to have gotten the better of Richards. Second, as you watch the video, there were at least some in the crowd who commented that Richard's rant was "inappropriate" - he should have been called on it and at least some in the crowd thought his mix of swearing and racial epithets was neither funny nor appropriate. I was not surprised that a comic like him would make an ass of himself - but I was pleased to see that an LA audience would immediately get what a jerk he was being and call him on it.