Kramer & Mel, together in Hell

Perhaps you've heard by now about Michael Richards' terrible, offensive, hate-filled rant against some African-American patrons watching his comedy act at LA comedy club The Laugh Factory(might want to change that name.)

While doing his schtick, whatever that may be now that he has been irrelevant for years since his Seinfeld aura faded, he was interrupted by the men and launched into an obscenity-filled tirade, dropping numerous F-bombs while interspersing the 'N-word' quite freely. Guests thought it was part of the act at first, but after the 10th N-word or so they began to respond by walking out. The whole time the men who were the objects of the diatribe were yelling back "that's uncalled for, that's f-ing uncalled for."

Most disturbing is that much like Malicious Mel, Richards could not stop his diarrhea of the mouth after it was clear he had gone too far. He just kept fueling the fire by browbeating the men as they exited the club. The whole scene can be accessed here at TMZ.com, but be warned it is pretty ugly.

So another celeb goes down in flames after allowing his private views to become public knowledge. Richards appeared on Letterman last night, with a disappointed Seinfeld himself attempting to help his buddy extricate himself from this PR disaster, but no amounting of apologizing will make this nasty incident go away.

Richards doesn't have near the clout as Mel, so you can bet that the mostly unemployed comedian will no longer be making the talk show circuit or be handed another miserable sitcom script ever again after his worldwide apology tour ends. My bet is that he goes into hiding for the rest of his life while trying to escape from the shame and embarrassment his comments have caused.

But the one thing that gets me about these guys is how incredibly stupid they are. It's one thing to have feelings like this- almost everyone possesses some kind of unpleasant thoughts about others- but it's quite another to vent them publicly when you are in the spotlight. Learn how to monitor yourselves, or else don't go out in public. You guys should just hide in your basements with your KKK literature and swastikas and enjoy your vile hatred in the privacy of your own mansions.

I know I'll never be able to watch those Seinfeld DVDs the same way again.