Michael Richards was not drunk, but he was on stage, doing an act. Generally from what I’ve seen of comedians handling hecklers it that they begin to insult and belittle the heckler and get the rest of the audience to laugh at them in order to embarrass and make them shut up. This was his lame attempt at doing so, it went terribly awry, and he was not able to recover afterwards. I really believe the reason he went there the way he did was because he does not feel this way towards black folk at all, he was just putting on an act. In these days when offensive humor is the norm, it doesn’t suprise me. If a black comedian were to make the same joke, it would be a joke, no one would take it to mean what we think Michael Richards meant, because he’s a white guy. I’m not excusing him, I just think the reason he made the mistake he did is because he was going into an offensive character onstage without thinking about exactly how offensive it would really be coming from him in particular as a white fella. And I believe he made the mistake because he is genuinely not a racist, and so he had never thought about himself being put in that sort of light. I saw the entire apology on Letterman last night, and he really does seem torn up about it, and I’m not so cynical as to believe that it’s only because he and Jerry Sienfeld are worried about loosing money. I think he’s sorry in his heart to have this representation of him exist in the world now. It will probably be a heavy burden for him to live with the rest of his life, and again not because of how it will affect his career, but because it’s just not how he feels. He seemed very confused, and sad, and I feel extremely sorry for him (yes, I feel extremely sorry for him, even though he has a lot of money, and a previously envious career).