MICHAEL RICHARDS' LENNY BRUCE MOMENT

As a Seinfeld fanatic, I’m not sure which is more painful: watching "Kramer’s" rage-fuelled meltdown during a stand-up routine or the halting apology he gave later on the Letterman show. When you see Richards start spewing abuse at black hecklers in the club audience, and then start digging himself even deeper into a hole, you wonder if he’s somehow going to turn it into some ingenious, post-modern critique of the N-word. He almost manages it, in fact. But he can’t. Who could? (BTW, I'm not sure it's correct to describe Richards' targets as "hecklers". From his own comments on the tape, I get the impression it was their chatter that irritated him. But I could be wrong.)

I hope he's forgiven in the end. In the meantime, all those deeply irritating pundits and bloggers who like to complain, in that irritatingly faux-innocent way of theirs, that white people aren’t allowed to use the N-word ought to watch this little episode just to acquaint themselves with real life.

The last time I saw a comedian flirt with danger so brazenly, and still get laughs, was Johnny Vegas. Before he was famous. Belly-achingly funny. Last time I saw him on TV he was being paid to be crude and stupid for the Friday-night, post-pub TV audience. Not funny at all.