“Seinfeld” actor Michael Richards told Fox News’ Jesse Watters Thursday evening that comedy is “alive” despite the prominence of “political correctness.”
Richards reemerged after years of sparse appearances to act in fellow “Seinfeld” star Jerry Seinfeld’s film “Unfrosted” and to promote his upcoming memoir “Entrances and Exits.” Richards told Watters that his passion for comedy comes from a love of “making [his] friends laugh” as a montage of the actor’s famous moments portraying Kramer played beside him on screen.
“We’re watching you right now in your Calvin Klein briefs fall over a potted plant. Was that one of your favorite moments?” Watters asked.
“Yeah, it was a surprise to everybody, they didn’t know — now, I didn’t see the footage. Is there where I’m leaning against the wall and fall to the ground?”
“Yes,” Watter said with a laugh.
“You mean you’ve got me on Fox News in my underwear?” Richards joked.
Jerry Seinfeld recently blamed the “extreme left” and political correctness “crap” for ruining modern comedy in a New Yorker interview. Richards pushed back when Watters asked the “Seinfeld” actor if “political correctness is killing comedy.” (RELATED: Boo Erupt As Anti-Israel Graduates Protest Legendary Comedian’s Commencement Address)
“We heard Jerry a couple weeks ago say that — I guess political correctness is killing comedy. Is it?” Watters asked.
“Um … I don’t know,” Richards responded. “Uh, people are just being more sensitive about what we’re, uh, saying about each other, which I think is a good thing. Comedy is coming out of it — in a sense, isn’t it?”
“It sure is,” Watters agreed with a grin.
“With the way that comics now begin to play with political correctness,” Richards continued. “The ‘ha has’ archetypal. It’s everywhere. It’s still gonna be with us, and uh, it’s um, it’s alive. It’s alive.”
Richards recently told the TODAY show that he “canceled [himself] out” to “get away from show business” and work through his “anger.” The “Seinfeld” actor infamously yelled an offensive slur in what the interviewer said was “called a big racist rant” at a comedy club in 2006.
