I love comedy. Comedy Central is my favorite cable channel and I find myself watching it just about every day. I also love stand-up comedy. There is something magical about a single person standing on stage and connecting with an audience. That said, I’ve been avoiding comedy clubs for years. I love the comics, but I hate the clubs.
Laffs, the comedy club in Tucson is a perfect example of why I hate comedy clubs. It is horribly smoky (something that will be settled come May when the new anti-smoking bill goes into effect in Arizona). The seats are uncomfortable. The tables are long and square which makes it impossible to view the comics from anything but an angle. The drinks and the food are overpriced and the club keeps recycling the same comics over and over. None of these issues, however, would keep me from going.
The reason I absolutely hate to go is the people. Not only are we packed in like sardines, but the sardines I am packed with are rude jerks. Just before the show begins, the loudspeaker intones “Laffs is a 100% heckle-free zone” It orders people to turn off their cell phones and to go out to the bar if they want to talk among themselves. The voice goes on to say that hecklers will be escorted out. That voice is lying.
Every show I’ve been to has been filled with people who seem to think they are at home watching TV. They talk among themselves in loud voices. They take phone calls. They heckle. They generally make asses of themselves and nobody does anything about it.
On Friday, November 17th, hecklers drove Michael Richards over the edge. I am not implying that what he said was justified. Richards went ballistic and he did so in a racial way. Richards did not have the right to say what he said.
Nonetheless, the hecklers deserved to be insulted. They deserved to be cursed. The deserved to be thrown out and they should have been thrown out. They should have been called every insult Richards could think of, except for the ones he used. I have no sympathy for these people, especially now that they’ve gotten one of those slimy publicity-hound lawyers to demand that they be compensated. Compensated?
I’m not going to let Richards off the hook for what he did, but these guys don’t deserve one moment of sympathy and they certainly don’t deserve compensation. They are the assholes who helped Michael Richards bury himself. His career will never recover and the stigma will haunt him personally for the rest of his life. That’s what Richards deserves. The hecklers who drove him over the edge don’t deserve squat.
I doubt I’ll be heading to a comedy club anytime soon. Even if the smoke were gone, the seats were comfortable and the prices were reasonable, the place would still be filled with assholes, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Steve | 22-Nov-06 at 5:47 pm | Permalink
“Everywhere I go, there’s always an asshole.”
Nice piece, J.C. I barely even go to the movies anymore for these same reasons. KKKramer’s a tool, and there are way better & smarter ways to shut up a heckler. But compensation? Fucking assholes. They should reimburse everyone else in the audience for fucking up the show… people payed to hear Richards not assholes in the crowd… where did they think they were, The Apollo?
Um…
Uh oh.
Andy | 26-Nov-06 at 7:17 pm | Permalink
What about freedom of speech? What about the right to assemble? Don’t these hecklers have these rights? Listen buddy, hecklers have been around LONG before comics, they were here first. Do I need to remind you of the hecklers at the Roman games? What about the shouting at people getting hung or burned in midieval times? That too, was heckling. You think now that you’ve invented this “humor” this “joke-telling” this “comedy” you can just tell the hecklers to go away? I’d be careful if I were you; you keep talking like that and some asshole will post a heckle on your website…..
Um…
Yeah…
J.C. | 27-Nov-06 at 8:41 am | Permalink
Freedom of speech? Last I checked, nobody involved in this incident was arrested, so freedom of speech was at no point an issue. As for assembling, I believe they were allowed to do that as well. I don’t really care how long hecklers have been around, I care that they are assholes and that they ruin my experience in the audience.
Steve | 27-Nov-06 at 5:48 pm | Permalink
Hey, and what the hell is Jesse Jackson talking (rhyming) about? There were PLENTY of black people on Seinfeld. There was Mario Joyner as the guy who wouldn’t let Jerry pull into traffic… there was the exterminator who took care of Jerry’s fleas… there was… Mario Joyner as the guy who wouldn’t let Jerry pull into traffic! “All white all night?” Is he crazy? And one time they went to India, and I think there were even a couple of INDIAN people in that episode!
J.C. | 27-Nov-06 at 6:00 pm | Permalink
Wasn’t one of the midget’s other midget friends black too?
J.C. | 27-Nov-06 at 6:07 pm | Permalink
Oh yeah, the manager of Monks was black and the one guy George kept screwing over on the Yankees staff was black.
Steve | 28-Nov-06 at 5:44 pm | Permalink
There, see? Throw in Babu that Jerry got deported back to Pakistan, the two gay latino thugs who beat up Kramer for the Soup Nazi’s armoire, and the south american woman whose store Elain tried to run out of business & it’s a fucking RAINBOW of diversity!
J.C. | 28-Nov-06 at 6:15 pm | Permalink
Jesse Jackson says we have to boycott Seinfeld DVDs. You know what that means, Seinfeld DVDs are gonna sell like hotcakes now.
J.C. | 29-Nov-06 at 12:20 pm | Permalink
Oh, and don’t forget their lawyer, Jackie Chiles. He wasn’t an offensive stereotype at all.