‘The View’s Joy Behar Fires Back After Michael Richards Says The N-Word Is Commonly Used In Comedy: “It’s Not Used Anymore”

Joy Behar reminded Michael Richards on this morning’s episode of The View that the comedy world has rapidly changed.

The Seinfeld star stopped by the daytime talk show, where he opened up about his racist outburst against a group of Black hecklers at a comedy show in 2006.

“Well, I’m onstage with a microphone in my hand doing an act, breaking in material, it’s late at night,” he explained when Sunny Hostin asked him what happened that fateful night. “A man in the audience made an announcement. I’m not funny — he doesn’t think I’m very funny. I came back.”

Richards continued, “First, I must say, I’m not a normal man … There’s a lot of eccentricity going on in my kind of comedy. Certainly, I could’ve never created a character like Kramer without being slightly touched. So I went into character. I work in a comedy club environment where the N-word is used a lot. And I decided I would let it loose.”

(Editor’s Note: The View is currently on hiatus; contrary to what you may have heard, The View was not canceled today. This article was originally published on June 4, 2024, when this episode first aired. The View will return with new episodes in September.)

Behar, a fellow comedian, noted that the racial slur is “not used anymore” in comedy, as “those days are over.”

“For me, they certainly are,” Richards replied, to which Behar said, “For everybody.”

After Richards’ rant went viral, he became somewhat of a recluse.

“By the way, cancel culture, I canceled myself out … The rage just channeled into a character,” he told the panel. “I felt like I got hit, so I’m hitting back. That person went low, I’m going lower.”

He added that he’s still “very emotional” about the incident — even after 18 years.

Richards, whose memoir Entrances and Exits came out today, recently looked back on his racist tirade in an interview with People.

“Anger is quite a force. But it happened,” he said. “Rather than run from it, I dove into the deep end and tried to learn from it. It hasn’t been easy. Crisis managers wanted me to do damage control. But as far as I was concerned, the damage was inside of me.”

He added, “I’m not racist. I have nothing against Black people. The man who told me I wasn’t funny had just said what I’d been saying to myself for a while. I felt put down. I wanted to put him down.”

The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.