Michael Richards Opens Up About ‘Canceling’ Himself After Racist Rant

On Tuesday, Seinfeld actor and comedian Michael Richards visited the Today Show to give his first TV interview in “many, many years,” as Hoda Kotb put it. Kotb asked Richards about his new memoir, Entrances and Exits, which trades in Seinfeld gossip but largely revolves around the egregious racist offense committed by Richards when he was filmed screaming the “N-word” at a heckler at the Laugh Factory in 2006.

“We should just get this part, I think, out of the way,” Kotb began, “because the reason that you have been out of the spotlight was because of something that happened back in 2006, and it happened at a comedy club.”

While she spoke, Richards squeezed his eyes shut. “They called it a big racist rant, which it was, and you sort of disappeared from that point on,” Kotb continued, proceeding to ask Richards how he’d changed since his racist outburst.

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