Excellent article!!
One thing that is lost in all this is the question of why so many comedians and comedy writers have so much anger in them. When I was younger, I spent a great deal of my life working with them at comedy clubs in NYC and L.A. and was always surprised at the level of bitterness and anger in them - perhaps fueled by drugs.
Some of the angriest and rudest have got to be Bill Maher, Richard Belzer, Joy Behar, Chevy Chase and that little beast who conducts Letterman's band.
America is not a racist, angry country but our funnymen sure are.
"Richards claims he's not a racist, despite attacking a black heckler at a comedy club where he was performing with a string of the most inflammatory, demeaning, and vulgar racial slurs.
Is it possible that he's not? Maybe. It's possible that he's just a moron."
Not all morons are racists but all racists are morons.