Even Johnnie Cochran look-a-like Jackie Chiles couldn't get Kramer off the hook this time.

Though he had to work hard for the honor, "Seinfeld" alum Michael "Kramer" Richards has easily displaced Mel Gibson as Hollywood's reigning prince of hate speech. Somewhere in Malibu, the former star of the "Lethal Weapon" series is breathing a sigh of relief.

All it took was a three-minute harangue on the stage of a West Hollywood comedy club on Friday to permanently seal Mr. Richards' D-list status for the foreseeable future.

"Shut up," Mr. Richards shouted at two black men who had heckled him. Within seconds, the comedian was hurling racist insults and waxing hysterically about what would have happened 50 years earlier had the men gotten out of line with him. He didn't leave much to the imagination.

At 57, Mr. Richards presumably has some knowledge of lynching and the terror it held for black people in apartheid-era America.

Unfortunately, hanging black people upside down and doing unmentionable things with forks and other objects inserted in various orifices isn't an abstraction for many black people who lived through that period.

There was a time when an angry white man standing on stage shouting racial epithets at an audience wasn't a joke.

For its part, the audience alternated between appalled gasps and tentative laughter. It was a far edgier moment than anything ever seen on "Seinfeld," including the "master of my domain" episode.

Imagine how proud Mr. Richards has made his former cast mates on what was once television's smartest comedy of angst.

Mr. Richards' on-stage meltdown is especially unfortunate because the seventh season box set of "Seinfeld" hits the store shelves today. Nice going, Kramer. Your timing, as usual, is impeccable.

Unlike the penitent Mel Gibson who placed some of the blame for his anti-Semitic tirade on demon alcohol, the man who was once Cosmo Kramer wasn't slurring his words when he attacked the hecklers.

Unlike the late Andy Kaufman for whom uncomfortable encounters and vicious fights with audiences was an established modus operandi, Michael Richards is best known for his slapstick on a sitcom that ended in 1998.

As funny as his physical comedy used to be when he played a goofy New York eccentric, Mr. Richards isn't an experienced enough stand-up to know that he shouldn't step on a West Hollywood stage without a pocketful of comebacks for the inevitable hecklers.

That's what makes the graphic footage of Mr. Richards self-destructing on stage so damn sad for former fans like me.

In the era of YouTube when an incumbent U.S. senator can be brought low by a racist remark after it has been posted on the Internet for all to see, you'd think any comic with an ounce of sense would be more circumspect.

Cell-phones with video capability are everywhere. Behaving boorishly has an immediate price now, especially for entertainers. Thanks to aggressive entertainment news sites like TMZ, the evidence of the most humiliating behavior a celebrity can engage can become part of the cultural currency within hours.

The footage on TMZ.com doesn't have the tell-tale signs of a planned routine gone astray. Mr. Richards' angry outburst doesn't look like the "botched joke" made famous by John Kerry last month.

If anything, the video looks like a passionate cry from the heart. Mr. Richards' defiant use of a racial slur wasn't a slip that he felt compelled to apologize for after making it.

Judging by the speed and ferocity with which it rolled off his tongue, he appeared as comfortable with the word as any self-hating gangsta rapper determined to confirm every racist stereotype for a quick buck.

Far from being a term of endearment tossed casually from the stage, Mr. Richards seemed in touch with the word's root meaning. He used it to taunt his hecklers and insult his audience's sensibilities. He was not using the word as a tool for observational humor about the perils of racial taboo.

If anything, the rant was a moment in which Michael Richards' heart appeared most transparent to onlookers. He lost the audience's sympathy long before he dropped the microphone and walked off the stage.

By then, many members of the audience had already beat him to the exit. It wasn't clear what had just happened to one of television's most beloved character actors, but a common sentiment among the confused patrons seemed to be disgust.

Those of us who weren't there to take the temperature of the room aren't spared the responsibility of struggling with the incident's meaning.

Jerry Seinfeld had the most sincere and heartfelt reaction to the incident when reached for comment by "Extra" yesterday:

"I am sick over this," Mr. Richards' former cast mate said. "I'm sure Michael is also sick over this horrible, horrible mistake. It is so extremely offensive. I feel terrible for all the people who have been hurt."

When Mr. Richards was cornered off camera by CNN over the weekend, he told the reporter that he, too, was sorry and that he had made amends.

One of the two black men he insulted insisted that he hadn't heard from him. It isn't clear to whom Mr. Richards "made amends."

So what does it mean when a well-known comic actor down on his luck and floundering after years of success uses a racially volatile word to get a laugh?

Are we to sympathize with him because of what he once meant to his enormous fan base? Do we give Cosmo Kramer the benefit of the doubt because he's never done anything remotely like this in public before?

Clearly, Mr. Richards doesn't have the comic chops of a Sacha Baron Cohen, better known to audiences as Borat and Ali G, to pull off such dangerous comedy, but is it fair to conclude that he's a racist?

Is it possible that Michael Richards is just a clueless and arrogant wannabe who wandered too far from the shores of more conventional comedy before he was ready?

It's tough being a comedian. It doesn't matter how experienced a performer may be, shaking the insecurity and rage that fuels the compulsion to make people laugh is easier said than done.

A willingness to hold a knife to one's own throat is a big part of the ritual of "keeping it real" and breaking through to the next level.

Lenny Bruce did it to brilliant effect at a time when most Americans could barely exercise freedom of thought, much less freedom of speech.

The late Richard Pryor turned racial taboo into a beachhead of black liberation comedy. George Carlin mined a similar vein of working class resentment. These men are geniuses. It isn't fair to compare anyone to them, especially a formerly funny man without a sitcom.

Last night on "Late Night with David Letterman," Mr. Richards had the good sense to issue a full and unambiguous apology for what could have been a career-ending incident. It will make tuning into an old episode of "Seinfeld" possible for those who were the most disappointed by the actor. Once again they'll have permission to laugh at Kramer's antics without thinking too hard about the loser Michael Richards has become.