Cosmo Kramer's Outburst

For my rhetorical analysis I decided as many of us have to use something other than a piece of literature to pick apart. My example comes from the famous Michael Richards, also known as Cosmo Kramer from the hit sitcom Seinfeld. If some of you are unaware, Richards is also a stand up comedian and is now infamous for verbally lashing out, using the “n word” against an African American who was heckling Richards at one of his shows for not being funny. I decided to use Richards first apology on The Late Show with David Letterman, because I think it’s interesting to not only pick apart his words but because he is an actor his facial expressions and body language as well. Keep in my mind I feel his apology is not very sincere but merely an attempt to save what career he might have left.
The rhetorical situation would be Richards onstage outbursts that has resulted into an apology on behalf of his behavior which would be the artifact. His message is clear, he wants to convey to the audience that he is sincerely sorry for his inappropriate behavior and unacceptable comments. First Richards is laughed at by the audience to lighten the situation but Richards maintains a grimace look on his face to display the disgust he still has for himself. He proceeds to speak with a stutter step in his voice trying to give the effect broken up and shocked emotions. He avoids using words like racism, and instead uses words like “hate” and “rage” to convince his audience that it was simply an emotion and not something that he actually is. Richards furthers his efforts by showing his remorse for Hurricane Katrina and all of its African American victims. He tries to steer the audience away from his actions and show that he cares for the people he hurt. At the end he simply says he can only do personal work to fix this saying the damage is done and that he cannot do much more.