Seinfeld star Michael Richards admits if there’s one thing he regrets in his life, it’s his notorious 2006 racist tirade.
Per Page Six, Richards opened up about the incident in his upcoming memoir, Entrances and Exits. He recalled when he unleashed on an audience during his 2006 comedy set at the Laughing Factory in Los Angeles.
During his set, Michael Richards said he heard people chatting loudly from the balcony. He responded by yelling, “Shut the f— up!”
One of the people sitting in the balcony seating then yelled back, “You’re not funny. We don’t think you’re very funny!”
While he didn’t share full details about what he said on the stage that night, Page Six reported that Richards allegedly shouted back to the heckler, “Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a f–king fork up your ass.”
Michael Richards also used the n-word at another heckler. The comedian ultimately regretted his actions. “Of course, looking back at all, I wish I had just agreed with him,” he wrote in the book. “He went low and I went even lower. We both ended up at the bottom of the barrel.”
Richards then stated that the words “You’re not funny” kept running through his mind after the incident. “He laid it out so clearly, so simply, my biggest fear — not being funny,” he explained. “Later, I’ll come to realize that all of this, everything he said, is me. His voice is my voice. This is all ME going on. My inferiority sets in. My anger erupts.”
Michael Richards Apologized In a Video on the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’
Less than a week after the incident happened, Michael Richards recalled apologizing in a video for his actions while Jerry Seinfeildon the Late Show With David Letterman.
“For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I’m deeply, deeply sorry,” Richards explained at the time. “I’m not a racist. That’s what’s so insane about this.”
Richards also shared in his memoir that along with Seinfeld, his Seinfield castmates, Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, reached out. However, he admitted he was so embarrassed about his actions. He also was worried that the “mess” from the situation would “spill” onto them.
To escape the situation, Michael Richards decided to take Frances Fisher’s advice and retreat to Mexico for several weeks. He and his girlfriend then decided to visit other countries, including Cambodia, India, and Thailand.
“I was immediately sorry the moment I said it onstage,” Richards recently told PEOPLE.
“My anger was all over the place and it came through hard and fast,” Michael Richards said. “Anger is quite a force. But it happened. Rather than run from it, I dove into the deep end and tried to learn from it. It hasn’t been easy.”
The comedian went on to that he doesn’t expect anyone to forgive him for his actions. “I’m not looking for a comeback.”