The price of fame

I have heard more than a few stand-up comics. Some were funny, some weren't. A few were heckled. In fact, on Last Comic Standing this past season there was an entire episode devoted to heckling...both the 'art" of heckling and of responding to heckling. Perhaps you saw it.
I have been shocked by some of the responses, both on that show and live. Some of the responses on the show I actually thought were "over the line" offensive. A LOT of them I have heard at smaller venues have been way past that line. It is not unusual to hear highly personal assaults.
Michael Richards of course responded to a heckler with highly personal racially based remarks. And the reaction has been predictable: outrage, everyone pointing out there is no time and place for these, they are unacceptable, etc.
5 will get you 10 this is not the first time Richards has responded to hecklers like that. I base this on a couple of things; #1, I have seen too many comics respond in a similar way. #2...dirty little secret here...stand-up comics PRACTICE their responses to hecklers.
I am guessing he has run that spiel before, gotten laughs, and was surprised at the reaction. The problem he faced is fourfold; 1, he got caught on camera. In front of a small group where people are annoyed at the heckler for interrupting the show you can get away with that because peer pressure means people laugh. On the internet there is no such peer pressure so it is in more of a vaccuum. 2, Richards is a "name"; Joe Nobody could do the same thing in front of the same crowd and the uproar would be over before it hit YouTube...if it ever did in the first place. 3) from all reports...he wasn't funny that night which is what led to the heckling. So he never had the people "on his side" in the first place so he could not make statements that, if he had been funny, would be perceived in the light of "funny comedian guy skewering unfunny heckler with humor" and instead was "unfunny comedian guy being hateful". Yes, the same words would have gotten 2 very different reactions. 4) although I "get it" why comedians use such schticks...no, there really is no excuse for that. There is no justification or place for it.
In the end, if you had not heard of Richards before this would be no big deal on a national scale. He is paying for his former success...and, it should be pointed out, rightfully so. When you are famous you can't get off scot-free for saying stupid things.