A video from 2011, in which both Louis C.K. and Ricky Gervais say the n-word, made the rounds on Twitter on Saturday night. In a clip from Talking Funny, Chris Rock says of Louis: “He’s the blackest white guy I fucking know.”
“In all the negative things we think about black people, this fucker—” This fucker what? We’ll never know, because C.K. interrupts Rock and says “You’re saying I’m a n****r?” with the hardest R in christendom. Seinfeld looks visibly uncomfortable. “We say n****r on stage,” C.K. explained, pointing at Rock and himself. “You guys don’t.” Never one to let others be performatively provocative, Gervais interjects, “Who says ‘n****r?’ We don’t,” to which Seinfeld replies, “You just did.”
The clip circulated widely online, with many people not knowing the video was seven years old, and predated C.K.’s outing as a predator. A lot of the online ire was directed at Rock, for letting the two white men get away with saying a racial slur. And yet the irony that Jerry “College Kids Are Too Sensitive” Seinfeld is the only one self-monitoring goes without note.
