And yet, like just about every stand-up comedian I know, I've said and done some things on stage that board on insanity. I was once fired from a club after the owner walked into the room to find me yelling and heckling a guy in a wheelchair…who was also on oxygen. Now in my defense, he was drunk, and had spent most of my act heckling me by slipping the mask off his face, gasping "You suck" and then gulping down more bottled air. It's one of those weird, surreal moments that happen during a live performance. It's happened to just about every comic I know, whether or not they want to acknowledge it publicly.

Which is why I have a lot of sympathy for Michael Richards, who finds himself ensnared in a giant media threshing machine after exploding into a bizarre racially charged rant at L.A. Laugh Factory last Friday. Cellphone video of the incident has been played on every news and entertainment show on Earth, and the publicity vultures are leaping towards the nearest available camera, all hoping to somehow ride his misfortune to their benefit.

I suspect you haven't heard anyone come to his defense, which is why I'm writing this. Not to explain away his comments, or condone them. But to perhaps bring some small amount of sanity to the discussion.

Generally, there have two comments from people after they've watched the tape of Richard's outburst. First, they can't understand how someone could say such horrible things onstage. Secondly, they assume that those comments must somehow be his true feelings. Feelings he has otherwise hidden from the world until this week.

While I can't speak to what is in Richard's heart, I completely understand how it could happen. You're being relentlessly heckled, and it's already been a bad night for you. Or they say something that strikes a nerve, or you're already angry for some reason unrelated to the heckler's comments. But that heckling sets you off, and you find yourself striking out in the way you're most comfortable. With your anger and your wit and your intuitive comedic skills. You know just what to say to make them hurt, and that's precisely what you want to do.

While most sane people would shut up after they realized they've said something hurtful and outrageous, most comics become convinced they can somehow talk their way out of the situation. They continue to pile comment on top of comment, attempting somehow to turn it all to their advantage. And all they succeed in accomplishing is to make it worse.

I understand how this could have happened to Richards, and I have a lot of sympathy for him. I haven't seen the slightest indication from anyone who has ever met him that he's ever previously said or done anything that could remotely be described as racist. Which makes me suspect that this very public meltdown had less to do with what is in his heart than it did with what was happening on stage.

All of this might have been easier for Richards and the audience to work through if it had not turned into some bizarre media circus. Richards returned to the Laugh Factory and performed the night following the incident, and apparently no one was offended by his presence until video of the incident surfaced the following day. Only then did fellow comics seem to develop a sense of outrage, just in time for the cable network news interviews.

By midweek, two of the audience members had connected with lawyer Gloria Allred, who went on camera to suggest that Richards sit down for a meeting with audience members and apologize. Oh, of course, there would be a retired judge present to suggest some appropriate form of reparation. Apparently, a very special episode of "Judge Judy" is on the way.

The most sadly predictable comment of the week came from audience member Kyle Doss, who was asked on CNN Wednesday whether or not an apology from Richards would be enough to prevent a civil lawsuit from being filed. "I don't know….you'll have to ask Gloria (Allred) about that…That's not my decision."

Once the lawyers are involved, Michael, the end is truly near.

I have come to despise the lazy, pack behavior of celebrity journalism. The kind that begins every telling of this story with some snide comment about Richards lack of TV success in the year's since "Seinfeld." The kind that begins segments with sentences along the lines of "in an incident reminiscent of Mel Gibson's drunken rage against Jews." As if the two incidents had anything in common other than they both involved celebrities.

I don't expect that Richards will get much sympathy. Except, of course, in private from some of his peers, who understand enough about the process of stand-up comedy to understand how this incident could have happened. And enough about the public feeding frenzy to stay out of the limelight while he's beaten like a piñata until everyone moves on.