Michael Richards's botched attempt to channel Lenny Bruce at an L.A. comedy club on Friday proved he probably isn't the best guy to wax philosophical on racial tensions in America—despite the fact that he once was put in charge of this very task for the U.S. government.

In a 2002 interview with "Speaking Freely," a "weekly conversation about free expression and the arts" sponsored by the First Amendment Center, Kramer from Seinfeld's alter-ego, Richards, describes his Vietnam War-era stint in the Army as such: "I worked for 'V' Corps in Europe, and my job was to develop and act in shows dealing with race relations and drug abuse. And so we toured all across Europe performing these plays at the different Army bases." No footage of Richards making like M.L.K. has been unearthed online, but hopefully his approach was a little more deft than his threat to the black man who interrupted his spiel: "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass."