Now that the career of Michael Richards, also known as Cosmo Kramer, may be officially over, we at the Wired Campus would like to remind our audience that former television stars are the not the only ones who can be caught onstage, on video, in a bad moment.
The proliferation of cellphones armed with video recorders (the very device that caught Mr. Richards spewing racial epithets at a comedy club a few days ago), not to mention regular old cameras, threatens to catch you – yes, you – doing something you might not want your colleagues and deans to see on YouTube later.
YouTube contains a few in-class classics as cautionary tales. We've already mentioned the video of a mystery professor who smashes a student’s cellphone after the student decided to take a call in class. And we also highlighted the in-class antics of a University of Florida professor that led many readers and bloggers to wonder if he was intoxicated. (The University of Florida took down the video, but snippets can still be found online.)
YouTube has made video stars of other professors as well. American audiences got laughs out of the video “Czech Professors Fight.” Is this peer review in the Eastern bloc? And you never know how students are going to edit video of your demonstrations of centrifugal force.
Of course, not all of the funniest videos are of professors behaving badly or strangely. Christopher P. Neck, associate professor of management, sent a rhyme out to all his homies at Virginia Tech: “My name is known all over the world by all the men, the women, boys, and girls / I’m going down in history as the coolest professor you ever did see.” Word. Thanks to YouTube, the first part of that line is true, at least.–Scott Carlson
