In a candid new interview, comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld is pulling no punches in his critique of what he sees as relentless “political correctness” suffocating the comedy world and depriving audiences of the laugh-out-loud entertainment they still desperately crave.
“Nothing really affects comedy. They need it, people need it so badly, and they don’t get it,” Seinfeld lamented to The New Yorker’s David Remnick on his magazine’s podcast, The New Yorker Radio Hour.
The 68-year-old icon, widely considered one of the greatest stand-up comics and sitcom creators of all time, reminisced about a golden era of smart, irreverent television comedies that were once a reliable staple of American pop culture and living rooms nationwide.
“It used to be, you would get home at the end of the day, and most people would say, ‘Oh, Cheers is on. MAS*H is on. Mary Tyler Moore is on. All in the Family is on,'” Seinfeld said. “You just expected, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ Well, guess what? Where is it?”
In Seinfeld’s mind, the dearth of quality comedic fare can be directly attributed to a censorious “PC” mindset on the part of creators, networks, and studios fueled by fears of offending portions of the audience with edgy humor.
“This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people,” he said bluntly. “When you write a script, and it goes into four or five different hands, committee groups—”Here’s’s our thought about this oke”—well, t, that’s the end of your comedy.”
The comedian likened the constant parsing of jokes and shift in cultural sensitivities around controversial humor to a never-ending moving of gates in a ski slalom course.
“Culture—the gates are moving. Your job is to be agile and clever enough that wherever they put the gates, I’m gonna make the gate,” Seinfeld said, suggesting too many comics are being boxed in rather than staying ahead of the curve.
It’s a concern many of Seinfeld’s contemporaries have echoed in recent years as once-edgy comedy trailblazers like Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and Ricky Gervais have faced backlash for material seen as insensitive or denigrating to certain groups.
While the genre has grappled with how to evolve and adapt to a more socially conscious audience, Seinfeld seems to believe the pendulum has swung too far, diluting comedy by overly censoring, sanitizing, and self-policing humor down to its most anodyne form out of perpetual fear of offending.
Ironically, Seinfeld’s perspective comes as he prepares to release “Unfrosted” in theaters next month – his first major comedy vehicle on the big screen since the 2007 animated hit “Bee Movie.”
The period comedy film, which Seinfeld directed himself, depicts the origins and invention of the iconic Pop-Tart snack pastry back in the 1960s.
It represents a return to the conceptual style that defined Seinfeld’s eponymous smash hit 1990s sitcom, which was hailed as a pioneering example of eviscerating societal norms and human nature‘s most mundane quirks and hypocrisies through the sharpest comedic lens.
“Seinfeld” was widely praised for lampooning the inanities of daily life in such a universal, relatable way – without needing to resort to the often divisive, button-pushing shock value that characterized other boundary-pushing comedies of that era like “In Living Color” or “Untitled Black Sketch Comedy Show.”
Yet, while navigating an increasingly progressive cultural landscape, Seinfeld clearly believes today’s creators have become handcuffed by a restrictive mindset more focused on not ruffling feathers than provoking riotous laughter.
“When you write a script, and it goes into four or five different hands, committee groups—”Here’s’s our thought about this oke”—well, t, that’s the end of your comedy,” he said.
Proponents of edgier comedy have countered that the genre’s all-time greats like Richard Pryor and George Carlin deftly wove biting social commentary into their groundbreaking routines, while more anodyne hits like “I Love Lucy” and “The Honeymooners” derived laughs without disparaging minority groups.
As Seinfeld promotes “Unfrosted” ahead of its June 23rd release, the film could serve as a barometer for whether his nostalgic brand of hyper-relatable, satirical humor about everyday foibles can still connect with audiences—or whether evolving cultural norms and sensibilities have simply left his comedic POV behind.
Either way, Seinfeld is making it clear he believes the craving for laugh-out-loud entertainment remains as intense as ever – even if anxieties about joking on certain taboo topics have gained precedence over simply letting loose and letting laughs rip freely.
“Nothing really affects comedy. They need it, people need it so badly, and they don’t get it,” Seinfeld concludes, yearning for a return of the uninhibited comedic expression he feels is sorely lacking today.
The Information is Taken from The New Daily and Rolling Stone
