The 'Seinfeld' actor and creator claims in a new interview that today's comedy is not as fun as before and 'extreme left and P.C. crap' are to be blamed for it.
- Apr 30, 2024
AceShowbiz - Jerry Seinfeld weighed in on the current TV comedy in a new interview. The "Seinfeld" actor and creator claimed that today's comedy was not as fun as before and "extreme left and P.C. crap" were to be blamed for it.
"Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it. They need it so badly and they don't get it," Jerry told The New Yorker while touting his feature directorial effort "Unfrosted". "It used to be, you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, 'Oh, 'Cheers' is on. Oh, 'MASH' is on. Oh, 'Mary Tyler Moore' is on. 'All in the Family' is on.' "
He went on ranting, "You just expected, 'There'll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.' Well, guess what-where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people."
The actor further slammed people for policing comedy, saying that comedy fans are "now going to see stand-up comics because we are not policed by anyone. The audience polices us." He continued, "We know when we're off track. We know instantly and we adjust to it instantly. But when you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committees, groups-'Here's our thought about this joke.' Well, that's the end of your comedy."
"We did an episode of the ['Seinfeld'] in the nineties where Kramer decides to start a business of having homeless people pull rickshaws because, as he says, 'They're outside anyway,' " he said. "Do you think I could get that episode on the air today?"
He divulged, "We would write a different joke with Kramer and the rickshaw today. We wouldn't do that joke. We'd come up with another joke. They move the gates like in the slalom. Culture--the gates are moving. Your job is to be agile and clever enough that, wherever they put the gates, I'm going to make the gate."
Jerry pointed out that only "stand-ups" who "really have the freedom" to cross the line when it comes to comedy nowadays. TV networks, meanwhile, were too careful when it comes to comedy.
Upon catching wind of Jerry's interview, people had mixed response. "Jerry Seinfeld saying you can't write sitcoms anymore because of woke despite the fact his old writing partner just wrapped up a 24-year run of one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, is arguably the funniest thing he's done in decades - funnier even than Bee Movie, perhaps," one critic wrote on X.
"Jerry Seinfeld is on the New Yorker Radio Hour blaming 'the extreme left' & 'PC crap' for why there are no sitcoms anymore. Not streamers or any systemic reasons that we *just* saw at play with the WGA strike. Just 'The wokes won't let us make comedy anymore.' Absolute brain rot," another echoed the sentiment.
Some others, meanwhile, agreed with Jerry. "Well, you know, he is right," FOX's resident right-wing late-night host Greg Gutfeld opined. "When you look at sitcoms today, you don't feel like you're going to relax and laugh. You feel like you're going to be lectured or educated. It's like one big long 'The More You Know' commercial, everything is a special episode."
