Comedian Jerry Seinfeld blamed the “extreme Left” and political correctness (PC) “crap” for ruining comedy television shows during an interview with The New Yorker published Friday.
Seinfeld appeared on David Remnick’s “The New Yorker Radio Hour” to discuss his experience of the industry, as well as his upcoming movie, “Unfrosted,” loosely based on the creation of Pop-Tarts toaster pastries. Seinfeld was asked about the “serious aspects of the world” and how he believes that affects him personally as well as his comedy.
“Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it, they need it so badly and they don’t get it. It used to be you would go home at the end of the day; most people would go, ‘Oh, ‘Cheers’ is on,’ ‘Oh, ‘M*A*S*H’ is on,’ ‘Oh, Mary Tyler Moore is on,’ ”All in the Family’ is on.’ You just expected, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ Well guess what? Where is it? Where is it?” Seinfeld questioned.
Jerry Seinfeld: PC culture and fear of offending people is killing funny shows.
“When you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committee, groups—’here’s our thought about this joke’—well that’s the end of your comedy.” pic.twitter.com/YZuWo5HlJu
— 🚨 Katherine Brodsky (@mysteriouskat) April 28, 2024
“This is the result of the extreme Left and PC crap and people worrying so much about offending other people. Now they’re going to see stand-up comics cause we are not policed by anyone. The audience polices us. 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.”
Remnick continued to press Seinfeld about his thoughts on comedy in television or films today, pushing Seinfeld to give an example of a joke from his sitcom in the 90s after Seinfeld claimed they wouldn’t be able to get jokes like that on-air. (RELATED: Jerry Seinfeld Admits He Wasn’t Happy With The ‘Seinfeld’ Finale)
“Have you had that experience?” Remnick asked.
“No,” Seinfeld stated.
“Because isn’t that what ‘Curb [Your Enthusiasm]’ is all about?” Remnick pressed.
“Yeah, Larry was grandfathered in. He’s old enough that I don’t have to observe those rules, because I started before you made those rules. We did an episode — of the series in the 90s — where Kramer decides to start a business of having homeless pull rickshaws because, as he says, ‘They’re outside anyway.’ Do you think I could get that episode on the air today?” Seinfeld responded.
“But you think Larry got grandfathered in and there could be no 35-year-old version?” Remnick continued.
“Right, right. If Larry was 35 he couldn’t get away with the watermelon stuff, Palestinian chicken and you know. And HBO knows that’s what people come here for, but they’re not smart enough to figure out, ‘How do we do this now? Do we take the heat or just not be funny?’ Seinfeld stated.
“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 moved the gates — like in skiing — 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.
Seinfeld continued to advocate that while on-screen comedy has been restricted, he’s hopeful for stand-up comedians due to the fact their reliance isn’t on a network, but on themselves.
In a recent interview with GQ, Seinfeld appeared to half-jokingly claim filmmakers had no idea that the “movie business is over,” as everything in movies today had been replaced with “depression,” “malaise,” “confusion” and “disorientation.”
Seinfeld’s feature film, “Unfrosted,” which he directed and stars in, is set to hit Netflix on May 3, 2024.