When even Hollywood personalities who have donated to Democratic candidates express their frustration with the current state of left-wing politics, you know the pendulum has shifted dramatically.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has long expressed disdain for the impact of political correctness on his profession.
“I don’t play colleges … I hear a lot of people tell me, ‘Don’t go near colleges. They’re so PC,’” he said in a 2015 interview.
While Seinfeld gave $50,000 to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2022 campaign, he is now blaming the “extreme left” for the sorry state of comedy today.
Appearing on David Remnik’s “The New Yorker Radio Hour” on Friday, he spoke frankly about the problem.
“Nothing really affects comedy,” Seinfeld said. “People always need it, and 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 will be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.”
He continued, “Well guess what? Where is it?”
“This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap and people worrying so much about offending other people,” Seinfeld said. “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.”
@newyorker On a new episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour, Jerry Seinfeld talks with David Remnick about his new film on the history of Pop-Tarts, the changing norms in comedy, and turning 70. Listen to their full conversation at the link in our bio. #jerryseinfeld #unfrosted #podtok ♬ original sound – The New Yorker
Of course, this was something the right has been saying for years, but he was absolutely correct.
The dependence of modern Hollywood on using focus groups and making entertainment by committee — along with its embrace of left-wing identity politics — has stifled creativity in all genres but has been especially devastating for comedy.
Safe comedy is anti-comedy. Comedy, by its nature, involves poking fun at something or someone, viciously or otherwise, to make a point about its absurdity.
Seeing as comedy has always been incredibly subjective, someone is bound to get offended by even the most innocuous joke.
And when a team of talented writers is placed under the watchful eye of a group of humorless executives wanting to maximize profit, as well as being terrified of falling afoul of the PC police — well, it would be incredibly hard to make anything interesting, let alone funny, under those circumstances.
Seinfeld went on to tell Remnik, “They move the gates, like in skiing. 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.”
“Now they’re [the audience] going to see stand-up comics because 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,” he said.
The discussion begins around the 32-minute mark below:
Now, again, commentators on the right have been sounding the alarm on extreme leftism stifling comedy and creativity for years.
But for one of the biggest names in comedy to have recognized and denounced this in such clear terms — even including calling the left out by name — was a pretty big deal.
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Audiences have grown tired of having the message of wokeness and tolerance — unless you were a conservative Christian — forced down their throats when all they wanted was to relax after a long day living in the real world.
Ordinary folks want entertainment that is funny, thought-provoking and above all, creative.
And, as Seinfeld pointed out so clearly in this interview, you won’t get any of that if you’re so focused on not offending people that you’re afraid to take risks.
