Jerry Seinfeld is unhappy with the state of television comedy.
During a podcast appearance for New York Radio HourSeinfeld did not hesitate to shares his views on pitfalls to create television that makes you laugh out loud today.
“Nothing really affects the comedy. People still need it, they need it so much and they’re not getting it,” Seinfeld, 70, told New Yorker editor David Remnick.
The comedian went on to say that “modern PC bullshit” and “the far left” have kept audiences from turning to comedy TV shows like his former hit sitcom. Seinfeldwhich took place from 1989 to 1998.
“Before, you’d go home at the end of the day and most people would say, ‘Oh, Cheers is on. MASH POTATOES is on. Mary Tyler Moore is on. All in the family is on,'” Seinfeld lamented. “You just expected there to be some fun stuff we could watch on TV tonight. Well guess what? Where is it?”
Seinfeld said that television was no longer funny because of the “result of the far left, PC bullshit, and people who worry so much about offending other people.”
“When you write a script and it goes through four or five different hands, committees, groups, that’s your comedy,” he said.
The comedian said the funny state of television had turned audiences toward stand-up comedians like him “because we’re not being watched by anyone.”
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“The public controls us. We know when we are off track, we know it instantly and we adapt to it,” Seinfeld said.
When Remnick countered Seinfeld’s argument about TV comedies, citing the popularity of Calm your enthusiasm, Seinfeld said the Larry David-led show was an exception due to David’s career spanning decades. Calm your enthusiasm concluded its 12th and final season on HBO in early April, and Seinfeld made an appearance in the finale.
“Larry was grandfathered in,” Seinfeld said. “He’s old enough to say, ‘I don’t have to play by these rules, because I started before you made these rules.'”
Seinfeld said David, 76, wouldn’t be able to write jokes like these. Calm your enthusiasm — Seinfeld specifically highlights the series Palestinian chicken episode – if he were a younger, up-and-coming comedian.
For fear of ruffling feathers, Seinfeld argued that television studios had completely refused to create new sitcoms.
For Seinfeld, today’s comedy is about flexibility. He cited a Seinfeld episode in which Kramer hires a group of homeless men to pull rickshaws across the city.
“We wouldn’t make that joke with Kramer and the rickshaws today. We’d come up with another joke,” Seinfeld said. “They move the gates, like in slalom (skiing). The gates move. Your job is to be agile and smart enough that no matter where they put the gate, you have it do.
Seinfeld is currently on a press tour to promote his directorial debut for Netflix. Unfrosted, which details the fictional origin of the Pop-Tart. He will also star in the film, alongside stars Melissa McCarthy, Christian Slater, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant and Amy Schumer.
This press tour isn’t the only time Seinfeld has spoken about his woes regarding writing comedy in the modern era.
In 2015, Seinfeld (among other comedians) said he avoided performing stand-up on college campuses because students are too politically correct. He worried that students would misinterpret his jokes as racist or sexist.
Seinfeld’s critical stance on comedy and political correctness has earned him a place among far-right influencers online – as well as billionaire Elon Musk, who shared an audio clip from Seinfeld’s New Yorker podcast and wrote: “Make comedy legal again!” »
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