Jerry Seinfeld apologises for claiming “extreme left” have killed comedy
Jerry Seinfeld has admitted he was wrong when he claimed earlier this year that the “extreme left” had killed comedy.
Seinfeld caused much controversy with his comments, which he has now addressed an appearance on Tom Papa’s Breaking Bread podcast. On the episode, Seinfeld confessed that he regretted making the original comments, as he now realises the sentiment isn’t true.
“I said that the ‘extreme left’ has suppressed the art of comedy,” explained the Unfrosted star. “I did say that. That is not true. It is not true. Does culture change, and are there things that I used to say that [I now can’t because] people are always moving [the goalposts]? Yes, but that’s the biggest and easiest target. You can’t say certain words, whatever they are, about groups. So what?”
The Seinfeld co-creator continued, “I don’t think the extreme left has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy. I’m taking that back now, officially. They have not. Do you like it? Maybe, maybe not. It’s not my business to like or not like where the culture is at.”
Jerry Seinfeld’s original comments on political correctness
Seinfeld originally revealed his issue with “political correctness” and the “extreme left” during an interview with The New Yorker in April.
During the conversation, the stand-up spoke about the general populace needing comedy as an escape from their daily lives, stating, “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?”
To Seinfeld, this lack of comedy options on television was “the result of the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people. Now they’re going to see standup comics because we are not policed by anyone.”
As a stand-up comedy veteran, Seinfeld revealed that he valued the instantaneous feedback loop a comedian gets in that arena, as opposed to the death-by-a-thousand cuts of TV and film bureaucracy. He explained, “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.”
At the time, several comedians, including an old co-star, criticised Seinfeld for his comments. Julia Louis-Dreyfus told the On With Kara Swisher podcast, “There’s a lot of talk about how comics can’t be funny now. I think that’s bullshit. Physical comedy and intellectual comedy, and political comedy, I think, has never been more interesting, because there’s so much to do.”
However, The Office star Stephen Merchant comprehended Seinfeld’s perspective. He told The Guardian that policing of comedy was nothing new, but he had noticed that it now seemed to be coming from the left side of the political divide.
“It feels like it’s the left that’s doing it now,” claimed Merchant, “and it’s allowed the fight to become the arbiters of free speech. Which does feel like quite a significant shift.” He believes it has led to comedians being “more cautious” about their material, “because you don’t want to spend weeks on Twitter trying to justify a joke you were just experimenting with. Because putting out the fires is exhausting.”
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