Jerry Seinfeld blames ‘PC crap’ for the demise of comedy – The New Daily

Jerry Seinfeld has blamed political correctness for hurting comedy and even says some of the storylines in his hugely successful Seinfeld sitcom would not be possible in todays environment.

The veteran comedian, who will return to screens next week in the Netflix movie Unfrosted, lamented his perceived absence of comedy on television saying it was the result of PC crap.

[In decades past, people] just expected therell be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight,Seinfeld said in an interview with The New Yorker.

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.

The 70-year-old said people were seeking out stand-up comedians because their material was not policed by anyone.

The audience polices us. We know when were off track. We know instantly and we adjust to it instantly, he said.

But when you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committees, groups Heres our thought about this joke well, thats the end of your comedy.

Seinfelds controversial take was quickly shared on social media, where many were quick to point out holes in his theory.

Bob Cesca, an American director, producer, writer, actor, blogger and left-wing commentator, posted a list of recent and current, acclaimed comedies, albeit all on streaming platforms.

There are so many successful modern comedies. Ted Lasso, Hacks, The Bear, Fleabag, Schitts [Creek], Curb Your Enthusiasm, Only Murders [In The Building], etc, Cesca wrote.

If anything, inexpensive reality TV and internet/streaming is whats killing traditional TV, not woke culture.

In his New Yorker interview, Seinfeld acknowledged that his Seinfeldco-creator Larry David was producing edgy content in Curb Your Enthusiasm, but said that was because it was grandfathered in.

If Larry was 35, he couldnt get away with watermelon stuff andPalestinian chicken, he said.

The Curb Your Enthusiasm Watermelonepisode in season 11 poked fun at racial (and racist) stereotypes, while season eights Palestinian Chicken lampooned Jewish-Palestinian tensions.

[Curb Your Enthusiasm streamer] HBO knows that [kind of comedy is] what people come here for, but theyre not smart enough to figure out how do we do this now? Do we take the heat, or just not be funny? And what theyve decided to be is, well, were not going to do comedies anymore. There were no sitcoms picked up on the fall season of all four networks. Not one. No new sitcoms, Seinfeld said.

Seinfeld said theRickshaw episode of Seinfeld in 1998 would not be possible today.

We did an episode where Kramer decides to start a business of having homeless people pull rickshaws because, as he says, theyre outside anyway, he said.

Do you think I could get that episode on the air today? We would write a different joke with Kramer and the rickshaw today. We wouldnt do that joke. Wed come up with another joke.

Unfrosted, written, directed and starring Jerry Seinfeld alongside a cast of high-profile comedians, is a light-hearted telling of the birth of the pop tart.

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Jerry Seinfeld blames 'PC crap' for the demise of comedy - The New Daily