Jerry Seinfeld Claims TV Comedy Is Being Destroyed by the "Extreme Left and P.C. Crap"
Jerry Seinfeld continues to share his honest and candid thoughts about the entertainment industry. The comedian previously said that the "movie business is over" and that it's been replaced with "disorientation.”
During a recent interview with The New Yorker, Seinfeld talked about the state of TV comedy and how it’s being killed by the “extreme left” and “P.C. crap.”
He explains that audiences are no longer flocking to their television sets in order to get their comedy fix like they did for decades in the past.
He said: “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, “MASH” is on. Oh, “Mary Tyler Moore” is on. “All in the Family” is on.’”
He added: “You just expected, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ Well, guess what—where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.”
Seinfeld went on to say that audiences are “now 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 continued: “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.”
Seinfeld went on to say: “We did an episode of the [‘Seinfeld’] in the nineties where Kramer decides to start a business of having homeless people pull rickshaws because, as he says, ‘They’re outside anyway.’ Do you think I could get that episode on the air today?”
He explained: “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 move the gates like in the slalom.”
“Culture—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.”
What it all boils down to is there are not as many good quality comedy series being made today. Some of the few that I’ve enjoyed watching in recent years though have been Curb Your Enthusiasm, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and South Park.
Those shows don’t seem to care about offending people and that’s what makes them funny. But, Seinfeld believes television networks are no longer interested in doing anything that will ruffle feathers and offend the P.C. crowd.