Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is being criticised for complaining about the "extreme left and PC crap" causing "the end" of comedy.
The 70-year-old Seinfeld star made the comments in a weekend interview with The New Yorker, suggesting a lack of modern comedic TV shows is due to industry concerns about offending viewers.
Online commenters and a column on The Guardian swiftly hit back at Seinfeld, noting there are many successful modern TV comedies, how he himself has been a "deliberately inoffensive" comedian, and suggesting he is making the claims due to his age.
"Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it. They need it so badly and they don't get it," Seinfeld told The New Yorker.
"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? This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.
"Now they're 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. 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."
His comments have been covered by various media outlets including Variety, which posted the above statement in full on X (Twitter) early on Tuesday morning (NZ time). Many replies roasted Seinfeld for the claims, with one of the top comments asserting: "He hasn't been funny in 30 years and now he's yelling at the sky from his lawn."
"If that's true then how is South Park, Family Guy etc still going strong? Just say you're not funny anymore and go," said another, with another replying: "Jerry Seinfeld I am begging you to type the words Rick and Morty into the nearest computer."
Others highlighted the shifting behaviors of audiences and changes in entertainment formats as the primary reasons for a perceived shortage of comedy on network TV in the US:
- "Huge miss. Sitcoms exist and there may be a lack of that nowadays but it's because of the format becoming dated among young viewers. Television formats have changed due to streaming and content now varying so much for different audiences."
- "Right on, Seinfeld! First the PC Police killed vaudeville, then they cancelled the variety show, and now they've come for network sitcoms. There is literally no other explanation for why those things went away. Nope, it's because young people are offended by gay jokes!"
Stuart Heritage wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian criticising Seinfeld's comments as "lazy and inaccurate".
"It's hard to complain that you're not allowed to offend anybody anymore when your stock in trade is deliberately inoffensive comedy. Jerry Seinfeld is a man who has just made a film about some pastry," writes Heritage.
"This is a man, remember, who is proud of his family friendly image. There have always been gatekeepers to what is and isn't funny. Indeed, in his own work Jerry Seinfeld has been one of the staunchest gatekeepers of all.
"Perhaps the problem here isn't that the extreme left has a stranglehold on comedy. Perhaps it's just that Jerry Seinfeld is getting old."
To promote his recent film and upcoming New Zealand stand-up shows, Seinfeld featured on Mike Hosking's Newstalk ZB radio show on Tuesday in an interview that touched on former US president Donald Trump's ongoing criminal trial and protests in the US against Israel's military actions.
Hosking said: "I am wondering, yknow I'm looking at the former president in court in your city at the moment, I'm looking at the universities that are a complete mess at the moment - is it a tricky time to be funny in America?"
"I don't find that, no. Because audiences are always telling you exactly where the lines are and aren't," Seinfeld replied.
"I will get protesters here sometimes at my shows because I'm Jewish. They don't realise, really, all their, 'pro-Palestinian'... we really just don't like Jews and now we have a cover. This is our cover. That's fine, yknow, I've been Jewish my whole life, I know this game. So whenever I have that, I make fun of it in the show and the audience is fine with it. They laugh along with it, y'know. [In] stand-up comedy you get a sense of exactly where the public is on everything."
Seinfeld will perform in Auckland and Christchurch in June.
