Seinfeld creator Jerry Seinfeld has blamed the “extreme left and P.C. crap” for the demise of comedy on television.
The comedian, who is set to release his new movie, Unfrosted, on streaming giant Netflix on May 2nd, believes the standard of television comedy has greatly reduced in recent years.
The traditional sitcom format has become a less prominent force in popular culture than previous decades, and Seinfeld thinks this is due to the elongated writing process, which stops anything potentially offensive slipping through the net.
However, Seinfeld isn’t sure audiences have changed their tastes. Instead, he thinks they’ve just switched vehicles to receive their comedy, preferring the stand-up model, which is unfiltered and direct compared to television.
During a new interview with the New Yorker, Seinfeld spoke about how comedy is a necessary escape for people, 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?”
Seinfeld added, “This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. 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.”
The comedy star then compared the differences between stand-up and television, noting, “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.”
Stand-up has undeniably exponentially grown in recent years thanks to the boom in podcasting and comedians having the ability to cultivate their own audiences without having to circumvent the traditional gatekeepers.
However, another reason for sitcoms failing to gain relevancy, rather than the “extreme left”, is the change in how audiences consume media, preferring to opt for YouTube to get their laughs rather than flicking through the channels until they found a show to watch.
His latest comments aren’t the first time Seinfeld has raged war against the supposed PC brigade. In 2015, while appearing on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, the comic claimed he refused to perform at college campuses because he’s been told, “They’re so PC”.
“They just want to use these words: ‘That’s racist;’ ‘That’s sexist;’ ‘That’s prejudice’. They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” he added. (FarOut)