Seinfeld Talks ‘Creepy P.C.’ Culture with Seth Meyers

[Walter Ego]

CNN reported this week that Chris Rock and Larry the Cable Guy have also dropped college play dates because of flack from the PC brigades. It's not worth the hassle for some top comics.

Jerry Seinfeld made headlines earlier this week when he revealed in a radio interview that he no longer performs at college campuses because of the political correctness. While Seinfeld is known for being a clean comedian, who doesn’t use profanity in his routines and rarely delves into controversial topics, he thinks the obsession with being politically correct hurts comedy as a whole.

When Seinfeld stopped by Late Night on Tuesday night, host Seth Meyers engaged him on the topic along with New Yorker editor David Remnick, who was also on the show. Seinfeld held his line saying that there is a “creepy P.C. thing out there that really bothers” him, using an example of one of his jokes whose punchline is about a “gay French king.” He’s seemingly worried that it is becoming inappropriate for him to suggest that gay people “move their hands in a flourishing motion.” He feels that the lines of what is and is not politically correct are being constantly moved inwards, to the detriment of comedy.

http://time.com/3915889/jerry-seinfeld-pc-culture-late-night-seth-meyers/

 

[Puppycow]

This is outrageous! This reactionary Seinfeld fellow needs to be drummed out of polite society.

 

[Walter Ego]

The PC left responds.

Jerry Seinfeld—White Hetero Male Worth $820 Million—Thinks World Is Too 'PC'

It's a gripe we've heard a million times. Every now and then an entitled, well-positioned heterosexual white male comes along and bravely defends other well-positioned, heterosexual white males’ right to say things minorities, women and LGBT may or may not find offensive.

http://www.alternet.org/print/cultu...ro-male-worth-820-million-thinks-world-too-pc

 

[pharphis]

Saw this the other day:
http://imgur.com/bAGFvit

 

[Cain]

He looks good for a guy in his sixties, but yeah, I don't think his act has aged well. I remember seeing him in a roundtable youtube clip with Chris Rock, Louis CK, Ricky Gervais. A popular comment: "Three funny comedians and Jerry Seinfeld."

 

[Babbylonian]

Jerry Seinfeld won't do college tours? That's probably quite a sacrifice for him since that's where the big money's at in comedy.

 

[Babbylonian]

Also, nobody who dated a 17-year-old high school girl while in his late 30s gets to apply the word "creepy" to anything, ever.

 

[waltomeal]

I wish more comedians would perform at my college. But if I was a comedian, I sure as hell wouldn't.

 

[SezMe]

I'm really tired of ragging on about PC; it's become PC.

 

[Walter Ego]

Jerry Seinfeld won't do college tours? That's probably quite a sacrifice for him since that's where the big money's at in comedy.

Seinfeld already has the "big money." He could retire now if he wants to.

 

[Jim_MDP]

Meh.

My only takeaway was to wonder... "How the hell did he amass $820 million?"

 

[Darat]

Comedy often is inappropriate, that is sometimes at the heart of the comedy. The gold standard test for comedy is: "is it funny for your audience." To me it sounds that Seinfeld's comedy is no longer funny to the "college campuses" audiences.

Times change, either you change your material with the times or you stick with your old material and accept that some people may no longer find your act as funny as it was perceived to be 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

And that has nothing to do with the right's most successful strawman "PC".

 

[Darat]

Seinfeld already has the "big money." He could retire now if he wants to.

Sounds like he doesn't want to but also doesn't want to update his material to meet the changing world.

I suspect he's subject to that terrible curse of all very successful people - no one in their circle wants to tell the successful person they are wrong or they need to change. And since he is being told his act is a funny as ever by that circle the fault for it actually no longer being funny to some audiences has to be a fault with that audience.

 

[pharphis]

IIRC he also handwaved all comedy outside of the most mainstream sources are garbage (specifically youtube).. but I don't remember his phrasing atm...

I heard about it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KagTiHo_T8k

I think it's one more piece of evidence that he isn't willing to change as culture does for comedy but tbh I don't really know much about him beyond these two stories and ofc his show which was great

 

[Walter Ego]

Meh.

My only takeaway was to wonder... "How the hell did he amass $820 million?"

That figure may be inflated but if he had an ownership interest in his TV show, he's a very wealthy man indeed.

 

[Babbylonian]

Seinfeld already has the "big money." He could retire now if he wants to.

Of course, and obviously I was making a snide remark that [to my mind] doesn't require literal truth.

That said, there are multiple reasons for a comedian in his position not to tour colleges, chief among them what Darat has alluded to: Young people don't find his standup funny. I'm closer to his age than college age (though it's close) and I found that "gay French king" joke in the second link (which he chose himself as an example of a joke that either didn't go over or that he didn't think would go over) to be terrible. It had nothing to do with political correctness, it's just not in any way funny to me.

I also tend to find that, apart from a shrill minority, most people recognize that the absolute primary responsibility of a comedian is to be funny. They can get away with all sorts of things (like dating high school girls - sorry!) in their act as long as there are laughs in it. For example, some of Louis CK's standup verges on being offensive to me but he saves it by making me laugh like a loon. Jeff Dunham's racism (I remember a bit from his act where he used the word "raghead" without irony), on the other hand, is super gross to me because I don't find it amusing.

Michael Richards (at least in his famous, terrible incident): Wrong. Don Rickles: So wrong he's right.

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

And yet Comedy Central hasn't had this problem with their shows. The closest was #CancelColbert, which everyone agreed was stupid.

I mean, yes there is a "safe space" mentality that has spread on Tumblr and Twitter, but that floppy wrist joke just isn't good. What line is it supposed to be pushing?

 

[Porpoise of Life]

Yeah, he claimed that he could feel people's ideologically motivated disagreement, but it seems at least as likely they just didn't think it was a funny joke.
Or a bit of both, there are plenty of jokes about stereotypes that get laughs, but the time for "haha, gay folks are swishy" as a punchline has passed.

 

[Darat]

Also one has to wonder do the "college campuses" organisers issue edicts on what one can or cannot say in a comedy act?

 

[angrysoba]

Comedy often is inappropriate, that is sometimes at the heart of the comedy. The gold standard test for comedy is: "is it funny for your audience." To me it sounds that Seinfeld's comedy is no longer funny to the "college campuses" audiences.

Times change, either you change your material with the times or you stick with your old material and accept that some people may no longer find your act as funny as it was perceived to be 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

And that has nothing to do with the right's most successful strawman "PC".

Also one has to wonder do the "college campuses" organisers issue edicts on what one can or cannot say in a comedy act?

I don't know about the U.S. but it happens in UK student unions all the time.