Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Jerry Seinfeld Called Out After Blaming 'Extreme Left' And 'PC Crap' For Destroying Comedy

Jerry Seinfeld
Matt Jelonek/Getty Images

The 'Seinfeld' star claimed on 'The New Yorker Radio Hour' that worrying about 'offending' people has ruined TV comedy and brought about the demise of sitcoms.

TV legend Jerry Seinfeld is under fire after blaming the "extreme left" for the supposed demise of comedy.

During a recent appearance on The New Yorker Radio Hour, Seinfeld decried the demise of sitcoms, blaming it on the fear of offending people.


Seinfeld explained that at a time when we need comedy more than ever, there simply isn't much to choose from, which Seinfeld blames on "PC crap."

Asked by The New Yorker's David Remnick about how current events affect his comedy, Seinfeld 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.'"
"You just expected, ‘there’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ Well, guess what — where is it?”

He then laid the blame on left-wing politics.

“This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap and people worrying so much about offending other people.”

This take, of course, ignores two huge elephants in the room: One, the impact that streaming has had on television, which has changed tastes by allowing comedy that would never pass network censors.

Perhaps even more important is the impact of the sweeping wave of corporate mergers in Hollywood in recent years, which has consolidated nearly every network under the umbrella of a tiny number of mega-corporations.

These megacorps are often run by business executives like HBO Max's David Zaslav, who run them like normal businesses selling normal products, instead of what the entertainment industry actually is: a business whose "products" are inherently speculative gambles that cannot make a single dime for months or even years after the money is spent on production.

This is why there are eleventy billion sure-thing Marvel movies and practically no comedy shows, even on a channel like Comedy Central, which was gobbled up by a merger between Viacom and CBS in 2020, for example, and now shows nothing but reruns.

This is also why companies like HBO Max under Zaslav delete hotly anticipated movies out of existence and then take them as a tax write-off for an immediate payday that pleases shareholders instead of audiences.

But never mind all of that—all of which Seinfeld, as a titan of the industry, should be well versed in, especially since every union in Hollywood was on strike for months last year talking about how this sea change is affecting their jobs.

Seinfeld says comedy's dying basically because you can't, for instance, make fun of homeless people anymore.

As he put it to Remnick:

“We did an episode of [‘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?…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."

Yes, cultural mores have definitely changed. But having to come up with different jokes is hardly the same as a show being canceled.

In any case, Seinfeld's hot take on the state of comedy didn't go over very well with many online.




Several people pointed out that Seinfeld's co-creator Larry David has had a series, Curb Your Enthusiasm, that relies on offensive humor for literal decades, including a season that just aired this year.


Anyway, Seinfeld's latest project, Unfrosted, about the invention of the Pop-Tart, drops May 3 on Netflix, a streaming platform infamous for canceling its comedy series.

More from Entertainment/celebrities

Jesse Watters
Fox News

Jesse Watters Dragged After Adding Another Mind-Boggling Rule For 'Real Men'

Fox News host Jesse Watters, who is apparently an authority of what it means to be a manly man, gave jazz hands to make a point about how "real men" should or shouldn't wave.

The target of his ridicule was Tim Walz, the enthusiastic Democratic Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate who often greets the public by raising both hands in the air to wave.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of crowd at town hall and Rep. Mike Flood
@MorePerfectUS/X; KETV NewsWatch 7

GOP Rep. Goes Viral For His Response To Crowd Chanting 'Tax The Rich' At Town Hall

Nebraska Republican Representative Mike Flood was criticized following his incredulous response to a crowd that chanted "Tax the rich!" during a town hall meeting.

The Columbus High School auditorium hosted the town hall on Tuesday evening, drawing "nearly 380" attendees, according to local network KETV Omaha. The event was lively, with Flood facing both sharp criticism over Trump administration policies and some appreciation for showing up in person.

Keep ReadingShow less
Elon Musk
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Awkward Typo In Elon Musk's Bizarre 'Education Department' Trump Meme Is A Total Self-Own

Billionaire Elon Musk was widely mocked after he celebrated President Donald Trump's executive order to begin to dismantle the Department of Education (DOE) by posting a meme of Trump at the department's grave, only for an awkward misspelling to get all the attention.

Polling indicates that eliminating the Education Department is largely unpopular, with 60% of registered voters opposing the move, according to a Quinnipiac University survey conducted March 6-10. Support stands at 33%, with opposition particularly strong among Democrats—98% oppose it, while just 1% support it.

Keep ReadingShow less
JB Pritzker; Donald Trump
Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Dem Governor Reveals Trump's Bonkers Demand In Exchange For Equipment During COVID

Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker revealed during a speech this week that he clashed with President Donald Trump during the first Trump administration after Trump promised necessary medical equipment during the COVID pandemic on the condition that Pritzker praise him publicly.

Five years ago, the United States was grappling with the initial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The country had entered shutdowns that had severe economic consequences, leaving businesses and industries on the brink of collapse.

Keep ReadingShow less
Scrabble tiles spelling the word scam
Scam spelled with scrabbles on a wooden table

People Break Down How They Realized An Entire Industry Was A Total Scam

We unfortunately live in a world where scams are on the rise.

Thankfully, some of them are pretty easy to detect, such as an automated call from the IRS telling you a warrant is out for your arrest, or an email claiming to be from Amazon or the USPS asking for your credit card information, only to look closer and see the email address is a yahoo account.

Keep ReadingShow less