Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has seemingly changed his tune, expressing “regret” over comments he made earlier this year claiming the “extreme left” killed comedy.
In April, the 70-year-old Unfrosted creator said ” PC crap ” has altogether put an end to true TV comedy at a time when people need lighthearted laughter the most.
During a conversation with The New Yorker, Seinfeld said current TV programs are unfunny because writers are “worrying so much about offending other people.”
Now, Seinfeld is walking back those comments. In an appearance on comedian Tom Papa’s Breaking Bread podcast, Seinfeld insisted he has to “take back” what he said in April.
Seinfeld said it “is not true” that the “extreme left” has suppressed the art of comedy. He used a skiing analogy to illustrate his point.
“If you’re a champion skier, you can put the gates anywhere you want on the mountain and you’re going to make the gate. That’s comedy,” Seinfeld said. “Whatever the culture is, we make the gate. You don’t make the gate, you’re out of the game. The game is where is the gate and how do I make the gate to get down the hill.”
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Seinfeld admitted that culture has changed, and there are certainly things he would have said in his comedy act years earlier that are no longer appropriate.
“You can’t say certain words about groups. So what? The accuracy of your observation has to be 100 times finer than that just to be a comedian,” he said.
“It’s not my business to like or not like where the culture is at,” he clarified. “It’s my business to make the gate, to stick with my skiing analogy.”
Seinfeld joked the press coverage and public reaction to his “extreme left” comments was surprising.
“I didn’t know that people care what comedians say,” he laughed. “That came as news to me. Who the hell cares what a comedian thinks about anything?”
Seinfeld further clarified his own comments about performing comedy on college campuses.
In 2015, Seinfeld (among other comedians) said he avoids performing standup on college campuses because students are too politically correct. He fretted college students would misconstrue his jokes as racist or sexist.
Speaking to Papa, Seinfeld denied ever saying he doesn’t play on campuses, and said he performs for college students “all the time.”
“I have no problem with kids, performing for them,” he said, listing a few campuses where he’d recently completed shows. “I do colleges all the time. So, that perception that I don’t do colleges is just wrong.”
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Seinfeld’s April comments about the “extreme left” provoked ample conversation in the comedy space and beyond. Many critics of the comedian’s take pointed to successful TV comedies like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hacks and Veep as proof that the genre is alive and well.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seinfeld’s longtime co-star, took issue with his take about the state of comedy. During an interview on the On with Kara Swisher podcast, Louis-Dreyfus called Seinfeld’s comments “bulls—t.”
“There’s a lot of talk about how comics can’t be funny now,” she said. “Physical comedy and intellectual comedy and political comedy, I think, has never been more interesting, because there’s so much to do.
“When I hear people starting to complain about political correctness — and I understand why people might push back on it — to me that’s a red flag, because it sometimes means something else. I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing. ”
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