Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has walked back comments he made earlier this year, now saying he “regrets” blaming the far left for destroying comedy.
In April, the 70-year-old “Seinfeld” star made headlines after claiming the “extreme left” had ruined comedy on television.
“It used to be that you’d 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 will] be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.”
“Well, guess what? Where is it? Where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap and people worrying so much about offending other people,” he said on an episode of the New Yorker’s Radio Hour.
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“Now they’re going to see stand-up comics because they 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,” he continued. “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.”
In an appearance on fellow comedian Tom Papa’s “Breaking Bread” podcast this week, Seinfeld confessed he “regrets” making the remarks and wants to “take [them] back.”
“I said that the ‘extreme left’ has suppressed the art of comedy. I did say that. That’s not true,” Seinfeld began. “It’s not true.”
“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. 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?” he said.
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“Does culture change and are there things that I used to say that I can’t say because people are always moving [the gate]? Yes, but that’s the biggest and easiest target,” Seinfeld said.
“You can’t say certain words about groups. So what? The accuracy of your observation has to be 100 times finer than that to just be a comedian.”
“So I don’t think, as I said, the ‘extreme left’ has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy. I’m taking that back now, officially. They have not,” he continued.
A few months after the comedian complained about political correctness in comedy, his former “Seinfeld” star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, pushed back on his remarks.
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“If you look back on comedy and drama both, let’s say 30 years ago, through the lens of today, you might find bits and pieces that don’t age well. And I think to have an antenna about sensitivities is not a bad thing,” Louis-Dreyfus said in an interview with the New York Times.
She continued, “It doesn’t mean that all comedy goes out the window as a result. When I hear people starting to complain about political correctness – and I understand why people might push back on it – but 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.”
