Seinfeld: “The far left has killed TV comedy”

The Jewish-American comedian blames “politically correct crap” and “the far left” for the demise of funny shows on television.

Jerry Seinfeld points out that broadcast jokes now have to be vetted and approved by multiple entities, effectively killing comedy.

In 1989, the first episode of the situation comedy Seinfeld aired, introducing him and the cast to a worldwide audience. According to Wikipedia, the show “is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential shows of all time”.

Nowadays, however, the main character is quite fed up with how limiting the TV format is and how easily everyone is offended these days. Instead, he has switched to stand-up comedy – a format he finds less controlled.

– 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, Seinfeld said in an interview with The New Yorker.

– You just expected there’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight. Well, guess what? Where is it? This is the result of the extreme Left and PC c— and people worrying so much about offending other people.

– 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, he continues.

“Don’t know what the hell they’re talking about”

According to Jerry Seinfeld, the stand-up format is more honest – because it’s the audience, not various executives, who control the comedians and tell them clearly when the comedian is “over the line”.

– With certain comedians now, people are having fun with them stepping over the line, and us all laughing about it. But again, it’s the stand-ups that really have the freedom to do it because no one else gets the blame if it doesn’t go down well.

In the past, the 70-year-old has said he has been warned not to perform at colleges and universities because of the political correctness that prevails there.

– just want to use these words – ‘that’s racist, that’s sexist, that’s prejudiced’. They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about, he said.