Jerry Seinfeld Says TV Comedy Is Being Killed By the ‘Extreme Left and P.C. Crap

Ok, Boomer.

A Gazillionaire and he's still a rancid sod. Goes to show you there's truth in the adage, "Money can't buy happiness."

r1 and r2 are retards. The Boomers were actually the last funny generation. The cultural fissure and sexual liberation of the 60s was a great thing for art. The slow regression back to the 50s and sexual McCarthyism has set us way back.

Jerry Seinfeld says he wouldn’t be able to do many jokes from ‘SEINFELD’ in today’s world.

“[One would be] 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?”

Back in those days, you also wouldn't have had Nazi sympathizers (in the US) out in the open, marching the streets. No "Proud Boys." No storming the Capitol at the behest of a POTUS.

Shut up and count your money, Jerry.

Well he's not wrong. Everybody knows it to be true.

He was never funny.

Boomers (and older) who were funny:

Garry Shandling George Carlin Rita Rudner Eddie Murphy Richard Pryor Kathy Griffith

Mean-spirited comedy is dated.

Because a show conceived by a couple of New York Jews about the lives of a predominantly Jewish cast living in New York was always going to play well in Flyoverland.

Great work, Jerry. Bite the hand that feeds your billionaire ass.

I know right? It's all gotta be PC these days or no one will watch and worse, no network would touch you!

I have this great idea for a comedy.

It takes place in Auschwitz. There are these two Jewish guys who hear that there are jobs available right there at the camp where you get more and better food and all you have to do is sign up for it. Turns out the jobs is for sonderkommandos and high jinks ensue when our boys find out it's not all fun and games like they thought.

It's comedy gold, Jerry. Gold!!!

George Carlin was a fucking genius.

Jerry Seinfeld was dating a 17 year old when he was around 40. His views on society are twisted.

“Seinfeld” was about selfishness. Seinfeld seems to be about self-importance. Happy birthday, Jerry, if that’s all right.

Seinfeld is right. Even if his comedy isn't/wasn't to your taste - and, if so, you were in the minority because "Seinfeld" had huge ratings - comedy up through the '90s and even into the 2000's was no-holds-barred. Anything was fair game ... not always on TV sitcoms but in nightclubs, on late-night TV and at similar venues.

Today, the over-sensitives and the nothing-can-be-funny-because-TRUMP!! crowd, as exemplified by many of the responses in this thread, see to it that comedy outside a few niche markets is censored, bowdlerized and emasculated (I use that word deliberately). Fuck all those people. They never had a sense of humor anyway.

I hope a reaction to the current stifling climate of censoriousness is coming. Maybe the pendulum will swing the other way.

What are you doing on DL, R9??

[quote]Mean-spirited comedy is dated.

And it has been replaced by what?

Ironically comedians are the most sensitive snowflakes in society. One bad set or joke from jumping off the highest ledge. I always thought it was hypocrisy when they complain about the public being offended by something when most of them take themselves so seriously and usually suffer from some form of anxiety and or depression.

🎵 Why you gotta be soooo rude

This fucking idiot is acting like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia isn't still running, not to mention Curb Your Enthusiasm only just ended, and that was only because Larry wanted it to end.

r4 You absolutely could still do that story now. Yes some people would whine, but I bet some people whined back then too.

I'm guessing he knows this Pop Tarts movie he made sucks, and he's premeptively trying to build a defence for it by claiming people are too sensitive to find it funny

[quote] Mean-spirited comedy is dated.

Don’t you have a Jew-hating rally to get to, dear?

R22, It’s Always Sunny and South Park are the only two shows to get away with shit today and even South Park has toned itself down. They both debuted way before the commie turds took over and start dictating everyone’s belief system. Curb was no longer “offensive” not by a long shot.

[quote] Jerry Seinfeld was dating a 17 year old when he was around 40. His views on society are twisted.

So are gays then.

Fuck you and your attempt at whataboutism, R24.

This is a huge deal! No “Cheers????”

Obviously much more important than the fact that an insurrectionist who tried to get a mob to overthrow the government is currently favored to win the presidency.

Thats fine, but where is today’s “Too Close for Comfort???”

It's Always Sunny has been on for 16 seasons and it's shocking and profane. Great comedy still exists but you have to put a tiny bit of effort into finding it. Of course network sitcoms play it safe. He sounds like every other irrelevant old fuck who is mad about the world changing.

r23 "commie turds"? Really? Maybe you should look to Nickelodeon for your comedy needs, it seems to be more on your level.

Also, what a bullshit excuse. So these "commie turds" are shutting down anything offensive...but not anything which happens to pre-date them? Moronic logic.

R26 - only on DL can a thread about TV comedy be turned to Trump.

[quote]I'm guessing he knows this Pop Tarts movie he made sucks, and he's premeptively trying to build a defence for it by claiming people are too sensitive to find it funny

He's been saying this stuff since at least 2015.

r30 Therefore further proving himself wrong

He's 100% correct.

Like this asshole knows comedy.

Everything mentioned in this thread proves his point.

Laura Bush Young Driver Training Academy - We teach you how to get away with it!

Mulva?

Are you dating a minor, R24??

R32: There are more closeted conservatives than homosexuals in Hollywood.

Cheers wasn't politically incorrect, IIRC. It was a workplace sitcom involving coworkers and regular customers.

He’s right.

Seinfeld = the most over-rated performer of all time, & he's whining because the world has moved on.

Fuck you, Seinfeld, & the whore you call your wife.

OP = prolific troll

I never watched his sitcom. I don't like sitcoms but I hear some are very funny.

I never was interested in Jerry Seinfeld, don't know much about him except his eyes are very close set.

R9 That’s so false.

Social media is based on being mean. Go on TikTok, go on Instagram, go on YouTube and the comments are full of mean and hilarious one liners.

I think scripted comedy is outdated. If I want to laugh, I go on social media and watch quick funny shit. People falling, people failing, etc.

Watching a new comedy movie is tough. If I’m going to watch a show, it’s going to be an emotional investment in the drama. If I want to laugh I’ll go on YouTube or TikTok.

[quote] I never was interested in Jerry Seinfeld, don't know much about him except his eyes are very close set.

Yes, his eyes are close-set. Also, on the show Seinfeld, he had a mini-mullet.

There's a difference between laughing AT something and laughing ABOUT something, which seems to escape you queens who think there's no comedy except mean-spirited comedy. There's better things to laugh at in this world than fucking bullying.

BULLYING!!!!!!!! Oh the humanity!!!

R46 sounds like a real flailing faggot.

This idiot's big comeback after his hit show was "The Marriage Ref".

It he's claiming it didn't last because of pc stuff is crap.

It wasn't smart, funny or insightful.

PC "rules" had nothing to do with it.

I gave the show several tries & it was just awful.

[quote] Back in those days, you also wouldn't have had Nazi sympathizers (in the US) out in the open, marching the streets.

We’ve always had that, retard.

He's not wrong.

I've seen the shift in humor in my lifetime.

R46 needs her safe space.

Guess he’s never seen Larry David’s own show.

R44, life doesn’t revolve around you.

Has he even seen the number #1 rated sit-com on air a.k.a. CBS's Ghosts?

They make fun of everyone on that show without it being nasty.

They even make fun of leftie Flower who isn't the smartest on the show (but the dumbest). TPTB make fun of the fact that she was high when she died & she is no far left heroine as she was part of a bank robbery when she passes on. She is hardly a woke/PC role model for anyone & that includes hippies, lefties, women & those who want to legalize drugs.

[quote] It's Always Sunny has been on for 16 seasons and it's shocking and profane.

Except that it’s only 1 or 2 shows pushing the envelope. Both premiered well before the woke crap. That’s the point.

[quote] They make fun of everyone on that show without it being nasty.

God, you sound like such an insufferable fat frau.

Datalounge never found that Joan Rivers funny.

R57 Oh look a repub troll pops up.

It's the number 1 show (basically locked in for syndication/streaming deals around the globe) so they're doing something right.

R3 Oh please.

Boomers added a toilet flushing sound to several episodes of "All In The Family" & think it was a running gag to stand the test of time.

Jerry hates it when he’s forced to be creative.

R3, the baby boomers are hilarious!

The gains made during the 1950s and the 1960s had absolutely nothing to do with them.

Even that was only approved, r60, because the regional dialect had toilet pronounced as “terlit”.

The baby boomers were all disco and Three's Company when they want everyone to think that they were Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.

Can’t stand him. The Ke$ha incident defines him.

r56 And? You're acting like all 90s comedy was cutting edge and massively offensive. But do point me to this huge crowds of wokesters demanding IASIP or South Park be cancelled. Or Rick and Morty. Or Archer.

Basically what this boils down to is nothing about offence, but Seinfeld wanting to be able to do his warmed over 90s act without criticism of it being shit and outdated. Same as Bill Maher.

Meanwhile Rob McElhenney shuts Seinfeld up with a single word.

R46 Sorry, not all of us grew up with Bob Hope and Dick van Dyke!

R56 But that’s why people go to social media for comedy today.

Half of social media is woke but the other half is non-PC humor, especially TikTok.

They can’t compete.

Most of what he says sounds like the rantings of an old man. Oh, wait. He is an old man.

R21 and R27, I recently re-watched the first few episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and wondered if they'd do it that way in 2024. For example, the (hilarious) trannie episode.

I think Jerry's a little right. I'm watching Loot now and am only staying with it because of the free Apple TV trial, the lifestyle porn, and few good performances. A lot of it falls flat because a POV rather than comedy is being served.

Regardless of old-timers constantly complaining about the whole PC/"extreme left" thing... I have noticed that not a lot of comedy shows are all that funny anymore. Not so much about the type of comedy, just that the material being written (whatever it is) just doesn't hit in quite the same way classic sitcoms, films, etc. used to. It always feel like the joke is 75% of the way there, and then missing a great punchline. Or characterization. Or something. But there is some great stand up out there, and yeah, social media has some great material. But seems to get all watered down by the mainstream part of the industry now. And absolutely no one seems to know how to write a decent sitcom anymore. Real bummer.

r71 This is a valid point, and Seinfeld could've made an interesting argument about how executives meddle too much and water everything down in search of too wide an audience (hardly a new phenomenon) and so, in turn, talented comedians avoid the sitcom route, but instead he went the way he went.

Oy Vey!

As usual, the reflex response on DL is to bitch about the messenger (and I’m no fan of his either). But he’s not wrong. Must be a consequence of social media, but everybody is so hyper-sensitive and easily offended now. I hate mean-spirited, intentionally offensive “comedy” as much as anyone, but most of the best comedy pokes fun at life and the absurdity of human foibles.

We called this years ago

r74 Social media isn't the real world

I agree with Seinfeld, but I wouldn't call this crowd extreme left, they have nothing to do with class struggle, worker's rights etc., the issue that left fought for. These are corporate puppets that hijacked the left, making it about identitarian issues, 12 pronouns, chemical castration of prepubescent children, anti white racism and prohibition of sanity and sense of humor.

Oh please, if there was a market for it some company would be pumping it out.

R78 I guess there was a market for leftist themes in the age of McCarthism, but nobody dared to cater to such audience no matter the potential loss.

the most successful comedy making the most money right now is all edgy and independent stuff. taking in six figures a month across patreon, youtube, etc. easily. there is no such thing as comedy or a comedian that has been cancelled for being too offensive or not woke. they lie about this because it's an extremely easy grift and marketing tactic. either that or a guy like jerry is just so married to the outdated way of doing things that he can't conceive of making money without the major networks. almost anyone who is complaining about this stuff is just obsessing over a dozen tweets they saw and not facing any real consequences or pushback of any kind.

There is nothing left about Sharia law. P.S.-pray for all the innocents in Israel & Gaza

I hate agreeing with Jerry Seinfeld. ... but.. comedy is disruptive and offensive and surprising by definition. Control kills comedy.

The grievance collectors and mobile zombies lack an understanding of parody, satire, absurdity, and farce as tools for comedy. They are unsocialized in a broad way and try to construct a world view based on a very limited understanding, and corrupt the natural idealism of youth into a corrosive control reflex.

They, as much as the MAGA undead, are the New Puritans, arriving at a distorted sharia perception that is the opposite of their purported intentions. Freedom of speech and its relationship to freedom of art require more than pre-judgement and self-regarding judgment to remain alive, as well as sensitive to the real needs for respect and perspective towards others.

In short, Seinfeld is right. This kind of comedy increasingly is relegated to comedy clubs and ticketed shows. And this is at a time when people are accepting the bloody, gut-displayed violence appearing everywhere.

Seinfeld also could have arranged his thoughts better.

I'm tired of rich guys whining about how unfair the world is.

It wouldn’t be because I’d have to spend $800 monthly if I really wanted to see “what’s on tonight,” Jerry?

I save my obscene spending for the NFL season and then cancel subscriptions right and left the minute the Super Bowl is over. If you want to get rich telling jokes, that’s fine, but I can’t afford you and I don’t miss you. I barely know who you are!

TV comedy and drama comedy was primarily killed by reality TV shows because they are significantly cheaper to produce than sitcoms. The problem with that is the content sucks so over time less people overall tune in to network television, especially when there are cable and streaming options. Just like the music industry business, greed and corporate mindset killed network television.

Fuck this nasty multimillionaire white male zionist who supposedly treats his fans badly. Fucking pig!

If boomer comedians are angry at PC culture and want the old days back, they can start by ridiculing the whites for being; ridiculing masculine men for being masculine or ridiculing straight men for being heterosexual. But the few female comedians who have tried that have been accused of promoting anti-men hate speech.

Instead these comedians want to ridicule brown and black people, the mental health of transgenders, gays, want to make rape/sexual harassment jokes...

Meaning, they want minorities to endure what they themselves aren't capable of handling. And they expect us to do it with a smile on our faces.

If the atmosphere towards comedy today is so damned repressive, why do they keep showing reruns of his show.

The rickshaw episode to which Seinfeld refers (featuring DL fave Rebecca DeMornay) is shown repeatedly, uncut and unedited, on a regular basis on Comedy Central. If the thought control police are so pervasive, why haven't they clamped down on this episode, or any episode they find objectionable. In fact, one episode in the last season, about the Puerto Rican day parade, is never shown because Puerto Ricans found it objectionable 25 years ago when the show first aired. So obviously this PC stuff is now new.

Seinfeld seems to be going down the same grumpy old goat route Bill Maher cultivates. Seinfeld's kids must be bugging the shit out of him for money. That's what happens when you procreate late in life.

Another unfunny fraud and loser given a platform because he sucked up to the right.

There are not supposed to be any holy cows in comedy.

That’s NOT FUNNY!

Hannah Gadsbys old suff is funnier than anything Jerry Seinfeld ever did.

[quote] As usual, the reflex response on DL is to bitch about the messenger

Seinfeld is a jew so of course datalounge reacts this way

R87 MARY!!

He says he refuses to perform on college campuses because young people are too woke.

But really, it's because no one under 50 finds him entertaining. And even at his 1993 peak, his humor was still tame and mainstream. It's the same reason why no one pays to see Jay Leno or Paul Reiser anymore. Comedy has moved on to pushing new envelopes, and comics like Seinfeld were never in it to make people think or shake people's tree. He's an observational comic. He mocks the mundane, and he does it without irony or incisive commentary. He just bitches about airplane peanuts and rental car counters, and waits for the half-soused nightclub rabble to eat it up. He's Andy Rooney without the cute shoes.

Joseph R94

R95, a true w&w.

Jerry can be absolutely right about this, and be entitled and tone-deaf at the same time. He's lucky he got that sweet spot in the 90s because people aren't into him now.

"...waits for the half-soused nightclub rabble to eat it up."

lifted right from my lines, bitch.

R98 The fucker is also lucky he kept the "created by" credit in his syndication deals.

Jason Alexander and the other Seinfeld co-stars didn't get shit from that deal, and by now, their residuals aren't worth a fart in a windstorm.