Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/09/seinfeld-vs-stewart-on-whether-woke-p-c-has-ruined-comedy.html
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Hypothesis: Seinfeld is mad at political correctness because he fucked a minor and people make fun of him for it.
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Probably. His wealth, age and gender are exacerbating factors too.
Seinfeld’s expensive White Male Whine is past its expiration date.
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Jerry Seinfeld can fuck off in his car for coffee and just keep on fucking off, fucker.
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Is it overconfidence or underconfidence to believe that you need an entire shadowy cabal of PC wokists and DEI consultants to make yourself increasingly irrelevant; rather than believing that you, yourself, are more than equal to the task?
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Even if TV was completely under the thumb of the woke cabal, he doesn’t realise that avant-garde comedy these days happens on YouTube and Tik Tok and podcasts.
ETA: And on Discord. And Twitch. And Telegram. And Substack. And Patreon. And Snapchat. And live
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Seinfeld’s new book, “The Trials And Travails of the Multimillionaire Comedian” will soon be in bookstores (or their remainder shelves) everywhere.
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Didn’t he complain about PC-ness a few years ago, or am I confusing him with some other old white comedian who I never found all that funny? Plus his issue as stated is really two issues. There’s avoiding saying things that offend people and there’s writing by committee. The latter is a much broader problem for entertainment because it’s an attempt to make things as widely appreciated as possible by taking away unique voices. I suppose some edge is lost that way as well, but there’s a difference between edge and, say, meanspirited.
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Seinfled’s been on about this for years. John Cleese as well.
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Plus he’s angry that the youngsters have been making fun of a certain movie about a bee who wants to fuck a woman.
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I wonder why he hasn’t processed the fact that Abbott Elementary is a hit network sitcom even in the age of streaming and social media and fragmened audiences. Mysteries upon mysteries…
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Seinfeld’s anti-“political correctness” attitude goes way, way, way back.
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Right wing politics are the last refuge of "has "been comedians.
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Also I wonder why Netflix removed it about a month before that Pop Tart movie is coming out 
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Don’t care if he is still funny or not. Jon Stewart gets my undying appreciation for going to Congress stumping for health care aid to 9/11 First Responders
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/11/politics/jon-stewart-9-11-crying/index.html
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For my money he’s still one of the most incisive and funny comedians around (eta: Stewart, not Seinfeld). His return to the Daily Show has been a revelation and revealed precisely why he and Trevor Noah are so had to replace (and why Noah was such an incredible choice). It doesn’t diminish any of the other DS contenders as I thought Roy Wood and Desi Lydick would be incredible, but Stewart’s ability to weave together outrage, empathy and humor while also holding all parties to account without both-sidesing is some medicine we need right now.
And yeah, the fact that he used his “retirement” to stump for first responders and hold congress to account for their lies is beyond admirable.
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Seinfeld sucked though. Like nasty people in boring situations being jerks in the most water-flows-downhill way. There is a lot of better comedy before and since. Maybe a lot of younger people just grew up watching him and wishing their parents would change the channel like I did. Sounds like he’s blaming the wrong things. Two words? You can’t be funny without two whole words? The worst thing taken from you in this world is two words?
pathetic.
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My general take on this, disregarding of who is complaining about comedy and PC culture, is that the type of content and comedy that people want to listen to changes. And people’s relationship to comedy also changes. As an example Richard Prior’s comedy could’ve been thought of as the best example of relevant, subversive comedy but i’ve regularly heard from younger folks that they didn’t enjoy it as much as older generations do. Same for Eddie Murphy.
I’m sure certain bits are timeless, but a goodly portion of jokes capture a moment time. Seinfield’s humor was of a certain time and was lauded as a “genius” and my opinion is that he’s bitter that younger generations don’t think he’s all that funny. And let’s be real, even as a massive fan of the TV show Seinfield the real MVP and genius wasn’t him but Larry David.
Lastly, comedians and folks that complain about PC/woke culture ruining things is a really lazy take. They don’t want to take the effort to figure out what material would work, they just want to keep beating a dead horse because at one point in time it was really popular and they want to keep doing that. You’re a washed up has-been, accept it Jerry.
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Let’s not forget this lost gem either:
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While the other successful project Seinfeld was involved in rested on stolen IP.
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