Seinfeld vs. Stewart on whether Woke/P.C. has ruined comedy

He was going on about how he can’t get booked for a college gig maybe 10 years ago? You know, long after he’d had a hit TV show and some obscene number of comedy specials and really should be booking arenas and other big venues as opposed to complaining about colleges.

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Lazy and inaccurate. Per a discussion on an earlier thread, this kind of complaint has been around forever, but comedians are actually more free to joke about more subjects and get distribution in more platforms than probably any point in history. I recommend the Adam Conover podcast linked below.

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“They were supposed to put Puppet Show BELOW Spinal Tap”

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“I’ve lost two words in 35 years”: How much of that is due to self sensorship & style? Jon doesn’t have the only style of humor and Seinfield’s complaint can be true even if Jon doesn’t feel impacted.

Self-sensorship isn’t only a bad thing when it impacts “your” freedoms.

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Stewart’s point is that any comedian who can’t keep up with changing societal standards and make relatively minor changes to his material is more lazy than anything else. There’s still plenty of room for transgression in comedy after choosing to eliminate a couple of words audiences don’t want to hear or think are funny anymore.

There were probably once-popular comedians in the 1960s and '70s whinging that they couldn’t do blackface anymore in the same way Seinfeld is complaining about this.

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Translation of Seinfeld’s comments; “It’s so haaaarrrddd to be funny if you can’t punch down!”

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Jerry Seinfeld Popcorn GIF by Sheets & Giggles

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All modern stand-up comedy can trace its roots to freaking minstrel shows. Society’s standards for what will get you a laugh or a groan or a boo have always been in a state of flux and always will be.

@gracchus

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Those don’t sound like places where you can make Seinfeld money: are you sure that there’s nothing in the constitution that guarantees my right to avant-garde standards for mass-culture rewards? I will speak to the manager about it.

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episode 8 bullshit GIF by RuPaul's Drag Race

Stewarts correct that if the only jokes you have are shitting on others, then you suck as a comedian. We don’t ban speech for a reason, but we sure as shit can let people know when their choices of what to say is hurtful and problematic. Others exercising THEIR free speech to let others know what they’re doing isn’t “comedy” but just plain old bullying isn’t some infringement on one’s right to say what they think. :woman_shrugging: No one has BANNED Seinfield or his speech. He’s just a lazy, rich bully who would prefer to do what he wants rather than be funny.

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To be clear, it seemed more that he was complaining that he wouldn’t be offered hypothetical college gigs as opposed to not being able to book big venues. On account of the kids being too sensitive or some shit.

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He is free to make whatever joke he wants, but what he really wants is no repercussion from his shitty opinions.

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Another aging male white comedian gets salty/bitter with age and wants to couch it as “edgey”? Happy to see Stewart has been able to avoid that fate.

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I have a feeling Seinfeld has been an angry conservative behind the scenes for decades. I don’t think he has changed as much as he is just letting a bit more of it out.

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In the first Borat movie a very patent man explained to Borat that “we don’t make fun of things people can’t change.” That’s really the high hurdle Jerry thinks is a problem. What an asshole!

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that would explain why I never really found him that funny I guess.

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tl;dr - Seinfeld is fully into his “Get off my lawn!” phase of his life at this point, when couple this with what organizations his wife and he have spent the last few years endorsing & supporting… Whodathunk that Larry David would end up being the calm, rational one of the two

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Is this dipshit really trying to say that those three shows in particular wouldn’t be classified as “extremely left and P.C.”? Really?!?

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I’ve seen online over the years that Seinfield is difficult to work with and interview, seeing his privilege and arrogance on display seemingly backs that up. His opinions and attitude has been the same for ages, in short:

Season 5 Showtime GIF by Dexter

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That’s odd: our whole family gets a great kick out of “Abbott Elementary”, which seems to have no problem with subject. Maybe the well-drawn Black characters are invisible to Jerry, like they were on his show.

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