Jerry Seinfeld pulls back on ‘extreme left’ comment

Jerry Seinfeld says he “officially” takes back his claim that the “extreme left” is suppressing the art of comedy.

In an interview with The New Yorker earlier this year, the comedian reminisced about how comedy once was – and spoke out against the current cultural climate.

“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,’ You just expected, there’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight,” he told The New Yorker in April.

“Well, guess what – 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.

Now, Seinfeld says he regrets those comments and takes them back.

Speaking to comedian Tom Papa on Tuesday’s episode of the Breaking Bread podcast, Seinfeld admitted that he “got it wrong” and it is “not true” that the extreme left has inhibited the art of comedy. He also denied reports that he does not play gigs at colleges because students are too politically correct. “Not true… I never said it… I play colleges all the time.”

Comedians, Seinfeld explained, must respond to changes in the culture like how champion skiers have to make the gates on a mountain.

In this Wednesday, July 17, 2019, file photo Jerry Seinfeld attends the “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee,” photo call at The Paley Center for Media, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

“If you’re Lindsey Vonn, if you’re a champion skier, you can put the gates anywhere you want on the mountain – she’s gonna make the gate. That’s comedy,” said Seinfeld.

“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, how do I make the gate and get down the hill the way I want to?’”

“Does culture change? And are there things I used to say that I can’t say?… Yeah. But that’s the biggest, easiest target, you know – you can’t say certain words, whatever they are, versus about groups, so what? The accuracy of your observation has to be a hundred times finer than that to just be a comedian.”

Seinfeld added that it doesn’t matter whether comedians like these cultural changes or not, saying their only job is to “play the game” according to what is acceptable.

“I don’t think the … extreme left has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy. I’m taking that back now officially. They have not. Do you like it? Maybe, maybe not – it’s not my business to like or not like where the culture is at,” he said. “It’s my business to make the gate, to stay with my skiing analogy… you make the gate or you’re out.”

It may be hard, but so is making good comedy, according to the “Unfrosted” star.,

“Comedy is hard. Big, giant period … You want to make a fabulous living making people giggle? That sure sounds great – it’s gonna take a lot.”

Seinfeld also set the record straight on another set of comments that made headlines earlier this year, when he lamented the loss of “dominant masculinity” in the United States.

In Tuesday’s podcast he said his choice of words was “probably not the greatest phrase for what I was really saying,” and clarified that what he meant was that he missed the “big personalities” of the past, like Muhammad Ali and Sean Connery.

“These were all the people I wanted to be like as a kid… I wanted to have that kind of authority and style, it was really a style thing. Everyone conforms more to not offend… I thought it was a great flavour in my youth. That made a headline the next day that I was calling for toxic masculinity to come back.”

“We don’t need the toxic part, but the big personalities are fun.”