Jerry Seinfeld 'Regrets' Blaming 'Extreme Left' for Killing Comedy

By Zack Sharf

Digital News Director

Jerry Seinfeld is walking back polarizing comments he made to The New Yorker in April while promoting his Netflix movie “Unfrosted.” The comedian went viral for saying TV comedy had been killed by the extreme left and P.C. culture. Seinfeld noted at the time that “people [are] worrying so much about offending other people” and comedy is suffering as a result.

“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 added.

Seinfeld is now taking those comments back. He appeared on the latest episode of his friend and fellow comedian Tom Papa’s “Breaking Bread” podcast and said he “regrets” blaming P.C. culture for destroying comedy.

“I said that the ‘extreme left’ has suppressed the art of comedy. I did say that. That’s not true,” Seinfeld said. “It’s not true. If you’re a champion skier, you can put the gates anywhere you want on the mountain and you’re going to make the gate. That’s comedy. 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 and how do I make the gate to get down the hill.”

“Does culture change and are their things that I use to say that [I can’t because] people are always moving [the gate]? Yes, but that’s the biggest and easiest target,” Seinfeld added. “You can’t say certain words about groups. So what? The accuracy of your observation has to be 100 times finer than that just to be a comedian…So I don’t think, as I said, the ‘extreme left’ has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy.”

Seinfeld also refuted claims that he once said he would never perform at colleges because the students have become so P.C, saying: “First of all, I never said it, but if you think I said it, it’s not true. I play colleges all the time. I have no problem with kids, performing for them. I was just at the University of Indiana. I do colleges all the time.”

After Seinfeld’s original comments dropped in April, many other comics were asked about the state of comedy. His longtime co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus appeared on the “On With Kara Swisher” podcast and pushed back against the idea that comedy has in any way suffered due to a changing social landscape that favors P.C. content over anything offensive.

“There’s a lot of talk about how comics can’t be funny now,” said Louis-Dreyfus. “I think that’s bullshit. Physical comedy and intellectual comedy and political comedy, I think, has never been more interesting, because there’s so much to do.”

Watch Seinfeld’s full interview on the “Breaking Bread” podcast in the video below.