Jerry Seinfeld has admitted that he was wrong to blame “the far left” for the decline of television comedies.
While appearing on the latest episode of comedian Tom Papa's breaking bread podcastSeinfeld expressed regret for making the comments and said it is “not true” that the “far left has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy.”
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Seinfeld added that he was “officially taking that back now” and admitted, “It's none of my business whether I like where the culture is or not.”
Early in the conversation, Seinfeld compared comedians to Olympic skiers like Lindsey Vonn, who have to “make the door” anywhere on the mountain. “Whatever the culture, we make the door,” he explained. “If you don't reach the goal, you're out of the game. The game is where is the door? [and] How do I make the gate and go down the hill the way I want?
“Culture changes too and there are things that I used to say that I can't say that everyone is always on the go; yes, but that's the biggest and easiest goal,” he continued. “You can't say certain words…about [certain] groups. So what? The accuracy of your observation has to be 100 times greater to simply be a comedian.”
in a New Yorker In an interview published last April, Seinfeld claimed that sitcoms are no longer dominant as a result of “the far-left and PC crap and people who care so much about offending other people.”
While the usual suspects like Fox News host Greg Gutfeld agreed with the comments, former Seinfeld co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus called it “a red flag” when comedians “complain about how politically correct.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, Seinfeld set the record straight about a comment long attributed to him about refusing to perform at colleges because “kids are too PC” and rejected the sentiment.
“First of all, I never said it, but if you think I said it, I don't,” Seinfeld said. “I play in colleges all the time. I don't have any problem with [performing for] kids… So that perception that I don’t play in colleges is incorrect.”
However, it is worth noting that a group of pro-Palestinian students walked out of their commencement speech at Duke in May over their vocal support for Israel.
Listen to the full episode of Breaking bread with Tom Papa below. The relevant segment starts around 25:50.
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