FX
Jerry Seinfeld recently added his name to the growing list of comedians who believe “cancel culture,” “wokeness,” or “political correctness” or any of the other terms used to describe social accountability has hurt comedy.
As we and many others pointed out, however, shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Veep, South Park, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and so on have proven that comedy can still push boundaries, even when it comes to homeless jokes, as Rob McElhenney proved with a single tweet.
“It used to be, you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, Cheers is on. Oh, MASH is on. Oh, Mary Tyler Moore is on. All in the Family is on,’” Seinfeld explained.
“You just expected, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ 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.”
Seinfeld also included a personal anecdote in his argument, claiming that a joke Kramer once made in Seinfeld about homeless people wouldn’t fly today.
“Do you think I could get that episode on the air today?…We would write a different joke with Kramer and the rickshaw today. We wouldn’t do that joke. We’d come up with another joke,” Seinfeld said.
Clearly taking some issue with Seinfeld’s take, McElhenney took to social media to sarcastically tweet “Probably.” alongside a picture of the Always Sunny character Cricket.
The character in McElhenney’s tweet is Rickety Cricket, who begins the series as a priest but eventually gets addicted to cocaine and becomes a depraved homeless person.
Other series that have been identified as being proof against Seinfeld’s theory are Curb Your Enthusiasm, which his former Seinfeld partner-in-prime Larry David just wrapped up this month, and Veep, which starred his former Seinfeld co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Imagine how embarrassing this take would be if the other creator of Seinfeld had made one of the funniest shows of all-time that had no worry about offending people and ended this literal month. https://t.co/FyCwZ5Eknj
— Kyle Ayers (@kyleayers) April 29, 2024
Seinfeld is currently on a promotional tour for his upcoming Netflix movie Unfrosted, which is being released on Friday, May 3.
Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, Amy Schumer, Pete Dinklage, Bill Burr, Dan Levy, James Marsden, Christian Slate, Jack McBrayer, and more star alongside Seinfeld in Unfrosted, which is his feature film directorial debut.