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Stand-up comedian and former Seinfeld star Jerry Seinfeld has walked back his take about “the left” killing comedy.
During a recent interview, Seinfeld expressed regret over comments he made to The New Yorker earlier this year in which he said that the “extreme left” is “suppressing the art of comedy.”
While speaking on the Breaking Bread podcast with Tom Papa, however, Seinfeld disavowed his previous comments and labeled them as false.
“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,” he continued. “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’s comments about the impact political correctness has on comedy came when he was promoting his Netflix film Unfrosted, which was largely dismissed by both critics and audiences, perhaps explaining why the billion-dollar comedian was bitter about the perceived state of comedy.
Unfrosted, which fictionalized the creation of the Pop-Tart, was directed by Seinfeld in his feature film directorial debut and starred Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Max Greenfield, Hugh Grant, and Amy Schumer.