Jerry Seinfeld blames “P.C. crap” for the current state of TV sitcoms

Jerry Seinfeld has shared his thoughts on what’s caused the current state of TV sitcoms – see what he had to say below.

• READ MORE: ‘Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours To Kill’ review: the comedy equivalent of the ‘old man yells at cloud’ meme

In an interview with The New Yorker published on April 28, Seinfeld spoke about the current state of comedy – both onscreen and offscreen. According to the actor, writer and comedian, the state of comedy is currently fairing much better onstage and that comedy written for TV suffers from “P.C. [politically correct] crap”.

Seinfeld said to The New Yorker when asked how the current state of the world and politics affect comedy: “Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it. They need it so badly and they don’t get it. 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…’ You just expected, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight’. Well, guess what—where is it?”

He continued: “This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people. Now they’re going to see standup comics because we are not policed by anyone. The audience polices us. We know when we’re off track. We know instantly and we adjust to it instantly. But 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.”

Seinfeld then recalled an episode of Seinfeld in which “Kramer decides to start a business of having homeless people pull rickshaws because, as he says, ‘They’re outside anyway’”. Seinfled asked: “Do you think I could get that episode on the air today?”

Later in the chat, Seinfeld mentioned that no new sitcoms were picked up by four major networks in the US for the fall season, and that comedians get more freedom to make risky jokes: “With certain comedians now, people are having fun with them stepping over the line and us all laughing about it. But, again, it’s the standups that really have the freedom to do it because no one else gets the blame if it doesn’t go down well. He or she can take all the blame themself.”

Jerry Seinfeld is due to star in the upcoming movie, Unfrosted, which will release on Netflix on May 3.

Last week, Seinfeld spoke of how he thought the “movie business is over”.

In 2020, Netflix released Jerry Seinfeld’s comedy special, 23 Hours To Kill. It received a four-star review from NME‘s Paul Bradshaw, who wrote: “It’s true that he does seem like he’s from a completely different world to practically everyone else with a Netflix special. But then that’s all part of what makes Jerry, Jerry. He might have a lot more money, a bit more waffle and a few new things to moan about, but he’s still the same king of comedy he always was.”