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Tomorrow he's going to complain about being "cancelled" and how he "can't say things anymore" while talking about the event where he was invited to speak in front of a college full of students.
You can say whatever you want, people don't have to listen.
Exactly. Plus the right to free speech doesn't equate to being free from criticism, or as you said, general disinterest.
The supreme Court has described it as freedom of speech not being freedom from speech.
I honestly never understood the attraction to Seinfeld.
There were a few good jokes in there but the whole show was about them being assholes and proud of it.
They're selfish, judgemental and entitled. They're constantly mocking and bullying other people and each other. The final episode even lays it out explicitly.
Shows like "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", "Married... With Children" or "Breaking Bad" have various unsavory characters but we're invited to reject these flaws or at least identify with them as flaws.
Seinfeld is shameless about being an asshole and pretends the rest of us are just too dumb to understand his genius.
I think you're missing the point of these shows and that's okay.
The characters aren't role models, they are your intrusive thoughts manifest. If you didn't hear someone's name when they told you, any rational person would just say it was loud and they didn't hear you. They wouldnt go through lengths of introducing friends, finding out childhood taunts and rifling through your belongings in an attempt to save face.
The joke is in the breaking of social norms. A show about people being polite to each other doesn't make for very good comedy.
Archer. Archer is the perfect genius asshole protagonist.
I found that the clowning/assholery in Seinfeld was just too close to plausible to clock as humor most of the time, while picking on small and petty things; it's a little too real. I don't think that comes from conceit, but rather, a generation gap and all the insensitivity that comes with it. Just add a little casual violence and it's peak boomer-era humor. That said, Seinfield was its best when the stories were less believable and cruel.
The other shows you cite put these humor beats way over the top which is far more paletteable, IMO.
I think you have a fundamentally different view than I do on the characters. They are all fundamentally nice people. The difference is, they get fixated on small issues, and let it control their actions. Jerry dates a woman that only looks good in bright light? Only go on dates that have good lighting. It is something you would want to do too, but you would have the control to not let it run the relationship. Jerry doesn't have that control, and focuses on the good lighting at the expense of everything else.
The characters aren't mean. They didn't wish I'll on anyone. Many of the episodes are them trying to find a way to get out of a situation without being honest because they think the truth would hurt too. Idiots, yes, not not jerks.
For another example. There is an episode where a waiter accidentally puts a menu on a candle and it lights on fire. George points it out, puts the fire out, and casually mentions "I think the busboy put the menu too close to the candle." The manager overhears this, and fires the busboy. George then finds the busboy to try and help him get another job, but leaves the front door open, and the busboy's cat escapes. It is the perfect example of what the characters are. They don't want to hurt people, and go to extreme lengths to do it, even though it always backfires.
Weird choice of quotes and headlines:
From the OP article:
"He has been “uncharacteristically vocal” about his support during press calls for his new film, Unfrosted, The New York Times reported."
From the NYT link in the quote:
"As Mr. Seinfeld, who has recently been vocal about his support for Israel, received an honorary degree, dozens of students walked out and chanted, “Free, free Palestine,” while the comedian looked on and smiled tensely"
But when you go to the link to the NY Times article that references Mr. Seinfeld as being recently vocal about his support of Israel, one of the concluding comments in the article is:
Surely, Mr. Seinfeld sees it differently. His public comments have largely avoided geopolitical specifics, dwelling little on the choices of the Netanyahu government or prospective conditions for a cease-fire.
And he can still sound hesitant even in recent discussions about the Jewishness of “Seinfeld” — which an NBC executive once described as “too New York, too Jewish.”
Nothing about this makes me think Seinfield is a a strong supported of the war. Support for Israel after the attack can be a lot of things and does not mean pro Netanyahu war machine.
CoMeDy Is DeAd.
No. We’re just through with your bigotry disguised as humor.
Seinfeld has publicly supported Israel following the 7 October Hamas attack, and traveled to a kibbutz in December to meet with hostages’ families
In case you're wondering what the argument is. You should still read the story though.
That's the biggest part of the reason, but there's also the fact that he's been complaining about how the 'woke left' has destroyed comedy. That's not exactly going to endear him to young adults either.
Also, the whole reason he's complaining about comedy being destroyed is that he hasn't been relevant in over 25 years. So even ignoring everything, he's some boring old dude that hasn't been that relevant the entire life of most of the graduates. They selected someone that the staff might be impressed by, but not someone that is vaguely interesting for the actual graduates.
Seriously. His recent comments are vile.
First Kramer got himself cancelled, and now Seinfeld is next! Curse the "woke left" /s
His wife also donated to and promoted a GoFundMe to fund the violent counterprotestors at UCLA
I can't help but notice all the comedians who complain about society being took woke for comedy are has-beens. John Stewart's back to crushing it at the Daily Show, is he complaining? No, it's only the guys who've run out of material and have nothing left to do but shake their canes at gen Z kids.
I challenge anyone to go to the "good old days" and find me a comedian who was actually funny and not just being an edgelord. You know who the most popular comedian was in the 80s? Andrew Dice Clay. That's right. That's was peak comedy, dirty nursery rhymes. Sure, I get that some people are nostalgic. But let's be serious for a minute - do we really wanna go back to that kind of comedic void?
Society hasn't gotten too woke, rather comedic standards have evolved to the point where merely being offensive in itself no longer counts as comedy.
I challenge anyone to go to the "good old days" and find me a comedian who was actually funny and not just being an edgelord.
The master himself. George Carlin. We could debate whether he was an edge lord or not. But his comedy was timeless and remains hysterical to this day. And his funniest bits were based on observation of the human condition.
Carlin also re-invented himself with the times. The comedy he did in the 60s was entirely different from the comedy he did in the 90s.
Jerry Seinfeld is still doing the same comedy he did in the 80s.
Carlin was vulgar, but he never punched down. I firmly believe his comedy would be as accepted today as it was when he made it.
Carlin was good at what he did but he absolutely did punch down, just not at a specific person. The overarching message for a lot of his comedy was "You know you're all being screwed over and maybe you have a hard time doing anything about it, but you deserve it because you're stupid." It's just such a popular sentiment to call everyone else in society stupid, while excluding oneself, that I guess few people notice those undertones and their implications.
Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, and Jim Carrey all seemed like they had really good specials. I haven't watched them in a long time, but I don't recall them being edge lords. I'm sure there have to be others.
Eddie Murphy can be funny, but there's a ton of homophobic and other problematic content in Raw and Delirious.
If you want to keep happy memories, never rewatch a comedy special older than 10 years. It's incredible how fast most jokes age.
I think there are some big exceptions. For example- Robin Williams at the Met was an amazing show and is still extremely funny.
Is George Carlin considered an edgelord?
He was, back in the day, his anti-authoritarian bent was pretty edgy then
Tangentially: I tried getting into him a few years ago and it seemed tame and nothing I hadn’t heard before from so many other comedians. Then I realized that he was the vanguard of that style of comedy and of course it’s going to sound like retrodden ground if I’d heard all the people he’d influenced before I listened to him.
I find it funny that everyone assumed they walked out over Gaza, while I assumed it was because Jerry Seinfeld isn't funny.
