Has cancel culture killed comedy? A veteran comic disputes Jerry Seinfeld’s view
Jerry Seinfeld can often sound like the older guy complaining about the way things are, because that’s his act. He owns it.
As such it should have been no surprise when amid his flood of interviews to promote his new feature length film, “Unfrosted” for Netflix earlier this month, he complained about the state of professional comedy.
In a now viral interview he did with The New Yorker, Seinfeld lamented, “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, ‘MASH’ is on. Oh, ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ is on. ‘All in the Family’ is on.’
“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.”
Some of this is accurate. Some. Television shows such as “All in the Family” and movies such as “Blazing Saddles” would have a hard time finding a major platform. Even some specifics episodes of “Seinfeld,” which aired from 1989 to 1998, would not make today to NBC. Or CBS. Or ABC. Fox.
Because when Seinfeld rhetorically asks, “Where is it?” the answer is everywhere else.
You will notice that there are 8 billion other “channels” that did not exist when “Seinfeld” was the No. 1 show. The type of comedy that Seinfeld laments has been killed by “cancel culture” is a myth.
“All of us have so many different platforms now. For so long it was just three channels. Now, what these networks think may not good can be on somewhere else,” said veteran comic Donnell Rawlings, who was a regular contributor to “Chappelle’s Show,” and has been in Hollywood for decades as a working comic playing clubs, and acting in TV and movies.
He is scheduled to play the Arlington Improv from May 10 to 12. The man has been around and around to see what’s what.
“I feel there is some truth to what (Seinfeld) is saying, but the real top notch guys figure out a way to stay relevant,” he said. “The guys who are faking it aren’t there for the right reasons.”
Because there is an audience.
If you think comedy has really been crippled by a PC movement, find clips of “The Roast of Tom Brady.” Unless the topic was the owner of the New England Patriots and the massage Robert Kraft famously received, nothing was off limits. Race, gender, appearances, religion, all of it was on the table.
If you think comedy has been crippled by extreme political views whose cries scare networks, turn on an episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” the show created by Rob McElhenney doesn’t just push an envelope but destroys it.
If you think comedy has been crippled by “cancel culture,” find any one of the episodes of the HBO show, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” a wildly successful program created by Larry David. David is the man who co-created ... ”Seinfeld.”
If you think comedy has been crippled by “wokeness,” explain Dave Chappelle, who has no problem making cutting observations about any community.
“That is a special person who can do that; he can upset an entire community and still sell out arenas anywhere in the world,” Rawlings said. “He is a special case, but other guys can have the same integrity and true to who they are.”
That would be Bill Burr, who takes delight in having fun ridiculing women in his act. Or even Nikki Glaser, a veteran comic who is white-hot now after the roast of Tom Brady.
What Seinfeld sounds like is a 70-year-old man who thinks the world was better when he was younger. He is not the first, nor the last, 70-year-old person to yearn for things to go back to the way they were.
The type of comedy Seinfeld wants, unrestricted and free from fear, exists. All one has to do is pick up their phone to find it.
“I used to do radio, and I found whatever stipulation they have on you there is a way around it. There is always a way to get your message out,” Rawlings said. “I am never going to compromise my integrity so you can get certain rules, and find the way around them.
“It does not mean you are selling your soul. I had friends who were extra raw on stage, and they had to make adjustments. Look at Bob Saget. He was America’s Dad (on the TV show, ‘Full House’). Put him on stage, and you would be like, ‘What the hell is he doing and who is this guy?’”
Bob Saget was a comic first, an actor second. As an actor on the TV show, he was the charming family-man dad. On stage, he was a savagely foul-mouthed comic.
On stage, he did what comics do. They find the line, and go for it.
That’s what comedy does, and still does.
There is still a massive market for all sorts of comedy; we just don’t have to wait til 8 p.m. on Thursday to watch it.
