HOLLYWOOD – With his Netflix comedy film Unfrosted debuting to abysmal reviews, 70-year-old comedian Jerry Seinfeld blames the failure on “extreme left, and PC college campus audiences”, unlike in his heyday, when the teenage girls he dated were fans of his comedy.
The thing about Seinfeld and other comedians who aren’t as popular anymore is that they blame the audience for not liking their material. Tastes change over time. The comedian either needs to change their act or live with the consequences that people aren’t going to like their material as much.
Rodney Dangerfield was a great comic for his time. If someone tried to tell the same jokes today, I don’t think he’d get very far. That’s not the fault of the audience. It’s the fault of the comedian. No one owes you a laugh.
Dangerfield was all about self-deprecation. That’s like one of the most popular attitudes of the current generation. I think Dangerfield would find a welcoming audience today. He’d probably have to tweak his material when referencing women, but otherwise he’d nail it.
I probably used a bad example. I like his comedy, but you hear it and it’s immediately dates itself. It’s the same when you see a old 70s Friar’s Club roast vs a Comedy Central one. The jokes are still funny but trying to take that sensibility and make relevant today would be difficult.
I don’t mean to undermine the point, which I agree with, but I did see a meme the other day which recycled a Dangerfield joke. (The one in which a girl told him to come over, that there was nobody home.)
That was a legit funny joke. Dangerfield’s stuff was pretty good and a lot of it still stands up today because he was usually punching up. His shtick was always “I don’t get no respect” but always because he was schulb not because the others were wrong.
I’m 45 years old and grew up during the Seinfeld heyday. He wasn’t funny in the 90s and isn’t funny now. George Carlin is someone who made sense in the 70s and made sense until the day he died. Rob Reiner, Mel Brooks - guys I think that are amazing and funny whose work still holds up today. Jerry Seinfeld was a guy who failed upward.
“Woke” is humorless because it’s not trying to be funny. It’s just being considered for other people. I’ve don’t think I’ve ever seen something being sold as a “woke comedy night”.
The things I’ve seen sold as “conservative comedy” is just some authority figure confidently and smugly confirming the audience’s preconceived notions. Real humor sets up an expectation, then subverts it.
I've been hearing about this guy on the radio and how he's complaining about wokeism and the challenges of comedy that has to do it.
Nobody ever found you funny, Jerry. And if you think you were the star of the show named after you? There were more characters better than you on there.
I’d have a lot less of an issue with TBBT if people I know didn’t expect me to like it because I’m “a nerd” (I wear glasses and know how to use a computer). Also its just not very good.
I try not to think of TBBT, but just about any show with a laugh track isn’t actually funny.
Did you know the British airing of MASH didn’t have a laugh track cause the brits find it weird and it was forced on the writers by the executives. A laugh track was almost forced on The Simpsons as well.
I did enjoy his show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. The cars were often gorgeous or interesting, and the guests often interesting and entertaining. Plus, I think I just enjoyed the premise, two friends going out and chat chitting over some coffee… something us regular folk find ourselves doing. More palatable then the structured sit down style interviews.
The show was funny because Larry David is a cantankerous curmudgeon who’s afflictions just happen to be a hilarious source of comedy material for him to write with. Also, the strength of Seinfeld’s costars let them carry the shows comedic acting and timing.
The show is funny in spite of Seinfeld, not because of him. The fact that he insisted on doing those god-awful stand-up bits on every episode is all the proof you’ll ever need about that.
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