Jerry Seinfeld's criticism of political correctness in comedy has made the rounds in the past week since appearing on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. He told the ESPN host comedy has been hurt by the fear of offending someone before telling an anecdote about his 14-year-old daughter:
My wife says to her, 'Well, you know, in the next couple of years, I think maybe you’re going to want to hang around the city more on the weekends so you can see boys.' You know, my daughter says, 'That’s sexist.' They just want to use these words. 'That’s racist. That’s sexist. That’s prejudice.' They don’t even know what they’re talking about.”
Some have taken offense to Seinfeld's comments, but you know he isn't going to back down. He explained himself further to Seth Meyers last night (while hijacking poor David Remnick's interview), sharing a specific joke that's fallen flat as political correctness has spread. In the bit he lampoons the ubiquity of cell phone usage and compares the motions to the gestures of a "gay, French King." The stereotypical "flourishing motion" is crucial to the joke, but Seinfeld says he's felt audiences turn away from it. "There’s a creepy PC thing out there that really bothers me," he said.
Watch the interview above.
