Jerry Seinfeld recently appeared on The New Yorker Radio Hour, where he delivered an out-of-touch take about comedy today.
Seinfeld, 70, claimed "the extreme left and PC crap" are to blame for the current state of comedy, suggesting people are "worrying so much about offending other people."
The comedian starts off by waxing poetic about a time that simply does not exist anymore.
"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's on,'" Seinfeld said. "You just expected, 'There'll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.' Well, guess what—where is it?"
The better question may be, what is linear television in 2024?
According to Statista, a projected 46.6 million U.S. households will move away from the traditional TV model this year, meaning fewer viewers are relying on television networks to dictate what they watch. More and more people are curating their daily viewing experience through streaming services.
These streamers do not have the same limitations as networks, since the latter must also deal with advertisers who could refuse to associate themselves with a "controversial" program by pulling ad dollars, which are already sparse due to the decline of linear television.
The comedian went on to bring up a "controversial" element from an episode of Seinfeld that he thinks would be considered unacceptable today.
"We did an episode of the show in the '90s where Kramer decides to start a business of having homeless people pull rickshaws because, as he says, 'They're outside anyway,'" he said. "Do you think I could get that episode on the air today?"
People were quick to point out that a sitcom like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia exists.
Another show that has not been afraid to wade into controversial waters was Curb Your Enthusiasm, which was created by Larry David, who co-created Seinfeld. Seinfeld also appeared in the series finale earlier this month.
