Julia Louis-Dreyfus Just Shared Her Thoughts on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comments & It’s Major Green Flag
Over the years, comedy has changed in more ways than one. Not only are the stories more diverse, with points of view that highlight the plethora of human life, but the jokes have hopefully reached a point that they’re funny, without ever being offensive.
And while those are all great strides for many people, Jerry Seinfeld made it clear in April that he wasn’t a big fan. “Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it. They need it so badly and they don’t get it,” Seinfeld told The New Yorker. “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 [politically correct] c–, and people worrying so much about offending other people.”
“Now they’re going to see standup comics because we are not policed by anyone. The audience polices us. We know when we’re off track,” Seinfeld continued. “We know instantly and we adjust to it instantly. But when you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committees, groups— ‘Here’s our thought about this joke.’ Well, that’s the end of your comedy.”
Most recently, Seinfeld’s former co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus shared her thoughts on his controversial comments.
“If you look back on comedy and drama both, let’s say 30 years ago, through the lens of today, you might find bits and pieces that don’t age well,” Louis-Dreyfus said in an interview with The New York Times. “And I think to have an antenna about sensitivities is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean that all comedy goes out the window as a result.”
“When I hear people starting to complain about political correctness — and I understand why people might push back on it — but to me, that’s a red flag, because it sometimes means something else,” the Veep star added, giving us all a sigh of relief. “I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing. I don’t know how else to say it.”
A few days after the first instance, Louis-Dreyfus reconnected with the writer, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, and clarified her thoughts even further.
“My feeling about all of it is that political correctness, insofar as it equates to tolerance, is obviously fantastic,” she added. “And of course I reserve the right to boo anyone who says anything that offends me, while also respecting their right to free speech, right? But the bigger problem — and I think the true threat to art and the creation of art — is the consolidation of money and power. All this siloing of studios and outlets and streamers and distributors — I don’t think it’s good for the creative voice. So that’s what I want to say in terms of the threat to art.”
Therefore, while Louis-Dreyfus may not be the biggest fan of how comedy is being produced and redirected today, she’s not blaming that on “P.C. c–.”
“I just know that the lens through which we create art today — and I’m not going to just specify it to comedy, it’s also drama — it’s a different lens,” she explained. “It really is. Even classically wonderful, indisputably great films from the past are riddled with attitudes that today would not be acceptable. So I think it’s just good to be vigilant.”
“I mean, pretend this show, your show, The Interview, was being made 40 years ago,” Louis-Dreyfus told the journalist. “I would posit that diversity would not be something you would be considering in terms of the guests that you would bring to the show. So that’s interesting, isn’t it? I mean, things have shifted. And in that case, I would say, things have shifted very much for the good.” Talk about a green flag!
Before you go, click here to see our favorite rom-coms where the main couple isn’t white.
