Actor and comedian Jerry Seinfeld believes that some of his old jokes from his hit popular show, Seinfeld, have not aged well and that they won’t fly in current times.
In an interview, the 70-year-old Seinfeld alum discussed how the current political climate has restricted the creative process for many comedians on television. Seinfeld said that "most people" would go home at the end of the day to watch comedy on television.
"You just expected there'd 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 PC. crap and people worrying so much about offending other people," he said. Seinfeld said that the public has now flocked to stand-up comics "because we are not policed by anyone.” He added that it's the audience that polices them.
He also stated, "We know when we’re off track. 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."
When asked whether the same applies to his Seinfeld co-creator Larry David and his HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld suggested that "Larry was grandfathered in.".
"He’s old enough so that -- 'I don’t have to observe those rules, because I started before you made those rules'," Seinfeld remarked.
As an example, the comedian recalled an episode of Seinfeld with a storyline that might not fly today, saying, "We did an episode of the series in the nineties where Kramer decides to start a business of having homeless people pull rickshaws because, as he says, 'They’re outside anyway.' Do you think I could get that episode on the air today?"
"We would write a different joke with Kramer and the rickshaw today. We wouldn’t do that joke. We’d come up with another joke," he added.