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https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-is-wokeness-killing-comedy-or-are-ageing-comedians-crying-wolf-234364>
"In late April, comedian Jerry Seinfeld went on the
New Yorker Radio Hour and
re-opened the debate that refuses to die. While spruiking his debut film,
Unfrosted, Seinfeld went on a tangent about how, he believes, political
correctness has ruined comedy:
It used to be you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go,
‘Oh, Cheers is on, oh, M*A*S*H is on, Mary Tyler Moore is on, All in
the Family is on.’ You just expect that, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we
can watch on TV tonight.’ Guess what? Where is it? Where is it? This is the
result of the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about
offending other people.
This is not the first time Seinfeld has made a similar claim. In 2015, he said
he wouldn’t do stand-up gigs on college campuses because “they’re so PC”. And
he’s far from alone in thinking comedy is under attack. Bill Burr, Chris Rock,
John Cleese, Sarah Silverman and Bill Maher are among the many famous comedians
to declare that some combination of political correctness, cancel culture and
wokeness is killing comedy.
But while such claims make for flashy headlines, actual evidence for comedy’s
demise is scarce. In this latest example, Seinfeld blames the dearth of funny
TV on hand-wringing producers desperate to avoid offending progressive
audiences:
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.
Yet when his interviewer, David Remnick, pressed Seinfeld by asking “have you
had that experience?”, he had to admit, “no”.
So is there any truth to claims that modern sensitivities are strangling
comedians’ ability to be funny? Or are ageing comedians just crying wolf when
people stop laughing at their dated material?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
