Stand-up comedians take their craft very seriously. If they didn’t, the fact that they (the ones lucky enough to do it for a living, anyway) really only work a couple of hours a day would just seem too unfair. That helps explain why they get so upset about hecklers, and also sets the tone of discussions about political correctness in comedy, a phenomenon some comedians say is an unacceptable shackling of their freedom of speech. Others think that it simply means comedians need to try to write jokes that don’t rely on worn-out stereotypes.
Jerry Seinfeld is in the former group, and after voicing his opinion about political correctness among college students on ESPN Radio last week, he continued to (TRIGGER WARNING: Metaphorical animal cruelty, clichés) beat a dead horse by discussing the topic further on Late Night With Seth Meyers last night. In the interview, Seinfeld says he doesn’t understand why people “keep moving the lines in for no reason,” specifically citing changing attitudes towards a bit (TRIGGER WARNING: 61-year-old complaining about cell phones) where he compares people scrolling through their smartphones to “gay French kings.”
“There’s a creepy PC thing out there that really bothers me,” Seinfeld adds. Here’s the full interview, which also features New Yorker editor David Remnick (TRIGGER WARNING: insincere laughter, Seth Meyers):