Here’s a 1995 Week headline for you: ’90s favorite Jerry Seinfeld recently gave an interview where he discussed political correctness on college campuses, a phenomenon that was big in the ’90s and has re-emerged in new, Tumblr-assisted form over the past couple of years. He even did so on the radio, a medium that no one has really cared about since the ’90s, which puts a big nostalgic bow on the whole thing.
Seinfeld made his comments while talking to ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd on Thursday, where the comedian appeared to promote the new season of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. Asked why he avoids performing on college campuses, Seinfeld tactfully avoided pointing out that Hulu just paid $180 million for the streaming rights for Seinfeld, so he doesn’t have to do much of anything if he doesn’t feel like it. Instead, he said, “I hear that all the time. I don’t play colleges, but I hear a lot of people tell me, ‘Don’t go near colleges. They’re so PC.’”
Seinfeld went on to suggest that maybe some of those kids eager to assist him in checking his privilege in complaining about airline food because some people can’t afford to fly, okay, aren’t using the terminology accurately. (“As if that’s his call to make”—the internet.) He did so in the form of an anecdote about his 14-year-old daughter:
My wife says to her, ‘Well, you know, in the next couple years, I think maybe you’re going to want to be hanging around the city more on the weekends, so you can see boys.’ You know what my daughter says? She says, ‘That’s sexist.’ They just want to use these words. ‘That’s racist.’ ‘That’s sexist.’ ‘That’s prejudiced.’ They don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.
Seinfeld went on to describe this sort of political climate as a detriment to comedy and praise Louis CK for “not worry[ing]” about political correctness.” However, don’t expect him to start a new career as a Fox News contributor any time soon: Seinfeld, who has never been known as a political comedian, isn’t planning on changing his approach. “I talk about the subjects I talk about because for some reason I can make them funny,” he said. “The ones I can’t make funny, you don’t hear.”