Jerry Seinfeld might be the most aggressively apolitical comedian of the modern era. Even when his landmark sitcom Seinfeld brushed up against politics—usually in the form of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine Benes taking a principled stand on something, before ultimately caving to the forces of total self-interest—it was always clear that the show’s guiding voice and star was more interested in observing human behavior and turning it into jokes, than he was in actual political ideas.
That’s something that’s been borne out pretty thoroughly by eight seasons of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, the Crackle series that boils Jerry Seinfeld’s life down to the three things in life he actually likes. (They’re the three nouns in the title, in case you’re keeping track.) Even when he sits down with a noted political commentator like The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver, Seinfeld keeps the conversation focused entirely on riffs and jokes, tossing around the word “crumpet” and talking about the life of the working comic. (Not that Oliver seems to mind, given how much silliness he obviously revels in on his HBO show.)
Other than noting that Oliver’s wife—a former military medic who signed up for the Army on the day after 9/11—really doesn’t like it when he refers to a bad stand-up gig as a “war zone,” the two stay off politics for almost the entirety of the episode’s ridiculous, hilarious run. But they do get onto the most Seinfeldian and ridiculous aspect of the current election cycle—the Republican candidate for president—in its final moments. (You can find it after the episode’s last commercial break, if you don’t feel like watching the whole thing.) Even here, though, it’s Donald Trump’s “big, squidgey body” and aptness as a stress ball, not his politics, that gets Seinfeld’s attention. All it takes is for Oliver to note that he’d “make a better stress ball than a president” for Seinfeld to declare—after a big, hearty laugh—“And we’re out.”