Jerry Seinfeld Corrects Himself Surprisingly Well

Who among us hasn’t put our feet in our mouths on occasion? You pat someone’s belly, asking when the baby is due and it turns out there is no baby. Maybe you’ve asked an older man how old his daughter is and it turns out she’s his date. Let’s not forget the thing everyone has done: call the teacher “Mom.” There are likely examples of putting one’s foot in one’s mouth that aren’t ripped from sitcoms, but these felt more appropriate if I’m going to talk about Jerry Seinfeld.

You know him. You may not feel one way or the other about him, but Jerry Seinfeld is one of the most recognizable comedians in the world. After making his bones in the stand-up comedy world, he had a hit sitcom. After the sitcom, he made a CG animated movie about a bee and Ray Liotta (don’t quote me on that cause it sounds insane). Years later, Jerry would begin driving people, mostly comedians, around in cars and getting coffee with them. Then, he got another idea.

Seinfeld reunited with the writers of Bee Movie (Spike Feresten, Andy Robin, and Barry Marder) and wrote a movie about the origin of the Pop Tart. Ya know, but funny! It was released on Netflix this year and hoo boy, it did not hit well with critics or movie lovers. Joker 2 isn’t the only movie from this year with close critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes!

At the time of Unfrosted’s release, Jerry preemptively jumped in front of the bad reviews by taking shots at the comedy scene writ large. He claimed that the “extreme left” were hurting comedy and complained about “P.C. Crap.” Now, in a genuinely surprising move, Seinfeld is walking back those claims. “I said that the ‘extreme left’ has suppressed the art of comedy. I did say that. That’s not true,” the Seinfeld star explained on Tom Papa’s Breaking Bread podcast.

In addition to correcting his former remarks, Seinfeld goes on to give a pretty solid explanation for how comedy changes. “If you’re Lindsay Vonn, if you’re a champion skier, you can put the gates anywhere you want on the mountain and she’s going to make the gate. That’s comedy. Whatever the culture is, we make the gate. You don’t make the gate, you’re out of the game. The game is ‘where is the gate and how do I make the gate to get down the hill?’,” Seinfeld said.

But he ain’t done! Again, I’m shocked that Seinfeld would go this far in correcting himself about anything, much less something like comedy. Few people need you to know they know comedy like Jerry Seinfeld does. Still, here, he admits he was wrong. “Does culture change, and are there things that I use to say that [I can’t because] people are always moving [the gate]? Yes, but that’s the biggest and easiest target. You can’t say certain words, whatever they are, about groups. So what? The accuracy of your observation has to be 100 times finer than that just to be a comedian… So I don’t think, as I said, the ‘extreme left’ has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy. I’m taking that back now, officially.”

It’s not an apology, but it’s more than I would expect! I’m all for people trying to get back into good graces if they’re saying stuff like this out loud. This is the right kind of message, and people in Seinfeld’s position should be sending it. In other words, be more like Julia Louis-Dreyfus.