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Seinfeld slams woke student audiences: “Back when I dated high school girls, they found me hilarious!” (www.thebeaverton.com)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by ZeroCool@vger.social to c/theonion@midwest.social
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HOLLYWOOD – With his Netflix comedy film Unfrosted debuting to abysmal reviews, 70-year-old comedian Jerry Seinfeld blames the failure on “extreme left, and PC college campus audiences”, unlike in his heyday, when the teenage girls he dated were fans of his comedy.

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[-] stinerman@midwest.social 84 points 6 months ago

The thing about Seinfeld and other comedians who aren't as popular anymore is that they blame the audience for not liking their material. Tastes change over time. The comedian either needs to change their act or live with the consequences that people aren't going to like their material as much.

Rodney Dangerfield was a great comic for his time. If someone tried to tell the same jokes today, I don't think he'd get very far. That's not the fault of the audience. It's the fault of the comedian. No one owes you a laugh.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 20 points 6 months ago

Rodney Dangerfield was a great comic for his time. If someone tried to tell the same jokes today, I don't think he'd get very far.

No respect then, no respect now. 😔

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

"My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. He said okay, you're ugly too."

[-] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 12 points 6 months ago

I don't mean to undermine the point, which I agree with, but I did see a meme the other day which recycled a Dangerfield joke. (The one in which a girl told him to come over, that there was nobody home.)

[-] showmeyourkizinti@startrek.website 21 points 6 months ago

That was a legit funny joke. Dangerfield’s stuff was pretty good and a lot of it still stands up today because he was usually punching up. His shtick was always “I don’t get no respect” but always because he was schulb not because the others were wrong.

[-] BurningRiver@beehaw.org 9 points 6 months ago

I’m 45 years old and grew up during the Seinfeld heyday. He wasn’t funny in the 90s and isn’t funny now. George Carlin is someone who made sense in the 70s and made sense until the day he died. Rob Reiner, Mel Brooks - guys I think that are amazing and funny whose work still holds up today. Jerry Seinfeld was a guy who failed upward.

[-] pdxfed@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

Poor fucking Rodney out here catching strays.

Nah, he'd agree, he had a sense of humor and would be the first person to know when something fell flat as he was full of empathy, comic 101

[-] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

"Eyy I don't get noh respect...!"

- "boomers"

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago

Dangerfield is a good one to point out. With him, it's not just the jokes, but the delivery. And he could freestyle like a mad man!

He owned that schtick. No one will ever be able to do it again.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Dangerfield was all about self-deprecation. That's like one of the most popular attitudes of the current generation. I think Dangerfield would find a welcoming audience today. He'd probably have to tweak his material when referencing women, but otherwise he'd nail it.

[-] stinerman@midwest.social 2 points 6 months ago

I probably used a bad example. I like his comedy, but you hear it and it's immediately dates itself. It's the same when you see a old 70s Friar's Club roast vs a Comedy Central one. The jokes are still funny but trying to take that sensibility and make relevant today would be difficult.

[-] snownyte@kbin.social 55 points 6 months ago

I've been hearing about this guy on the radio and how he's complaining about wokeism and the challenges of comedy that has to do it.

Nobody ever found you funny, Jerry. And if you think you were the star of the show named after you? There were more characters better than you on there.

[-] stembolts@programming.dev 32 points 6 months ago

The worst thing I can say about Jerry Seinfeld is that he appeals to the widest American audience.
Like the Big Bang Theory.

Wait, do Lemmites dislike TBBT, sometimes I forget this isn't reddit. It feels more active every day for me it has surpassed reddit. Didn't take long.

[-] Skua@kbin.social 31 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I'm technically not on lemmy but I will enthusiastically throw my vote behind the TBBT-is-shit cause

To be honest though it's still just a shit TV show. There are plenty of those around. It's not woth giving them much thought

[-] Phen@lemmy.eco.br 16 points 6 months ago

I particularly don't find TBBT to be worse than the average show of its kind.

[-] stembolts@programming.dev 2 points 6 months ago

Yeah, it's a bit of a meme I just lean into.
Psst, I actually like it, but don't let anyone know.
I'd be arrested and kicked off lemmy.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

I try not to think of TBBT, but just about any show with a laugh track isn't actually funny.

Did you know the British airing of MASH didn't have a laugh track cause the brits find it weird and it was forced on the writers by the executives. A laugh track was almost forced on The Simpsons as well.

[-] SatyrSack@lemmy.one 2 points 6 months ago

Did you know the British airing of MASH didn't have a laugh track cause the brits find it weird

Interesting, as IT Crowd is one of the very few British comedies I have ever seen, and it has a laugh track.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Different eras of tv I guess.

[-] Sizzler@slrpnk.net 1 points 6 months ago

IT Crowd had a live audience. The laughter is real.

[-] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

A laugh track on The Simpson would help me know when to laugh too.

[-] Default_Defect@midwest.social 4 points 6 months ago

I'd have a lot less of an issue with TBBT if people I know didn't expect me to like it because I'm "a nerd" (I wear glasses and know how to use a computer). Also its just not very good.

[-] circuscritic@lemmy.ca 31 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The show was funny because Larry David is a cantankerous curmudgeon who's afflictions just happen to be a hilarious source of comedy material for him to write with. Also, the strength of Seinfeld's costars let them carry the shows comedic acting and timing.

The show is funny in spite of Seinfeld, not because of him. The fact that he insisted on doing those god-awful stand-up bits on every episode is all the proof you'll ever need about that.

[-] JamesTBagg@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

I did enjoy his show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. The cars were often gorgeous or interesting, and the guests often interesting and entertaining. Plus, I think I just enjoyed the premise, two friends going out and chat chitting over some coffee... something us regular folk find ourselves doing. More palatable then the structured sit down style interviews.

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 6 points 6 months ago

The thing that made that show good was the guests tho, it could've been any other guy asking the questions and it should be fine.

[-] Nobody@lemmy.world 22 points 6 months ago

What is the DEAL with irrelevant comedians attacking basic decency for one last bit of the spotlight?

And have you ever had airline food…?

[-] darkpanda@lemmy.ca 16 points 6 months ago

‘Member when Bobcat Goldthwait did the Montreal Just for Laughs festival in 1994? Every Canadian who had a cable package growing up ‘members.

[-] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 13 points 6 months ago

Bruv, The Onion is pulling their headlines out of Lemmy comments now?

[-] ZeroCool@vger.social 7 points 6 months ago

It's The Beaverton, bruv.

[-] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 months ago

Oh, true, only checked the community, not the link.

[-] ZeroCool@vger.social 4 points 6 months ago

Yeah, I know.

[-] BurningRiver@beehaw.org 10 points 6 months ago

Breaking News: guy who started a show “about nothing” 35 years ago is flummoxed that people still don’t find his jokes funny two generations later.

[-] UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

George Carlin is still relevant

[-] meat_banker@sh.itjust.works 8 points 6 months ago

To be fair, woke is some humorless braindead junk.

[-] livus@kbin.social 51 points 6 months ago

What does "woke" even mean in this context?

It seems to have turned into boomer slang for "social oopinions I don't understand".

[-] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 27 points 6 months ago

Woke is when girl or gay or black or fire hydrants or any number of other things that conservatives hate that I'm not going to elaborate on.

And the less (see list above) it is, the more funny it is.

[-] myrrh@ttrpg.network 3 points 6 months ago

...fundamentally it's just an assertive paradigm shift toward empathy and compassion...

[-] distantsounds@lemmy.world 21 points 6 months ago

Humorless yes, but not braindead junk, it’s almost the opposite of being braindead.

[-] winterayars@sh.itjust.works 8 points 6 months ago

People out there like "Okay but if you think about it isn't taking the red pill humorless and braindead"

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 14 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

"Woke" is humorless because it's not trying to be funny. It's just being considered for other people. I've don't think I've ever seen something being sold as a "woke comedy night".

The things I've seen sold as "conservative comedy" is just some authority figure confidently and smugly confirming the audience's preconceived notions. Real humor sets up an expectation, then subverts it.

[-] some_designer_dude@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

“What’s the deal with inequality?”

[-] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

We hate woke but we hate sleepy joe too.

Are we ever happy?

[-] TubeTalkerX@kbin.social 7 points 6 months ago

Howard Sten made a video back in the day.

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The balls on this guy

[-] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 3 points 6 months ago

That's honestly a pretty funny line, I gotta hive him that

[-] TammyTobacco@lemmy.ml 8 points 6 months ago

It's an article from The Onion

[-] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah it seems to be sorta like a Canadian version of The Onion. That's disappointing, would've been funnier if it was real.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Eh.

this post was submitted on 04 May 2024
442 points (100.0% liked)

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