Jerry Seinfeld’s been in the news a lot lately. I spoke about it on stage and I thought I might also speak about it, more seriously, here.

First, let me give you the disclaimer. Jerry Seinfeld is a skilled and experienced comedian, working at a level most of us aspire to. I’ll never claim otherwise.

Also, he never makes the lists of comedians I don’t like or get. There’s comics I loathe and quite a few I think are over-rated bullshit, but I don’t count Seinfeld as among them. I have absolutely nothing against Jerry Seinfeld.

That said, I think his presence in the media lately has been… disappointing. I’m not even talking about the anti-Palestine stuff he’s been spouting on Twitter. He’s got his perspective and people generally believe that having lots of money makes someone’s perspective more relevant than other people’s. I don’t agree with him but we’re allowed to disagree, even if I’m poor.

I don’t even mean his comments about movies, though that was the focus of my bit the other night. Statistically you probably weren’t at Fresno Wine & Espresso Bar the other night so I’ll break it down.

He was whining about movies and Hollywood – specifically that people these days treat movies like worthless disposable streaming content, which they mostly are. He longed for a time when Hollywood meant something, that a movie was a meaningful event that people might discuss for hours afterwords.

He was saying this while promoting his latest movie, Unfrosted. Which is about Pop-Tarts. And is streaming on Netflix.

Not exactly the Citizen Kane of our generation, is it? Critics called it “one of the worst films of the decade.”

Maybe Jerry’s flexing and posturing in the media isn’t actually relevant to the shit he’s selling. It sure feels like that when he’s ranting and raving about how “Woke-ness is killing comedy.”

Given that he was pretty famous for his career-long policy to not “work blue” for decades, it looks like empty calories to me. Nobody, nobody, describes Jerry Seinfeld as an edgy comic. Nobody has ever silenced him (unless you count Mitzi Shore not giving him a break at The Comedy Store, but that was on the basis of just not liking him). Crying that he’s a victim of oppression or some kind of censorship might be the funniest thing he’s ever said.

Of course the actual headline used most places is “Jerry Seinfeld Calls Out Extreme Left: “Wokeness’ is Killing Comedy“which is what’s really going on here. It’s a dog-whistling appeal to right-wing nut-jobs for their allegiance, because fake conservative outrage gets a lot of mileage in the media.

Regardless of whether the claim is true, it’s not even relevant to him. Why the fuck are we hearing it from Jerry, of all people?

Is he fighting for the right to swear on stage? Nobody’s ever stopped him. Is he claiming that his views are suppressed in comedy shows? I mean, Pro-Palestine supporters booed at him and walked out from his Graduation speech at Duke University the other day, but that wasn’t comedy. And he wasn’t censored. He was challenged. Sadly, right-wing nut-jobs don’t seem to be able to tell the difference.

To my knowledge, Woke-ness has never impacted Jerry’s comedy career. He’s worth a Billion (with a B) bucks these days, built from a comedy career which he admits is about “nothing.” His show, aired freely to the mainstream masses, was about “nothing.”

I’ll give this to the extreme conservatives who crap on about this stuff all the time; At least they have convictions, however misguided.

Prior to his recent pro-Israeli comments, Jerry Seinfeld does not have convictions. Not having convictions has kinda been his shtick. Promoting his shitty Pop-Tarts film and his post-relevant comedy career with outrage about Woke-ness seems pretty fucking disingenuous.

So, leaving Jerry to his preferred topic of sugary toaster snacks, we are left with a question that might concern people who’s substance isn’t exceeded by style: Is Woke-ness killing comedy?

As a comedian, my allegiances are kinda with Jerry a little bit. We understand Benign Violation Theory and know that violating taboos, and showing you that they’re only taboos and not a real threat, is an essential ingredient for how comedy actually works.

We hate being called nasty things for trying to make you smile. We don’t equate being offended with being hate-crimed. We value the right to express opinions, even the ones we don’t agree with, just as we value the right to criticize those opinions. We know that jokes are essentially works of fiction, just as we know that the subject of the joke isn’t necessarily the target of the joke.

Most importantly, we’re very aware that most of the wowsers acting offended probably didn’t listen properly and usually doesn’t understand the joke they’re taking offense to, almost invariably inferring a meaning they inserted themselves – one they can score easy virtual points with.

Most comics are on the same page with that one. but is it Woke-ness?

Because I think what we mostly believe is that Cancel Culture – the attempt to try and ruin the life, credibility, career and social standing of someone we disagree with – is actually what’s killing comedy.

In fact (and I hope you’ll agree that this is a pretty uncontroversial point) any attempt to try and ruin the life, credibility, career and social standing of someone we disagree with is just fucking evil in any aspect of civilized society and always has been.

It’s documented as such throughout history, even in ancient Greek texts that have nothing to do with comedy. If you attempt to try and ruin the life, credibility, career and social standing of someone you disagree with, or support that sort of thing, you’re an evil piece of shit and need to have a serious word with yourself.

But is that Woke-ness? I don’t think so. Attacking someone, trying to really hurt their life, for a diverse opinion seems like the opposite of everything we regard as “woke.” We can argue all day about the meaning and origin of Woke… but I think we can all agree that attacking someone for their ideas at the level of their actual identity isn’t Woke.

You won’t find many comics who think that Cancel Culture is good for comedy, especially since it seems to have no statutes of limitation. You can say something perfectly reasonable that offends nobody around you, but in the distant future someone who isn’t even born yet can crucify you…. just by applying their era’s standards to your statements.

It’s not fair. And it’s not good for society or life. So it’s definitely not good for comedy.

Writing jokes – invoking an involuntary laughter response from a stranger in an original way – is hard. We all agree on that, right? Now, how much harder is it if you have to guess and account for all the things that might be offensive to strangers 50 years in the future? Impossible.

So, yeah. Cancel Culture is bad for comedy. That’s a no-brainer. Cancel Culture is a social killing machine and it’ll kill comedy if we let it.

Is Woke-ness killing comedy? I don’t think so.

I’m not an expert but I believe ‘Woke’ roughly aligns with sensitivity, empathy, being aware of institutional injustice, trying to be fair. Arguing that those things are the death of comedy is much, much harder to make an argument for. I mean, with Cancel Culture aggressively rampaging through the comedy scene like the loudest and most belligerent serial killer of all time, how does Woke even get a look-in?

The confusion comes from Cancel disguising itself as Woke. Also, people like Jerry fucking Seinfeld being unable to tell the difference. Not helpful, Jerry.

As a bloated bland inoffensive granny-pleasing middle-of-the-road mass-media purveyor of style-over-substance with absolutely ‘nothing‘ at your core, I don’t even know why you’ve inserted yourself into this debate, Jerry

But if you’re going to, and going to mouth off from platform that’s automatically granted to Billionaires for their wealth, at least learn the difference before you speak. It’s not that hard to tell the difference. Not for a man of your intellect, Jerry.

Fighting the wrong enemy is a tragedy. It’s even worse than standing for Nothing.

But maybe Doug Stanhope, one of those “edgy” comedians who really might actually have a valid case to complain about cancel culture, says it best about Jerry (it’s a couple of minutes into this track):