Jerry Seinfeld corrects himself surprisingly well

Who among us hasn’t put our feet in our mouths from time to time? You stroke someone’s belly, ask when the baby is due and it turns out there is no baby. Maybe you asked an older man how old his daughter is and it turned out she was his date. Let’s not forget what everyone did: call the teacher “Mom.” There are probably examples of putting the foot in the mouth that don’t come from sitcoms, but these seemed more appropriate if I’m going to talk about Jerry Seinfeld.

You know him. You may not think of him one way or another, but Jerry Seinfeld is one of the most recognizable comedians in the world. After making his mark in the stand-up comedy world, he had a successful sitcom. After the sitcom, he made a CG animated film about a bee and Ray Liotta (don’t quote me on that because it sounds insane). Years later, Jerry started driving people, mainly comedians, around in cars and getting coffee with them. Then he had another idea.

Seinfeld reunites with the writers of Bee movie (Spike Feresten, Andy Robin and Barry Marder) and wrote a film about the origins of the Pop Tart. You know, but funny! It was released on Netflix this year and hoo boy, it didn’t go over well with critics or movie buffs. Joker 2 isn’t the only film this year with good reviews and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes!

At the time of Immature‘s release, Jerry preemptively jumped on the bad reviews by taking big shots at the comedy scene. He claimed the ‘far left’ was damaging comedy and complained about ‘PC Crap’. Now, in a truly surprising move, Seinfeld is retracting those claims. “I said that the ‘far left’ has suppressed the art of comedy. I said that. That is not true,” he said Seinfeld star explained on Tom Papa’s Break bread podcast.

In addition to correcting his previous comments, Seinfeld goes on to provide a pretty solid explanation for how comedy is changing. “If you’re Lindsay Vonn, if you’re a champion skier, you can put the gates on the mountain wherever you want, and she’s going to make the gate. That’s comedy. Whatever the culture, we create the gateway. If you don’t make it to 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’s not done yet! Once again, I’m shocked that Seinfeld would go so far in correcting itself about anything, let alone something like comedy. Few people need you to know that they know comedy like Jerry Seinfeld. Yet here he admits that he was wrong. “Is the culture changing, and are there things 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 must be 100 times finer than that, just to be a comedian… So I don’t think, as I said, that ‘far left’ has done anything to hinder the art of comedy . I now officially take that back.”

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 when they say things 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.