Jerry Seinfeld ‘regrets’ saying that the ‘extreme left’ ruined comedy: ‘It’s not true’

Jerry Seinfeld is walking back comments he made about the “extreme left” ruining comedy during an interview with The New Yorker earlier this year.

In a new interview on the podcast “Breaking Bread with Tom Papa,” Seinfeld said, “I did an interview with The New Yorker, and I said that the extreme left has suppressed the art of comedy. I did say that. That’s not true. It’s not true.”

He continued, “I don’t think, as I said, ‘the extreme left’ has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy. ... I’m taking that back officially.”

Jerry Seinfeld quote on ‘extreme left’

While promoting his Poptarts comedy movie, “Unfrosted,” Seinfeld made an appearance on The New Yorker Radio Hour.

Seinfeld said that “woke culture is pushing audiences away from television and toward stand-up comedy because stand-up is ‘not policed by anyone,’” as the Deseret News reported at the time.

Seinfeld suggested that TV used to be funny — but because of woke culture, it isn’t anymore.

“It used to be you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, ‘Cheers’ is on. Oh, ‘M*A*S*H’ is on,” he said at the time. “Oh, ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ is on. ‘All in the Family’ is on.’ You just expected there’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight . ”

He continued, “This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.”

Seinfeld’s comments created discourse online about wokeness in comedy.

Even Julia Louis-Dreyfus, his fellow “Seinfeld” star, weighed in at the time.

“And I think to have an antenna about sensitivities is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean that all comedy goes out the window as a result,” she told The New York Times . “When I hear people starting to complain about political correctness — and I understand why people might push back on it — but to me that’s a red flag, because it sometimes means something else.”

Louis-Dreyfus continued, “I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing.”

Jerry Seinfeld says ‘whatever the culture is, we make the gate’

Now, Seinfeld says he recognizes that culture is always changing — and it’s a comedian’s job to adjust accordingly.

“Does culture change, and are there things I used to say that I can’t say (because) everybody’s always moving (the gate)? Yeah, but that’s the biggest, easiest target,” he explained on the “Breaking Bread” podcast.

He continued, “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, to just be a comedian.”

“Whatever the culture is, we make the gate,” Seinfeld concluded. “You don’t make the gate, you’re out of the game.”