‘I miss dominant masculinity’: Jerry Seinfeld seeks to turn back the clock on gender roles

Jerry Seinfeld, a warrior against cancel culture in comedy, says he misses “mainstream masculinity,” while acknowledging he “gets the toxic thing.”

During an appearance on conservative commentator and journalist Bari Weiss’ podcast, Seinfeld said he “always wanted to be a real man,” citing examples of masculinity like JFK, Muhammad Ali, Sean Connery and Howard Cosell after Weiss joked that she “didn’t.” ask (their) pronouns.

The comedian concluded that he “never really grew up”, instead embracing the “childish pursuit” of comedy. The two then discussed what they saw as the challenges plaguing comedy in the modern era.

Regarding Weiss’ position that “censorship” had taken over comedy, Seinfeld argued that “hitting”, or attacking someone in a position of less power, is not real.

“Comedy is an extraordinarily simple binary outcome event. It’s funny? Or it doesn’t. Nobody really cares about anything else,” the “Seinfeld” creator said. “What we really hate is when someone does something that’s not that funny, and we don’t laugh, and now I’m going to criticize them.”

The comedian, who gave a commencement speech at Duke University’s graduation earlier this month, was heavily condemned for his support of Israel by a group of students, who left the institution in protest sign. He asked the students who stayed if it was worth “the sacrifice of occasional discomfort for a laugh,” according to the New York Times.

Further in the conversation with Weiss, Seinfeld also cited an “agreed hierarchy” as a factor in his nostalgia for the early 1960s, in which his film “Unfrosted” is set, castigating broader equality as a source of discomfort in the world. modern era.

“His (hierarchy) has completely vaporized right now,” the comic said. “I think that’s why people honk their horns and drive crazy, because we have no sense of hierarchy. And as humans, we don’t really feel comfortable like that.

Seinfeld, who said last month that the TV comedy’s ratings decline was due to “the far left, the PC c**p, and people who worry so much about offending other people,” said released “Unfrosted” earlier this year with a favorable rating of 43%. on the Rotten Tomatoes website.