The ongoing topic of diversity in comedy has led to significant changes in staffing on “Saturday Night Live,” and prompted various comedians to voice their opinions on the controversial debate.
Jerry Seinfeld is the latest to add his two cents to the conversation as he addressed critics on Monday during an interview on “BuzzFeed Brews with CBS This Morning.”
Similar to the backlash "SNL" faced last year, the 59-year-old award-winning actor has also faced scrutiny stemming from what many viewed as a lack of race and gender featured on his popular 90s series, “Seinfeld.”
“People think it’s the census or something,” he said. “This has gotta represent the actual pie chart of America? Who cares? Funny is the world that I live in. You’re funny, I’m interested. You’re not funny, I’m not interested. I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that..It’s more about PC nonsense than ‘Are you making us laugh or not?”
Seinfeld’s comment has already sparked a response from the comedy community. Specifically, Nicole Byer who penned an open letter on her personal Tumblr page.
YES JERRY YES! FINALLY! Diversity doesn’t matter in comedy or anywhere else in the world. The entertainment world shouldn’t reflect the real world.
What a f**king weird thing to say that you don’t care about diversity. Why wouldn’t you want to enrich your comedy by having a different point of view to make your comedy better? I think funny to Jerry is white… I think I would be less offended if he straight up just said I have white people on my web series because I like white people my comedy is for white people and I AM WHITE PEOPLE! Then put on his hood and yelled WHITE POWER and burned a cross on stage. JK if he did the last part I might be offended… but not really. Theres no shame in liking what you like. Like that Duck Dynasty dude saying he doesn’t like gays… well cool, now I never have to watch a show that I’ve never had an interest in watching. Know what I mean? This is the same… I’ve never seen a full episode of Seinfeld and I doubt I will… his funny isn’t my cup of vodka… and I cant seem to forgive his buddy for screaming the N word to an audience of people who paid to watch him “just be funny.”
Do you agree? Read more of Nicole Byer’s open letter here.
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