On February 3 comedian Jerry Seinfeld noted in an interview that comedians shouldn’t craft comedy solely through the lens of race, sexuality, or gender. Funny should be the goal, not agendas. But Gawker.com decided to turn Seinfeld into a racist, calling him a “maker of comedy for and about white people.”
In response, comedian Jon Lovitz had a few choice words for the site’s attack on Seinfeld.
Seinfeld was asked why so few people of color appeared on his online series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and the star criticized the idea that comedy should have some sort of racial leveling. “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,” he said.
Naturally, Gawker immediately attempted to turn Seinfeld into a racist. The site’s article claimed Seinfeld doesn’t care about diversity and demeaned the work of black comics like Richard Pryor with his thoughts.
He seems to suggest that any comedian who is not a white male is also not funny, though he’s also likely fed up with the amount of bad comedy he’s been forced to sit through in his (waning) career.
But, Seinfeld didn’t say anything at all about preventing comedy from being “diverse” or disliking the work of comic giants like Pryor. He said that if your sole purpose is to focus your comedy only through the “PC nonsense” of race, gender or sexuality you are being “anti-comedy.”
Seinfeld was clearly talking about agendas ruining comedy. He was not saying that only white people should be comedians.
Responding to Seinfeld’s point and criticizing Gawker for taking his friend out of context, comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member Jon Lovitz went to Twitter in disgust.
On February 6, Lovitz Tweeted, “The guy at @Gawker who twisted @JerrySeinfeld answer and called him racist wants to make a name for himself. That name is f**king idiot.”
This isn’t the first time Lovitz has explored politically charged subjects. He has been quite outspoken on Twitter and back in 2012 even got himself in trouble with President Barack Obama devotees when he slammed the Commander in Chief for saying the rich don’t pay their “fair share” of taxes. After that episode, Lovitz says liberals flooded him with death threats for speaking his mind.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.