Jerry Seinfeld gets brutally honest about what ruined comedy television: 'Extreme left and PC crap'

Legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld thinks he knows what ruined television comedies.

Seinfeld — co-creator and star of "Seinfeld," which is regarded as one of the best sitcoms of all time — told the New Yorker in an interview that political correctness and the "extreme left" ruined comedic television.

"Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it. They need it so badly and they don’t get it," Seinfeld said.

"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. 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.' Well, guess what — where is it?" he continued.

"This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people," Seinfeld declared.

If progressivism ruined TV comedy, then Seinfeld believes the same forces are behind the renaissance of stand-up comedy.

"Now they’re going to see stand-up comics because we are not policed by anyone," Seinfeld, himself a stand-up comedian, observed. "The audience polices us. We know when we’re off track. We know instantly and we adjust to it instantly."

That is the key difference between stand-up comedy and TV, he explained: Whereas a stand-up comedian gets direct feedback from the audience, Hollywood writers, directors, and producers control scripts. And through the production process, someone somewhere is bound to be offended by certain jokes.

The irony, Seinfeld said, is that networks like HBO understand people like the "offensive" material.

"But they’re not smart enough to figure out, 'How do we do this now? Do we take the heat, or just not be funny?'" he explained. "And what they’ve decided to be is, 'Well, we’re not going to do comedies any more.'"

Fortunately, Seinfeld believes there is a "slight movement" away from the PC-heavy culture that has dominated entertainment for the greater part of the past two decades.

"With certain comedians now, people are having fun with them stepping over the line and us all laughing about it," he said. "But, again, it’s the stand-ups that really have the freedom to do it because no one else gets the blame if it doesn’t go down well. He or she can take all the blame themself."

Seinfeld is trying to bring legitimate comedy back to television. His newest film, "Unfrosted," a story about the origins of the Pop-Tart, will e released on May 3.

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