| Everything we can't stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
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Everything we can't stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
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Jerry Seinfeld is whining about the state of comedy again. I can't get over this Barbra Streisand snafu. Very important news about TV's greatest show. Challengers is more than just hot, OK?! Try to not stare at this photo for an hour.
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All week long, feathers have been ruffling, hives of bees were buzzing in bonnets, and a record numbers of bears were being poked, all while social media hosted unprecedented amounts of tizzies. "What's the deal?" you might say in response to that, which would be apropos considering that the source of the online hubbub is the maven of that catchphrase himself, Jerry Seinfeld. The comedian spoke to The New Yorker's David Remnick in an article published earlier this week. In the wide-ranging interview, he decried that there's a scarcity of good comedy on TV to comfort people after a day of ingesting the troubling news of the world. I'm impressed with the lengths Seinfeld went to prove his point, going so far as to direct, co-write, and star in Unfrosted, a tediously bland "comedic" take on the origin of the Pop-Tart, enlisting dozens of his industry friends to propagate this new age of unfunny.
But Unfrosted is not the source of the discourse surrounding Seinfeld's comments—it only premiered Friday on Netflix. It's what he blames for his observed comedy drought that's causing a stir.
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"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,'" he told The New Yorker. "You just expected, there'll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight. Well, guess what—where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people. Now they're going to see standup comics because we are not policed by anyone." There it is! Boomer comedian blames "extreme left" and "P.C. crap" for not being able to make edgy jokes anymore. If Tim Allen mentions "the woke mob" by the end of the day, I win this week's pop-culture Bingo. Seinfeld also cited storylines from Seinfeld and episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm that he thinks could not be made today because of politically correct preciousness.
Cauldrons of reactions bubbled over in predictable ways from respective corners of the internet. There were the eye rolls over yet another rant about how younger generations can't take a good joke, when maybe it's the talent themselves who aren't intelligent to evolve their comedy. The usual suspects—the deluded who believe that cancel culture is a thing that actually exists—rallied around their Jer Bear. "Make comedy legal again!" Elon Musk posted on X.
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Mostly, though, the exasperation with the whining is that the argument is demonstrably untrue. Abbott Elementary, Ghosts, and Young Sheldon are huge hits. Girls5Eva is hilarious. And an argument that edgy, provocative, politically incorrect comedy has gone extinct is laughably debunkable. The timing of Seinfeld's comments is wild when Curb, from one of Seinfeld's co-creators, is still receiving applause for its last season. Veep won roughly 400 Emmys, and it had scenes like this. The Righteous Gemstones thrives in the ribald.
Hacks returns this week, firing sharper, funnier, and naughtier than ever. Here's one of my favorite jokes from it:
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The Other Two was maybe the coolest show on TV when it aired, mostly because people couldn't stock enough beverages in their homes for the amount of spit-takes it elicited over its un-P.C. storylines, like this one: |
Then there's the long, popular runs of Family Guy (22 seasons), South Park (26 seasons), and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (16 seasons), which are still airing. Seinfeld mentioned a plot in which Kramer started a business where homeless people pulled rickshaws because "they're outside anyway" as something that wouldn't fly today. It's Always Sunny fans have taken to social media to raise Seinfeld's rickshaw with Sunny's Catholic priest-turned-drug-addicted-pimp, among myriad other storylines. Even co-creator Rob McElheney weighed in. |
Then there's the "seriously, this again?" of it all. Listen, I discovered today that the allergy medication I've been taking all week to combat my apparent physical hypersensitivity to "nice weather" and "being outside" expired in 2020. Perhaps the side effect of consuming is extreme bouts of deja vu. These complaints from veteran comedians seem to surface like cicadas with accelerated R.E.M. cycles, and the backlash is reliably the same: There's been no death of comedy. There's a bitterness over a new taste level that's popular, one that requires a modicum of evolution and effort to think a little differently.
What's personally amusing to me about Seinfeld's particular grievance is that the series he mentions as comedy comfort in the past—All in the Family and M*A*S*H—were known for being thorny and uncomfortable, actually. They challenged audiences' political sensibilities and social mores. Seinfeld, on the other hand, was a famously apolitical show, whereas current comedy series, from Abbott Elementary to It's Always Sunny, riff on things like race, gender, sexuality, and class in most episodes. I do empathize with Seinfeld and think everyone should read his full interview, because he has smart insight into how a modern comedian navigates the changing line of what is and isn't acceptable. To give grace where it's due: I'm often caught eliciting a heavy sigh when told what's not "OK" to say or joke about anymore. But the exhale isn't resignation; it makes room for a rejuvenation, the energy and thrill of making things smarter, better, and, because of that, funnier. There's no heroism in this. It's what the field of comedy is, and so many of the most successful people in the business do it all the time. I can imagine that, with those comments, Seinfeld thought he was swinging a wrecking ball at concrete walls that he feels have been built around freedom of comedy, but really was just firing a tiny BB gun at it. And, to his surprise, the pellets sailed right through anyway because, as the discussion this week proved, those walls are invisible. |
I've never felt more of a kinship with Barbra Streisand than when she accidentally commented on Melissa McCarthy's Instagram not realizing that everyone in the world could see. I am someone whose most commonly texted phrase is, "Oops! That was meant for someone else," because my brain is incapable of understanding that just because you have the thought of opening up a text chain with someone doesn't mean your phone actually does it—and I end up texting my last-messaged, now very confused contact instead. I have accidentally sent texts and Slacks talking shit about someone to the actual person so many times that I am surprised I still have friends, family, and am employed. So when Streisand commented on an Instagram photo of McCarthy with director Adam Shankman, "Give my regards did you take Ozempic?" I wasn't scandalized. I didn't ridicule. I sent empathy. |
Even better is the humorous stride with which McCarthy took this. First of all, if anyone saw a photo of me, let alone Barbra Streisand, and their first thought was to ask if I'm taking Ozempic, I'd be so flattered I would cry. I can't think of a higher compliment. I love how McCarthy responded: "The takeaway is Barbra Streisand knows I exist." |
How often is a celebrity "controversy" actually kind of sweet and fun? |
The Future Is Finally Bright |
The new season of And Just Like That is officially back in production, THANK GOD. In the months since Carrie Bradshaw and her girlies last unfurled their weekly batshit storylines and dialogue at our screens, the world has grown darker. The cosmos have been out of alignment. My body has started to decay.
But a balm has arrived, in the form of Sarah Jessica Parker posting a photo of the table read script for the Season 3 premiere, a sign that collective healing is about to begin.
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If that weren't enough, it's been revealed that Rosie O'Donnell is joining the cast. I am not exaggerating when I say that Rosie O'Donnell joining Season 3 of And Just Like That will save us all. |
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There are other things to talk about when it comes to Challengers besides how spectacularly horny it is, I swear. And now that I've calmed the carnal desire to make out with every single person I see that began the minute my screening of the movie ended, I can spotlight one undersung element: What a remarkable athletic feat it was on the part of the actors to pull off the tennis in this movie. Case in point: This photo of star Mike Faist. |
Let's face it: Never in the history of the act of stunning has anyone stunned more than Nicole Kidman stuns in this photo. |
More From The Daily Beast's Obsessed |
I wrote about Elisabeth Moss surviving the greatest challenge of her career: keeping me calm as an earthquake hit while I was interviewing her. Read more. The Challengers boys are making people horny for guys with big ears. Read more. The Idea of You is perfect, and this interview with writer Robinne Lee is a great read. Read more. |
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The Idea of You: I can't stress enough how great this rom-com is. (Now on Prime Video) The Fall Guy: Also, I can't stress enough how great this rom-com is. (Now in theaters) Hacks: And while I'm stressing how great things are: May I present to you the new season of Hacks? (Now on Max)
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