June 9, 2015 5:16 AM

Damned kids!!! Get off my lawn!!!

Speaking on ESPN Radio’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” on Thursday, Jerry Seinfeld weighed in on the issue of political correctness as it pertains to comedy. Asked by Cowherd if PC culture hurts comedy, Seinfeld responded definitively: “Yes, it does.”…. He went on: “I don’t play colleges but I hear a lot of people tell me, ‘Don’t go near colleges, they’re so pc.’ I’ll give you an example: My daughter’s 14. My wife says to her, ‘Well, you know, in the next couple of years, I think maybe you’re going to want to hang around the city more on the weekends so you can see boys.’ You know, my daughter says, ‘That’s sexist.’ They just want to use these words. ‘That’s racist. That’s sexist. That’s prejudice.’ They don’t even know what they’re talking about.”

Struggles between generations are nothing new. As long as there have been parents and children, there’s been a communication gap, where both sides are speaking different dialects, sometimes even different languages. I thought my parents had taken up residence in the Dark Ages, and I see the same thing in the children of friends. It’s a natural part of evolution- and while adults often become set in their way of thinking, children grow up like flowers, their petals pointing towards the sun and taking in as much as they can. Parents soon discover that their little angel is an independent human being, capable of making their own choices and formulating their own opinions. The problem with that, of course, is that sometimes children make different decisions than their parents might. That could be as much inexperience as it is the product of a different view of the world, but their unique, self-contained, independent persons learning to make their way in the world. The concerns voiced by Jerry Seinfeld are similar to ones voiced by most every adult at some point in time.

Seinfeld’s not off-base by any means. There are times when I think the PC trend has gone off the rails. It can seem as if people are so tightly wound that they’re predisposed to being offended at a moment’s notice. When you assume the worst, it’s not going to be difficult to find. Likewise, if you’re prone to parsing words and actions through a PC filter, the odds are good that you’ll come across something that will offend you and/or raise your ire.

This isn’t the first time Seinfeld has expressed his frustration with political correctness. Responding to criticisms about the lack of diversity on his show “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” last year, Seinfeld said: “This really pisses me off. People think it’s the census or something, it’s gotta represent the actual pie chart of America. Who cares?… I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that. To me, it’s anti-comedy. It’s more about PC nonsense, than are you making us laugh or not.”

Of course, Seinfeld isn’t alone. In recent years, many comedians have spoken out about how increased audience sensitivity — particularly on college campuses — is harmful to comedic freedom. Chris Rock, speaking to New York Magazine last year, echoed similar sentiments saying that he has stopped playing colleges because they are too conservative “in their social views and their willingness not to offend anybody. Kids raised on a culture of ‘We’re not going to keep score in the game because we don’t want anybody to lose.’ Or just ignoring race to a fault. You can’t say ‘the black kid over there.’ No, it’s ‘the guy with the red shoes.’ You can’t even be offensive on your way to being inoffensive.”

Not being a comic, I can’t relate to Seinfeld’s complaints about PC hurting comedy, but I suspect it’s not altogether different than what I face with my writing. A few years ago, it felt as if there was greater latitude afforded to air opinions and viewpoints that may have veered from the mainstream. These days, while the attention devoted to respectfulness is in many ways a good thing, it can also be creatively stifling. Comedians (and writers) take liberties with language. Sometimes it’s done with an eye toward focusing a spotlight on an issue or a perceived absurdity or double standard. Time was when that could be done without the nagging fear that someone somewhere would take offense over something that really should be perceived as innocent.

There have been times when something I’ve written has caused offense, and there have been times when that reaction has been legitimate and I’ve apologized for my unintentional faux pas. Now and again, though, there have been times when I’ve felt as if someone was actively searching for something they could perceive as offensive and disrespectful. I’ll be the first to admit that I can be sarcastic, and I’ve been known to employ a dollop or two of parody now and again. Sometimes those things fall flat. You take the risk, you hope it pans out…and when it doesn’t, you learn whatever lessons are there to learn and move on. That’s what taking risks is about.

I don’t know what the solution to this dilemma is, but I do know that we need to collectively lighten up. I’ll share a piece of advice I was once given a long time ago: “Grow up! Put your big boy pants on!” To that I might add, “Lighten up! Stop parsing everything for reasons to take offense!” Sure, we need to be respectful of each other, but sometimes you have to be able to laugh at yourself, or as a very wise man once told me, “F—k ‘em if they can’t take a joke!”

Words to live by.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on June 9, 2015 5:16 AM.

A little perspective on "natural law" was the previous entry in this blog.

The courage to be who you are...not always something everyone wants to see is the next entry in this blog.

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