HOLLYWOOD – With his Netflix comedy film Unfrosted debuting to abysmal reviews, 70-year-old comedian Jerry Seinfeld blames the failure on “extreme left, and PC college campus audiences”, unlike in his heyday, when the teenage girls he dated were fans of his comedy.
The thing about Seinfeld and other comedians who aren’t as popular anymore is that they blame the audience for not liking their material. Tastes change over time. The comedian either needs to change their act or live with the consequences that people aren’t going to like their material as much.
Rodney Dangerfield was a great comic for his time. If someone tried to tell the same jokes today, I don’t think he’d get very far. That’s not the fault of the audience. It’s the fault of the comedian. No one owes you a laugh.
No respect then, no respect now. 😔
“My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. He said okay, you’re ugly too.”
I don’t mean to undermine the point, which I agree with, but I did see a meme the other day which recycled a Dangerfield joke. (The one in which a girl told him to come over, that there was nobody home.)
That was a legit funny joke. Dangerfield’s stuff was pretty good and a lot of it still stands up today because he was usually punching up. His shtick was always “I don’t get no respect” but always because he was schulb not because the others were wrong.
I’m 45 years old and grew up during the Seinfeld heyday. He wasn’t funny in the 90s and isn’t funny now. George Carlin is someone who made sense in the 70s and made sense until the day he died. Rob Reiner, Mel Brooks - guys I think that are amazing and funny whose work still holds up today. Jerry Seinfeld was a guy who failed upward.
Poor fucking Rodney out here catching strays.
Nah, he’d agree, he had a sense of humor and would be the first person to know when something fell flat as he was full of empathy, comic 101
Dangerfield is a good one to point out. With him, it’s not just the jokes, but the delivery. And he could freestyle like a mad man!
He owned that schtick. No one will ever be able to do it again.
“Eyy I don’t get noh respect…!”
- “boomers”
Dangerfield was all about self-deprecation. That’s like one of the most popular attitudes of the current generation. I think Dangerfield would find a welcoming audience today. He’d probably have to tweak his material when referencing women, but otherwise he’d nail it.
I probably used a bad example. I like his comedy, but you hear it and it’s immediately dates itself. It’s the same when you see a old 70s Friar’s Club roast vs a Comedy Central one. The jokes are still funny but trying to take that sensibility and make relevant today would be difficult.