Seinfeld: 'Diversity' in Comedy doesn't matter. Gawker calls him Racist

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http://gawker.com/who-cares-about-diversity-in-comedy-says-jerry-seinf-1515412052

Jerry Seinfeld, the most successful comedian in the world and maker of comedy for and about white people, isn't interested in trying to include non-white anything in his work.
When asked why he featured so many white men in his web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee during a Buzzfeed interview on CBS This Morning, Seinfeld seemed offended by the very question. "It really pisses me off," he said. "People think [comedy] is the census or something, it's gotta represent the actual pie chart of America. Who cares?"BuzzFeed Business Editor Peter Lauria seemed hesitant to pursue the frank answer, but the comedian continued on anyway. "Funny is the world that I live in. You're funny, I'm interested. You're not funny, I'm not interested," he said. "I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that." 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.Which is too bad, because Seinfeld is downplaying the work of everyone from Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby to Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, and Eddie Huang, who are all in various stages of their own sitcoms that just might turn out to be the next Seinfeld.
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Mediaite destroys the Gawker Author in its response


http://www.mediaite.com/online/gawk...ith-baseless-racial-attack-on-jerry-seinfeld/

Surely, Chayka researched this post before he went off on a tear. He must know that Seinfeld called Pryor “the Picasso of our profession,” or that he hosted an event honoring Cosby and called himself “not that funny” by comparison, or that Ansari regularly joins Seinfeld’s exclusive inner circle of comedians. Et cetera, et cetera.

In fact, there are few working comedians who do not have a story to tell about how Seinfeld and his encouraging cohorts aided in the development of their careers.

Surely, he knew all this and merely sought to intentionally mislead his audience. The alternative would be that Chayka just did not care so much about the subject as his preconceived opinion before publishing it in what he must have known was a public forum… Which just couldn’t be.

“Yes, comedy should represent the entire pie chart of America, and the glorious, multicolored diversity pie should be thrown directly at Jerry Seinfeld’s face,” Chayka concludes, with an appeal to violent metaphor. Maybe Chayka should have some more of the research he failed to do before posting “thrown directly” in his.
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What do you guys think. Is Seinfeld right in saying that as long as you are a good comedian, diversity does not matter or is Gawker right in saying that Seinfeld's comment has racial overtones
 
Don't see "diversity doesn't matter" in the quoted section...

Ah, he's just doing what he knows in his shows/work. Hell, "Seinfeld" had a LOT more minorities than most similar sitcoms, and the man does know and appreciate comedy and comedians from other backgrounds.

Gawker tho

People understand that "gawker" and "jezebel" are not words with positive connotations, right? lol
 
"Funny is the world that I live in. You're funny, I'm interested. You're not funny, I'm not interested," he said. "I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that."


I'm trying to see how this is racist.
 
If Gawker says it, it must be true.


Wait, no, not true. What's that other one? You know, the one that Gawker specializes in? Oh, right. Complete fucking bullshit and not worth the effort to click a link, let alone read an article.
 
Gawker being Gawker. What else can you say? Calling Seinfeld a racist for page hits is par for the course for those scum.
 
Is there an epidemic of unfunny non-male non-white people getting notice they don't deserve in order to seem PC? Because to me it seems like comedy is pretty meritocratic already.
 
"Funny is the world that I live in. You're funny, I'm interested. You're not funny, I'm not interested," he said. "I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that." He seems to suggest that any comedian who is not a white male is also not funny"
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Yes. He definitely seems to suggest that.
 
It's hilarious that the article says he suggested that only white men can be funny. He's been friends with Chris Rock for years and said during one of the Comedians In Cars episodes that Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby are on the Rushmore of comedy.

Fuck off Gawker.
 
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Bullshit article
 
This reminds me that I need to watch Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. I've meant to for awhile, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
 
So the question is: was this intentionally troll race baiting for clicks or is Chayka legitimately an idiot.

And of course he's a typical white liberal making this accusation.
 
I believe Jerry is in the right. He wasn't specifically trying to white-wash his show. He just brought on the people he thought were funny. Just happenstance that they managed to be white. The Gawker writer is digging for a controversy where there is none.
 
Draconian said:
This reminds me that I need to watch Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. I've meant to for awhile, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
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It's great. The Louis CK one that was recently put up had me in stitches over his boat story
 
Gawker completely missed the mark here. His comments don't imply that at all.

That said, Jerry's; comment is reminiscent of when people say similar things about employment "We just want to hire them best candidates." The problem with this is that it ignores the biases that lead to comedy being mostly white/male.

For example, at most shows/open mics I've performed at, the host wi ll point out that we have a woman/black/gay/etc comic coming up next, which from the outset frames the comedian as a "woman/black/gay" comic rather than simply as a comic.

Also I've heard both comics and comedy fans say things like "that person talks about being a woman/black/gay too much", which is silly because comedians are supposed to talk about their lives.
 
Larry David would have black people in his web series. Granted all those black people would just be JB Smoove in various costumes.
 
While I have no idea how Gawker managed to manufacture outrage from Seinfeld's benign answer, I'm also not convinced the Mediate piece puts forth a strong argument in response. They are basically saying Seinfeld can't be racist because he complimented a black guy and even helped some
 
Fucking typical gawker shit. Pathetic.
 
What an idiotic article. Seinfeld's recent interview on Howard Stern pretty much refutes every single claim made by Gawker, what blatant click-bate.
 
Deified Data said:
Sounds like a Tumblr post.
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I was about to say, is this another Steven Moffat Tumblr rant?

The author here isn't stretching, they're outright lying. Why even bother directly quoting Seinfeld if you're just going to posit the exact opposite in the same breath? Just paraphrase or something and hope your audience never researches it themselves.
 
Wouldn't be racist to put people in the 'show' just to make it more diverse? I mean, isn't the whole point of ending racism that we don't look at color of skin. In this case, if you are asking for more diversity, just for the sake of diversity, you're basically asking him to put more hispanic, asian, black persons just for the sake of being of a different color.

We should move on for the skin tone, and calling people racist just because you aren't putting a guy from each color. If you're good enough, you are in, if you're not you shouldn't get a special treatment (for better or worse) just because of your skin color.
 
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