Zen_Arcade
Banned
Go write a Gawker article about it.
Seinfeld: 'Diversity' in Comedy doesn't matter. Gawker calls him Racist
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cheststrongwell
my cake, fuck off
Reminds me of the Smoke Shop Indian. Will Richards fuck this one up for him?
The Albatross
Member
I am personally offender that Tyler Perry does not feature more middle-aged Jewish women in his opera magna
They don't pay enough. I don't work for Groupon points.
Zen_Arcade
Banned
You were threatening to do it here for free.
shhh. put the lance down, soldier. Your battle is not with me.
jim-jam bongs
Member
The only reason most of his guests on the show are white men is that they're his sons.
Muppet of a Man
Member
I think this dude took Seinfeld's comment out of context. It seems to me Seinfeld was saying that considering the race of the comedian should have nothing to do with comedy and that your are funny if you are funny, regardless of your race (be it black, white, asian, etc.). I'm not sure how the gawker author came to those conclusions from the comment made.
Zen_Arcade
Banned
As long as you don't bother going on a long pointless rant.
Ya but in this particular situation this is about comedy and comedians. There is no agenda going on with Seinfeld. It's simply people are funny or not, that's really all he is saying.
Knob off, dingbat. I didn't "threaten" anything. But I did warn Riggs about insinuating 'false' outrage when I'm not even upset.
I'm not separating situations from overarching realities. I certainly didn't say there was any kind of "agenda". I said Seinfeld can recognize the issue and act on it, or he can focus elsewhere, and not.
Do you watch the show?
http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/
Comedy is the ultimate "by your bootstraps" profession. It doesn't matter what race or gender you are, if you're funny, you'll make people laugh and people will want to give you money to make them laugh.
-Pyromaniac-
Member
george when he calls up the exterminator for dinner.
My example was extreme for a reason: you do not need a special agenda to reach the conclusion that someone whose staff is 91% black women has some non-objective criteria used in the hiring process. A reasonable person would infer that such a dramatic deviation from pure chance based on underlying demographic statistics is extremely unlikely.
It may just so happen that all 43 presidents before Barack Obama just happened to be white men because white men were always the best candidate for the job until 2008. A reasonable person would reasonably conclude that isn't likely, however.
Zen_Arcade
Banned
Sorry, it's hard to tell with you.
Devolution
Member
Gawker instead of taking a longer look into why more comedians Seinfeld is exposed to happen to be white men, whatever those reasons are, you decide to post an article lambasting him and twisting his words.
Great journalism as usual.
Great journalism as usual.
the fuck does that mean?
I just finished that Howard interview, and I could tell he appreciates some minority comics (both race and gender wise) but while I don't see him as racist (outside of the Paula Deen defense), he comes across an incredibly arrogant dick throughout the entire thing
On the flip side, I never listen to Howard Stern so I dont' know what I expected but he came across as incredibly well prepared for the interview which left me pretty impressed
On the flip side, I never listen to Howard Stern so I dont' know what I expected but he came across as incredibly well prepared for the interview which left me pretty impressed
dr3upmushroom
Banned
This is stupid, he's friends with guys like Chris Rock, if anything he's going beyind the superficial make up of what "we are" and only cares about comedic talent.
Are you talking about seinfeld on howard stern?
dr3upmushroom
Banned
One of the best.
Noah Rothman does well in that piece for mediaite:
It seems that Chayka did not research for his piece at all. What an idiot.
http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/chris-rock-kids-need-bullying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxoRh06XM4
Maidenpool?
Member
Gawker trolling regular people, pissing them off and getting page hits... something they are starting to master.
In short... they are journalism's stinky taint.
In short... they are journalism's stinky taint.
Count of Monte Sawed-Off
un33dab@dpu$$y
Cinnamon takes a backseat to no babka.
Now that would have been an interesting article. I feel dirty for having given them a click.
You sold us a hair with a cake around it.
Aaron Strife
Banned
The biggest reason there's not much diversity in comedy is because America has been for a long time a patriarchal, majority-white society. Which means the people who have opportunities to do something creative - like standup comedy - are white men who have connections and resources to fall back on in case they fail.
Is that a problem? Sure, but only in that it's indicative of a social trend that bears much broader implications. If people like Seinfeld are actively suppressing comedians for their race, gender, whatever, that's one thing. If "diverse" comedians are failing to break through for economic reasons, that suggests stand-up comedy isn't the only field where this is a problem.
There's nothing wrong with what Seinfeld said, obviously.
Is that a problem? Sure, but only in that it's indicative of a social trend that bears much broader implications. If people like Seinfeld are actively suppressing comedians for their race, gender, whatever, that's one thing. If "diverse" comedians are failing to break through for economic reasons, that suggests stand-up comedy isn't the only field where this is a problem.
There's nothing wrong with what Seinfeld said, obviously.
TwEE-N-Toast
Banned
I was always under the impression most comedians were poor schmucks, with no other real options.
I am talking about the interview posted earlier of Howard Stern interviewing Seinfeld. I thought Jerry came across as really arrogant and dickish, while Howard came off as surprisingly (to me, as a non-listener) informed
War Peaceman
You're a big guy.
There is a plausible argument to be made that Seinfeld could use his considerable wealth and influence to provide exposure to comedians outside of the white male.
However I'm not about to make that argument, and not doing so certainly does not make him racist. I believe he is sincere when he says he only cares if it is funny.
However I'm not about to make that argument, and not doing so certainly does not make him racist. I believe he is sincere when he says he only cares if it is funny.
ELAINE: What's wrong?
JERRY: My stomach, I think it was that cookie.
ELAINE: The black and white?
JERRY: Yeah.
ELAINE: Not getting along?
JERRY: I think I got David Duke and Farrakhan down there.
D
Diggeh
Unconfirmed Member
I usually ignore the Gawker clickbait, but this is abysmal. The author barely writes at high school essay level!
Cite a quote, make insanely false, judgmental, self-serving claim. Success!
I love how they pretend that Jerry didn't have Chris Rock and Mario Joyner on Comedians in Cars. What a tool.
Cite a quote, make insanely false, judgmental, self-serving claim. Success!
I love how they pretend that Jerry didn't have Chris Rock and Mario Joyner on Comedians in Cars. What a tool.
Yeah he does come across as arrogant but I think that's his whole persona even on seinfeld. I'm not sure if he defended paula deen though, it's hard to discern what he meant by the comment but I don't think it's defense.
I mean, I guess you're right that it is pretty ambiguous what he means when talking about Paula (and Howard drops the subject) but I guess I am giving him whatever you would call the opposite of the "benefit of the doubt" and combining his comments there with his statement in the OP that he does not want to go out of his way just for PC sake. So when he says he is glad people are finally angry with regard to the Paula Deen situation I take it not as "I am glad that people are finally angry about a famous woman hosting slave parties and calling every black guy that treats her wrong nigger" but "I am glad that there is finally some angry backlash against the push for everyone to be politically correct."
It may be somewhat hypocritical of me to criticize this anyway since I support the backlash against this Gawker article, but while I think Jerry may be avoiding affirmatively taking any action that would correct the issue, I don't think he has taken any affirmative action to deny minority participants either. I don't find that analogous to Paula Deen who made the affirmative choice to degrade black people
I agree especially in regards to your last paragraph.
Team Filler
Member
I'm assuming you aren't trying to equate the barriers in place of achieving the presidency with those of "successful" comedian, right?
Following something to its conclusion through steps of logical progression when that something is intrinsically linked to sense of comedy sounds like a disastrously bad idea. Logic is almost the anti-funny.
hipbabboom
Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
Far too much reaching... the writers assertions were either completely fabricated or full of false equivalence. It was trying way too hard to be inflammatory.
I actually find his statement that Jerry Seinfeld comedies are by and for white people only way more offensive.
I want to assume that he means that the majority consumers of his comedies are white people not that he makes it for whites only.
oh come on. You know that is not what he meant.\
I have to comment on this. While most people would see Seinfeld comment as being very race neutral, there is a growing sentiment of thought, that puts pure diversity over anything else.
To them, the issue has nothing to do with quality or skill, it's a pure number's game, and headcounts is all that matters. Seinfeld argument is a fairly conservative one, as it doesn't accept there is a problem that needs to be reformed, so to them "if you're funny, it's all good" is basically saying "I like the racist status quo"
It's a silly and stupid way of thinking, but it has grown more popular and sites like Gawker and Jezebel use it all the time
I'm positive Jerry Seinfeld didn't mean to be exclusive. But he mostly chose comedians for his show from his particular interest pool, which (because of unconscious bias or institutional pressure) was almost totally white dudes.
Also, the Gawker article was definitely overreacting. I'm sorry if I was too harsh earlier. But representation is really important. It takes a while for most white people (myself included) to realize this, but if you're Black or Indian or Korean, there are very few role models for your particular interests. If you're an Indian American girl who likes swimming, there are only three people in the whole world who look like you and do what you do. If you're a Black girl who likes to tell jokes, there's Wanda Sykes and Whoopi Goldberg, and not much else. It's hard for white people (male or female) to get this, but if you don't have a role model who looks and acts like you, it's really hard to be motivated to keep doing what you do.
I wouldn't have an issue with this show's demographics if most other comedy shows were more diverse. But they aren't! Almost every sitcom has an all white cast with one or two people of color. Often, like in the Big Bang Theory, 30 Rock, or Two Broke Girls, most of that character's jokes are about their race. Black women make up six percent of the population of the US, but way less than 6% of sitcom main cast members are Black women. Hispanic people are almost 17% of the United States, but way less TV show actors are Hispanic.
There's no malice at all behind Jerry Seinfeld's opinions, and he's free to not worry about having a diverse cast, but television as a genre really needs to be better representative of the United States as a whole.
Ollie Pooch
In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
Imagine the rage you'd feel doing an interview like this then this asshole tries making all these points attacking your character. What a misleading article.
FrontalMonk
Banned
I think it's kinda funny that the only two episodes I've seen of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee were the ones with Chris Rock and Tina Fey.
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