These days, it’s rare to find a good comedy at the multiplex and many have blamed recent cultural sensibilities, where anyone can be offended, as the reason for the absence of big screen laughs.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld seems in agreement. During an interview, published over the weekend, he blamed the “extreme left” and “P.C. crap” for killing comedy: Seinfeld told The New Yorker that he just doesn’t see much funny stuff hiting the airwaves anymore, on TV or at the movies:
“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,” he continued. “Now they’re going to see stand up comics because we are not policed by anyone. The audience polices us. We know when we’re off track. We know instantly and we adjust to it instantly.”
“But when you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committees, groups — ‘Here’s our thought about this joke’,” he added. “Well, that’s the end of your comedy.”
Last April, former Amazon Studios head Roy Price noticed some raw data regarding comedies and shared it via his X account. His findings showed that the number of comedies being theatrically released, on a year to year basis, has been plummeting in the last six years, since 2017.
In 1997, comedies made up 20 percent of the total movie market. In 2003, comedies peaked at 21.4 percent — that year had “Old School,” “Bad Santa,” “The School of Rock,” “Elf,” “Freaky Friday” and “A Mighty Wind.” By 2020, the comedic market share went down to a record low 3.8 percent. This year, we’re at around 6% and it’ll likely go down with not many comedies being released in the fall.
Has our culture lost its sense of humor? This is such a self-serious era we live in. We need to laugh now, more than ever. It’s time for filmmakers to bring back edgy comedy and be unafraid of the repercussions that might come with it. There’s a void that needs to be filled in the genre and hopefully it’ll be repaired sooner rather than later.
SIDE NOTE: Seinfeld’s directorial debut, “Unfrosted,” still hasn’t been screened for press and it’s supposed to be released on Netflix in 5 days.