Friday essay: Is ‘wokeness’ killing comedy – or are ageing comedians crying wolf?

Jerry Seinfeld in Los Angeles earlier this year.& Chris Pizzello/AAP by Alexander Cothren, Flinders University and Robert Phiddian, Flinders University In late April, comedian Jerry Seinfeld went on the New Yorker Radio Hour and re-opened the debate that refuses to die. While spruiking his debut film, Unfrosted, Seinfeld went on a tangent about how, he believes, political correctness has ruined comedy: It used to be you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, Cheers is on, oh, M*A*S*H is on, Mary Tyler Moore is on, All in the Family is on.’ You just expect that, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ Guess what? Where is it? Where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people. This is not the first time Seinfeld has made a similar claim. In 2015, he said he wouldn’t do stand-up gigs on college campuses because “they’re so PC”. And he’s far from alone in thinking comedy is under attack. Bill Burr, Chris Rock, John Cleese, Sarah Silverman and Bill Maher are among the many famous comedians to declare that...