An Interview About Nothing

The laugh’s on them.
(AP photo)

Not really — it’s Jerry Seinfeld talking about what is probably the defining cultural issue of our age. Namely, why can’t we say controversial or even merely amusing things anymore?

During a recent ESPN interview, host Colin Cowherd mentioned to Seinfeld that Chris Rock and Larry the Cable Guy intentionally don’t perform at college campuses because the students are too politically correct.

“I don’t play colleges, but I hear a lot of people tell me, ‘Don’t go near colleges. They’re so PC,'” said Seinfeld.

He continued, “I’ll give you an example: My daughter’s 14. My wife says to her, ‘Well, you know, in the next couple years, I think maybe you’re going to want to be hanging around the city more on the weekends, so you can see boys.’ You know what my daughter says? She says, ‘That’s sexist.’”

Seinfeld said college students don’t understand racism and sexism. “They just want to use these words: ‘That’s racist;’ ‘That’s sexist;’ ‘That’s prejudice.’ They don’t even know what the f—k they’re talking about.”

I of course agree with Seinfeld’s premise that PC culture is destroying comedy, but I have to disagree with his conclusion. These college kids know exactly what the f–k they’re talking about — that using those words allows them to shout down and shut up unorthodox or discomfiting viewpoints.

And today’s college kids are all-too-easily discomfited thanks to the narrow orthodoxy of today’s progressive college campuses.