Any comic who loved Nazi Germany, appreciated apartheid South Africa, or thought that Jim Crow was a laugh riot would, in a semi-decent society, be condemned or ostracized. But our society isn’t semi-decent, nor decent in any sense. Perhaps ’twas always thus, though I’d like to think that there have been bright spots now and then.
There are a handful of comics who have rubbed me the wrong way. I’ve known my share over the years, and I’ve tried not to take it personally. What would be the point? Comedy is subjective, as they say. But there is one comic in particular who I believe is morally bankrupt -- Jerry Seinfeld.
I remember seeing Seinfeld up close at the Comic Strip in NYC in the early ’80s. I was writing jokes for other comics who performed there, but Seinfeld stood apart. He knew how good he was, and he didn’t hide it. His act was hilarious, well-timed and polished. But there was something about him that put me off.
My comedy heroes were Woody Allen and Andy Kaufman. They, along with SNL, were the reason why I moved to NYC when I was 22. My partner Jim Buck and I hit every open mic we could, sometimes waiting until 2 AM to get five minutes in front of seven drunken people.
It didn’t bother me all that much; I was in NYC performing comedy, which went better than expected. It helped that Jim and I had audience-tested material from Indianapolis. In some cases, the jokes hit harder than they had in Indy. So I was locked into the scene.
That’s when Jerry Seinfeld entered my consciousness.
Skip ahead a few years and I was out of the clubs. I began working in media activism, which inspired me to do more than trying to make drunks laugh. Then Seinfeld’s sitcom emerged. I can’t think of a sitcom that defined itself almost immediately, despite all the network roadblocks. But this one did.
Larry David had a lot to do with that. Seinfeld was an extension of himself. Jerry Seinfeld might have scored a sitcom on his own, but without Larry David, it wouldn’t have the same force.
So imagine my reaction when I saw Seinfeld posing with an Israeli sniper, fist clenched, face stern. His IDF friend killed Palestinian children for being in the way of Israeli expansionism. And there was Mr. Show About Nothing acting tough, like he’d been in the shit.
There are plenty of American Zionists who get off on terrorizing Palestinians, even though most wouldn’t have the chutzpah to do it themselves, Jerry Seinfeld included. Recently, when he was asked about Gaza, Seinfeld laughed and made it clear that he was comfortable with mass murder, from a safe distance, of course.
Seinfeld remains one of the best sitcoms in TV history. I still watch it, though less and less so. Not that that matters. Some of the funniest jokes I’ve ever heard came out of a show that was decidedly about something, however brutal. A laugh track over mass graves.