Around 7 p.m. last night I noticed an interesting retweet.* Ben Smith, the head honcho over at BuzzFeed.com, had forwarded along a message from Jack Mirkinson: "Jerry Seinfeld on choosing diverse guests for his show: 'who cares?'"
Curious, I checked Twitter to see if anyone else was chatting about this. I found a fuller explanation of his thoughts from Kira Kleaveland: "On diversity in comedy: Jerry Seinfeld: you're funny, i'm interested. You're not funny, i'm not interested." These two statements struck me as both completely true and extremely likely to set the PC Police howling. Indeed, I went on record:
Oh god. The Two Minutes Hate against Seinfeld for pooh-poohing diversity at #buzzfeedbrews is going to be EPIC.
— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) February 4, 2014
As you can see, that tweet went up at 7:11 p.m. Needless to say, the scoldosphere didn't disappoint. Here's Gawker's Kyle Chayka, at 9:23 p.m.: "Jerry Seinfeld, the most successful comedian in the world and maker of comedy for and about white people, isn't interested in trying to include non-white anything in his work." Here's Vulture's Halle Kiefer at 12:57 this morning: "Jerry Seinfeld wanted to clarify that he really, really does not give a tiny rat's behind about the issue of racial or gender diversity in comedy." Here's the opening sentence—the lede, if you will—of Jarrett Wieselman's take on Seinfeld's comments for BuzzFeed: "At the height of Seinfeld’s popularity, the NBC comedy was repeatedly accused of presenting an exclusively 'white' view of its diverse New York City setting."
Needless to say, Twitter has exploded in an orgy of outrage.
Surprise, the guy who stepped on the PRican flag and hired Michael Richards is a creepy bigot. http://t.co/KaPkoqO8VV #SEINFELD Who cares?
— Wolf Guzman (@WolfGuzman) February 4, 2014
Why is Seinfeld consistently such utter trash? http://t.co/mAFeIcX4pi
— Wivienne Vestwood (@themattachine) February 4, 2014
Oh Seinfeld, shush now, don't make me hate you. http://t.co/OVp6XCcIEc
— Emily Waddell (@callsignemily) February 4, 2014
The nice thing about the PC scolds is how remarkably predictable they are. The scary thing about the PC scolds is how many of them there are and how willing they are to simply regurgitate nonsense concocted by the ringmasters of the three-ring circus that is the modern left.
*And thus began the great American novel.