Jerry Seinfeld on the Rules of Comedy—and Life
Summary
This is a conversation between Barry Weiss and Jerry Seinfeld, the famous comedian. They discuss Seinfeld's new movie "Unfrosted" on Netflix, his approach to comedy, and his perspectives on various aspects of life and culture.
Seinfeld made "Unfrosted" as a light-hearted distraction from the negativity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He believes the key principle of comedy is whether the audience laughs or not, regardless of any perceived offense or criticism.
Seinfeld values solitude, precision, and mastering the craft of joke-writing over material success.
He discusses the importance of place (New York City) in shaping his comedic voice and perspective.
Seinfeld reflects on the recent controversies and protests surrounding his work, dismissing them as misguided but humorous.
He expresses his deep love for life and death, and his desire to confront the depths of human experience through comedy.
Excerpts
On making "Unfrosted" as a distraction from negativity:
We started in COVID because I couldn't take the sad faces. And and in comedy, we hate that. We can't fix the world, but we just wanna make a face happy. Even just for a few minutes.
On the key principle of comedy being whether the audience laughs:
Comedy is a extraordinarily simple binary outcome event. Is it funny or it isn't? And nobody cares really about anything else.
If you're funny, genuinely funny, none of these things are difficult to overcome. If you're kinda funny You got problems. But that's what it comes down to. It's the funny. The funny is it. If you talk and we laugh, we're all good.
On valuing solitude and mastering the craft over success:
I'm only really comfortable, really comfortable with another stand up comedian or alone.
The thing that you are incredibly fortunate enough to have, if you spend your life in comedy and do well at it. The gift that you were given is you see through the surface of everything. Everything. Life itself.
On the importance of place (New York City):
New York City to me is a deep rooted core of things I believe in Which is overcoming intensity. It's a very Jewish city. Jews thrive there. You know, when they came from Europe and the Middle East, They loved it because it's business, it's work, it's complexity, everything that Jews thrive on, you know. And I did.
On recent controversies and protests:
It's so dumb. It's so dumb. Thank you. In fact, when we get protesters occasionally, I love to say that to the audience, who's always so embarrassed. When you walk out on stage, if they were, like, doing their little thing in the front, the audience just feels they feel so bad that that happened. And I say to them, you know, I love that these young people, they're trying to get engaged with politics. We have to just correct their aim a little bit. You know, they don't seem to be understand that as comedians, we really don't control anything.
On his love for life and death:
I do. I also love death. I have so much death in my act. I have to edit some of it out because it's just too much.
Really? Yes. In fact, I have a bit now that I'm doing. I'm just trying to explore it about when someone dies and someone tells you, hey, did you hear who died? Sometimes we have to hold down our enjoyment of that moment. You wanna you don't wanna let people see that, oh, wow, that's kinda cool. I was done with that guy. Glad we shuffled that garbage out. Do you think that's kinda cool?