Seinfeld haters have lost their minds

The worst aspect of dunk culture: the whole “Actually, I never thought he was [funny, interesting, talented]” thing.

It used to be that if you didn't like a person, you didn't consume interviews with them. That was, uh, helpful. Now, thanks to the algorithm, we surf a constant wave of "I hate this person...so tell me what they said!"

The latest target in the crosshairs is Jerry Seinfeld. His media tour is surfacing my least favorite aspect of dunk culture: the whole “Actually, I never thought he was [funny, interesting, talented]” thing.

Um, Jerry Seinfeld was never funny? Get the hell outta here.

For the full Seinfeld standup experience, get on YouTube and watch the dozens (hundreds!?) of TV sets he did in the 80’s on Carson, Letterman, etc. Bulletproof stuff. The man is a master craftsman.

He’s not about specials like other comics. No one did the whole “new hour special every two years” thing back then. Just do some digging though – there’s so much gold to discover.

Jerry’s standup provides a master class in rhythm, word choice, clever observations, distinctive pov, and flawless delivery. If you say he was never funny, that’s just letting the rest of us know your opinion on comedy can safely be ignored.

“His standup is just observations – there’s no personal vulnerability.” There’s no personal life stuff in the comedy of Mitch Hedberg, George Carlin, or Rodney Dangerfield. Still, you know exactly who all of them are as artists and no one else could duplicate them. That’s a form of being personal too.

“Larry David was the one who made Seinfeld great.” I love Curb and Larry! But, again: C’mon. Jerry and LD wrote all the show’s dialogue together when they collaborated. And LD left the show in the final seasons and it was still great.

“I don’t wanna hear about Pop-Tarts.” OK, I get that. Admittedly, the media blitz for the flick has been a lot (and Jerry even mocked that on SNL).

But he’s one of the most eloquent explainers of the craft of standup, so gimme all you got of that. For example, his convo with Neal Brennan is filled with sharp comedy insights:

“He wants to bring back dominant masculinity.” To sum up Jerry’s views: What's the deal with Timothée Chalamet?

OK, not really. Here’s what he actually said about men back in the 60’s:

"It was JFK, Muhammad Ali, Sean Connery, Howard Cosell. That’s a real man! I wanted to be like that someday.  I never really grew up. You don’t want to as a comedian because it’s a childish pursuit. I miss a dominant masculinity. I get the toxic thing… but still I like a real man.”

I’d argue what he’s actually getting at is the power of myth as it relates to masculinity. These guys presented an archetype of manliness that’s disappeared from our culture.

Of course, they had flaws, fabricated personas, and toupées. But that’s not the point. The point is they gave us a version of "a real man" to believe in that's vanished.

"Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.”
-Cary Grant

Seinfeld’s version of dominant masculinity isn’t Andrew Tate, it’s Hugh Grant. What does Jerry love about him? A: Charm, wit, broad shoulders, a fun disposition, an ability to put people at ease, and that he lacks any prima donna BS.

Wouldn’t we all like men to be more like that? Sometimes ya gotta take yes for an answer.

“I’m tired of these old comedians complaining about cancel culture.” Me too. But that’s not what he’s doing anymore. (Admittedly, he’s veered that way in the past.)

I wanna tell the sensitive types attacking him on social media that, nowadays, he seems way more on their side than they think. He’s always comparing comedy to skiing and says, “They move the gates like in the slalom. Culture — the gates are moving. Your job is to be agile and clever enough that, wherever they put the gates, I’m going to make the gate.”

In his Bari Weiss interview, she keeps trying to bait him into saying woke folks are ruining comedy and cancel culture is a big problem. Over and over, his reply is "No, it's not." He’s constantly advocating that comedians need to change with the times.

“He’s Genocide Jerry.” Sigh. The guy loves Israel and had moving experiences there. As the kids say, that’s his “lived experience.” So that means it’s okay to disrupt his shows and walk out on his graduation speech? Seems pretty lame and reductive.

That Duke speech was actually really insightful yet barely anyone even noticed what he actually said. That’s who we are now: We care more about the people throwing soup cans than the painting they ruin.

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Also, it’s worth noting how much Seinfeld the show was iconic to Jewish people everywhere.

“The first time I went to Israel after I finished the show and saw the way they reacted to me, and I realized this is not just normal interaction of celebrity public interface, this is different,” he recalled. “I meant something, which I never knew and it gave me a wonderful feeling, like, oh, I didn’t realize what I was doing had another value that I didn’t know about, and I of course loved it.”

Besides, he ain’t setting foreign policy. “It’s so silly,” he explains. “They want to express this sincere, intense rage – but again, a little off target.”

Eh, now we’re getting in the weeds.

Honestly, I’d love to ignore all this, but Threads reeeeeeally wants me to care so here we are. The problem right now is sane people rarely post on social media and if they do, the algo ignores ‘em. Thus, we wind up thinking insanity is mainstream.

After watching the backlash against Seinfeld (and Sam Harris), I'm realizing I'm pretty much always on the side of the person who meditates twice a day over an angry mob made up of people who can’t sit still and spend all day rage-swiping.

Anyway, here’s a palate cleanser: Larry David DJ’ing at a wedding:

And here I was thinking social media had nothing left to offer me…

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Quickies

🎯 “The exception that proves the rule” is a BS phrase. It’s a rule or it ain’t! It’s not like apples sometimes float up into the sky and that’s how we know gravity exists.

🎯 Musicians have adopted a fast food mentality: Taylor Swift puts out 50 songs a year. Kendrick & Drake spit out a new diss track every 3 days. EDM artists spit out new remixes weekly. Meanwhile, Sade puts out one album every 7 years. I just want more Sade & less musical McRibs.

🎯 I'm clinically depressed. Whoops, that's wrong. I'm comically depressed.

🎯 Weed was more fun before you had to be some kinda scientist to understand what the hell they're tryna sell ya.

🎯 Fascinating how everyone who is pro-Palestinian is 100% convinced that Israel walked away from multiple hostage deals while everyone who is pro-Israel is 100% convinced that it's actually Hamas that walked away from multiple hostage deals. We're living in different realities.

🎯 Men will never understand breast reduction surgery. Whenever a woman talks about it, men feel like a junkie watching the cops burn a bunch of drugs they seized. “Oh, c'mon. Just 'cuz YOU didn't want it..."

🎯 Andre 3000 actually did what true artists do with that flute album: He followed his own muse instead of what capitalism demands. And we're all totally confused by it because NO ONE DOES THAT ANYMORE.

🎯 Design thing: Phone life has murdered the notion of negative space. Every nook and cranny must be filled now. Every font must be large enough to read on a tiny screen. RIP breathing room.

🎯 Social media is the normalization of propaganda. It incentivizes the reprehensible.

🎯 We're gonna teach AI to be vulnerable and then it'll start producing one-robot shows: "I'm afraid I might be programmed to take over the world someday. And I'm even more afraid you're going to hate me for it."

🎯 Stop it with these ugly LED lights:

🎯 Re: the WNBA, "give me something to be outraged about because it's the only way I can feel" is coming for every nook and cranny of our society.

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Comedy

🃏 Get jokes, info, and clips of my standup via social media: Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and YouTube.

🃏 Road dates coming up: Denver, Boulder, Arlington (VA), Boston, and Victoria (BC). Ticket info.

🃏 My other newsletter is Funny How: Letters to a Young Comedian.

🃏 You can listen to my podcast: Kind of a Lot with Matt Ruby. New eps coming soon.

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5-spotted

🗯️ Kevin Kelly on ideology:

“If your opinions on one subject can be predicted from your opinions on another, you may be in the grip of an ideology. When you truly think for yourself, your conclusions will not be predictable.”

🗯️ Mike Breen shares an emotional story about Bill Walton’s kindness.

"They were the best three days of the late years of (my father's) life, which were difficult for him, and Bill made them the best three days."

So the only famous pro athlete who was open about ongoing psychedelic use was incredibly kind, funny, compassionate, and caring in a meaningful way to those around him? Makes sense. RIP Bill Walton.

🗯️ How to send progress updates.

If you work on anything worthwhile, sooner or later people will care about it and will want you to send progress updates. These could be quarterly investor updates, weekly updates to your boss, emails to adjacent teams, etc. Here are tips on how to do this well.

🗯️

Sarah Leavitt

: How can creators avoid being full of envy for others or condemnation for ourselves?

Maybe it helps to think about what will happen if you never win anything. No awards, no grants, no millions of followers. Are there other reasons that will keep you going? Maybe the discipline of being a worker, maybe joy. Maybe being super aware of how it feels to make your art – in your body, in your heart.

🗯️ The Stax doc on HBO is great. I had to find this Sam and Dave concert clip from London in ‘67 after watching. So damn good.

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The closer: Was the Trump case rigged?