Legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld recently sat down with The New York Times to discuss life after Seinfeld, the climate of today's stand-up comedy atmosphere, and the firing of James Gunn for a series of old Twitter jokes. As you're likely to be aware, the firing of James Gunn as director of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 has been a hot topic of conversation in La La Land as of late, with many celebrities (including the cast of the film) calling for Gunn to be reinstated as a primary contributor to the space-faring sequel. In case you've missed it, Gunn was promptly fired by Disney from the upcoming Marvel film after a series of reprehensible tweets posted by the filmmaker between the years 2008-2011 were unearthed as part of a targeted smear campaign. So far, Disney has yet to welcome Gunn back into the fold, nor have they crowned a new director to helm the adventure.
Meanwhile, when speaking with NYT, Seinfeld was asked if he has an opinion on Gunn's firing. The "What's the deal with …" comedian then responded by saying, "I didn’t read the jokes, but if they’re jokes, it doesn’t matter. I guess Roseanne Barr thought she was being funny, but it wasn’t funny — and if it’s offensive and not funny, then it’s not a joke. But any comedian that doesn’t understand that dynamic, you’re finished anyway."
Leave it to Jerry Seinfeld to make the line in the sand real clear, eh? I suppose we could ride the "what's funny and isn't funny" merry-go-round into infinity and never truly arrive at a place where everyone will be in agreement. After all, humor is a subjective beast, though I'm not entirely sure that applies to blatant comments related to pedophilia and other totally taboo matters. For me, Gunn's jokes were not funny, especially when they were delivered with the interest of being deliberately controversial.
As the interview continued, Seinfeld explained that in one way or another that he doesn't consider jokes to be "real". If that sounds confusing, perhaps you'd like to read his comment for yourself?
“People assume that when you say something that you believe it. It’s purely comedic invention. You know, I do this whole bit about Pop-Tarts and how much I love them. I don’t love Pop-Tarts. It’s just funny. It’s funny to say it, so I say it.“
Lastly, the comedian who loves to drive fancy cars and drink coffee commented on why he refrains from sharing jokes on Twitter, and why it's a good rule of thumb.
"I don’t hear the laugh. Why waste my time? It’s a horrible performing interface. I can’t think of a worse one. I always think about people that write books. What a horrible feeling it must be to have poured your soul into a book over a number of years and somebody comes up to you and goes, “I loved your book,” and they walk away, and you have no idea what worked and what didn’t. That to me is hell. That’s my definition of hell."
Do you think Gunn will remain off the Guaradians project, or will Disney eventually cave to the pressure? Let us know in the comments section below.