“This really pisses me off,” an irritated Jerry Seinfeld responded to a question about the lack of diversity on his show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. For him, comedy isn’t about meeting racial or gender quotas.
“People think it’s the census or something. This has got to represent the actual pie chart of America? Who cares?” the comedian said at a BuzzFeed Brews and CBS This Morning interview on Monday. “Funny is the world I live in — you’re funny, I’m interested; you’re not funny, I’m not interested.”
Seinfeld has received some criticism because many of his guests are white males.
“I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that,” Seinfeld continued. “It’s anti-comedy — it’s more about PC nonsense than ‘are you making us laugh or not’?”
Afterwards, Gawker tried to smear the comedian with a “baseless racial attack,” as Mediaite’s Noah Rothman put it. Kyle Chayka at Gawker portrayed Seinfeld’s remarks as downplaying the accomplishments of non-white or female comedians, or not providing more opportunities for them.
“Yes, comedy should represent the entire pie chart of America, and the glorious, multicolored diversity pie should be thrown directly at Jerry Seinfeld’s face,” Chayka wrote.