Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
[Manage newsletters]( [View in browser]( [The logo for Daily Beast's Obsessed] Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. with Kevin Fallon Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. with Kevin Fallon This Week - Jerry Seinfeld is [whining about the state of comedy]( again. - I canât get over this Barbra Streisand snafu. - Very important news about TVâs greatest show. - Challengers is more than just hot, OK?! - Try to not stare at this photo for an hour. Not This Again All week long, feathers have been ruffling, hives of bees were buzzing in bonnets, and a record numbers of bears were being poked, all while social media hosted unprecedented amounts of tizzies. âWhatâs the deal?â you might say in response to that, which would be apropos considering that the source of the online hubbub is the maven of that catchphrase himself, [Jerry Seinfeld](. The comedian spoke to The New Yorkerâs David Remnick in an article published earlier this week. In [the wide-ranging interview](, he decried that thereâs a scarcity of good comedy on TV to comfort people after a day of ingesting the troubling news of the world. Iâm impressed with the lengths Seinfeld went to prove his point, going so far as to direct, co-write, and star in Unfrosted, a tediously bland âcomedicâ take on the origin of the Pop-Tart, enlisting dozens of his industry friends to propagate this new age of unfunny. But Unfrosted is not the source of the discourse surrounding Seinfeldâs commentsâit only premiered Friday on [Netflix](. Itâs what he blames for his observed comedy drought thatâs causing a stir. âIt used to be, you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, âOh, Cheers is on. Oh, M*A*S*H is on. Oh, Mary Tyler Moore is on. All in the Family is on,ââ he told The New Yorker. âYou just expected, thereâll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight. Well, guess whatâwhere is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people. Now theyâre going to see standup comics because we are not policed by anyone.â There it is! Boomer comedian blames âextreme leftâ and âP.C. crapâ for not being able to make edgy jokes anymore. If Tim Allen mentions âthe woke mobâ by the end of the day, I win this weekâs pop-culture Bingo. Seinfeld also cited storylines from Seinfeld and episodes of [Curb Your Enthusiasm]( that he thinks could not be made today because of politically correct preciousness. Cauldrons of reactions bubbled over in predictable ways from respective corners of the internet. There were [the eye rolls]( over yet another rant about how younger generations [canât take a good joke](, when maybe itâs [the talent themselves]( who arenât intelligent to [evolve their comedy](. The usual suspectsâthe deluded who believe that cancel culture is a thing that actually existsârallied around their Jer Bear. âMake comedy legal again!â [Elon Musk posted on X](.
Mostly, though, the exasperation with the whining is that the argument is demonstrably untrue. [Abbott Elementary](, [Ghosts](, and [Young Sheldon]( are huge hits. [Girls5Eva]( is hilarious. And an argument that edgy, provocative, politically incorrect comedy has gone extinct is laughably debunkable. The timing of Seinfeldâs comments is wild when Curb, from one of Seinfeldâs co-creators, is [still receiving applause]( for its last season. Veep won roughly 400 Emmys, and it had [scenes like this](. [The Righteous Gemstones]( thrives [in the ribald](. [Hacks]( returns this week, firing sharper, funnier, and naughtier than ever. Hereâs one of my favorite jokes from it: [The Other Two]( was maybe the coolest show on TV when it aired, mostly because people couldnât stock enough beverages in their homes for the amount of spit-takes it elicited over its un-P.C. storylines, like this one: Then thereâs the long, popular runs of [Family Guy]( (22 seasons), [South Park]( (26 seasons), and [Itâs Always Sunny in Philadelphia]( (16 seasons), which are still airing. Seinfeld mentioned a plot in which Kramer started a business where homeless people pulled rickshaws because âtheyâre outside anywayâ as something that wouldnât fly today. Itâs Always Sunny fans have taken to social media to raise Seinfeldâs rickshaw with Sunnyâs Catholic priest-turned-drug-addicted-pimp, among myriad other storylines. Even co-creator Rob McElheney weighed in. Then thereâs the âseriously, this again?â of it all. Listen, I discovered today that the allergy medication Iâve been taking all week to combat my apparent physical hypersensitivity to ânice weatherâ and âbeing outsideâ expired in 2020. Perhaps the side effect of consuming is extreme bouts of deja vu. These complaints from veteran comedians seem to surface like cicadas with accelerated R.E.M. cycles, and the backlash is reliably the same: Thereâs been no death of comedy. Thereâs a bitterness over a new taste level thatâs popular, one that requires a modicum of evolution and effort to think a little differently. Whatâs personally amusing to me about Seinfeldâs particular grievance is that the series he mentions as comedy comfort in the pastâAll in the Family and M*A*S*Hâwere known for being thorny and uncomfortable, actually. They challenged audiencesâ political sensibilities and social mores. Seinfeld, on the other hand, was a famously apolitical show, whereas current comedy series, from Abbott Elementary to Itâs Always Sunny, riff on things like race, gender, sexuality, and class in most episodes. I do empathize with Seinfeld and think everyone should read his full interview, because he has smart insight into how a modern comedian navigates the changing line of what is and isnât acceptable. To give grace where itâs due: Iâm often caught eliciting a heavy sigh when told whatâs not âOKâ to say or joke about anymore. But the exhale isnât resignation; it makes room for a rejuvenation, the energy and thrill of making things smarter, better, and, because of that, funnier. Thereâs no heroism in this. Itâs what the field of comedy is, and so many of the most successful people in the business do it all the time. I can imagine that, with those comments, Seinfeld thought he was swinging a wrecking ball at concrete walls that he feels have been built around freedom of comedy, but really was just firing a tiny BB gun at it. And, to his surprise, the pellets sailed right through anyway because, as the discussion this week proved, those walls are invisible. Advertisement
I Get It, Babs Iâve never felt more of a kinship with [Barbra Streisand]( than when she [accidentally commented]( on [Melissa McCarthy](âs Instagram not realizing that everyone in the world could see. I am someone whose most commonly texted phrase is, âOops! That was meant for someone else,â because my brain is incapable of understanding that just because you have the thought of opening up a text chain with someone doesnât mean your phone actually does itâand I end up texting my last-messaged, now very confused contact instead. I have accidentally sent texts and Slacks talking shit about someone to the actual person so many times that I am surprised I still have friends, family, and am employed. So when Streisand commented on an Instagram photo of McCarthy with director Adam Shankman, âGive my regards did you take Ozempic?â I wasnât scandalized. I didnât ridicule. I sent empathy. Even better is the humorous stride with which McCarthy took this. First of all, if anyone saw a photo of me, let alone Barbra Streisand, and their first thought was to ask if Iâm taking Ozempic, Iâd be so flattered I would cry. I canât think of a higher compliment. I love how McCarthy responded: âThe takeaway is Barbra Streisand knows I exist.â How often is a celebrity âcontroversyâ actually kind of sweet and fun? The Future Is Finally Bright The new season of And Just Like That is officially back in production, THANK GOD. In the months since [Carrie Bradshaw]( and her girlies last unfurled their weekly batshit storylines and dialogue at our screens, the world has grown darker. The cosmos have been out of alignment. My body has started to decay. But a balm has arrived, in the form of [Sarah Jessica Parker]( [posting a photo]( of the table read script for the Season 3 premiere, a sign that collective healing is about to begin. If that werenât enough, itâs been revealed that [Rosie OâDonnell is joining the cast](. I am not exaggerating when I say that Rosie OâDonnell joining Season 3 of And Just Like That will save us all. This Is So Cool There are other things to talk about when it comes to [Challengers]( besides how [spectacularly]( [horny]( [it is](, I swear. And now that Iâve calmed the carnal desire to make out with every single person I see that began the minute my screening of the movie ended, I can spotlight one undersung element: What a remarkable athletic feat it was on the part of the actors to pull off the tennis in this movie. Case in point: This photo of star Mike Faist. I Am Speechless Letâs face it: Never in the history of the act of stunning has anyone stunned more than Nicole Kidman stuns [in this photo](. More From The Daily Beastâs Obsessed I wrote about Elisabeth Moss surviving the greatest challenge of her career: keeping me calm as an earthquake hit while I was interviewing her. [Read more](. The Challengers boys are making people horny for guys with big ears. [Read more](. The Idea of You is perfect, and this interview with writer Robinne Lee is a great read. [Read more](. [See This] - The Idea of You: I canât stress enough [how great]( this rom-com is. (Now on Prime Video) - The Fall Guy: Also, I canât stress enough [how great]( this rom-com is. (Now in theaters) - Hacks: And while Iâm stressing [how great]( things are: May I present to you the new season of Hacks? (Now on Max) [Skip This] - Unfrosted: Jerry Seinfeld made a movie about the origin of Pop-Tarts. Would you believe [it isnât good](? (Now on Netflix) Like our take on what to watch?
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