Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee shows how Jerry Seinfeld's humor was perfect for the 1990s but out of sync for 2018

Vulture

"No one would ever accuse Seinfeld of being woke, but there are times in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee when he seems to be the anti-woke," says Jen Chaney, citing Seinfeld's jokes this season about Harvey Weinstein and using retrograde phrases like "this is gay." The first Netflix season, she adds, "demonstrates, purely by accident, why Seinfeld’s humor felt so right in the 1990s and feels less in sync with the current moment. The ‘90s were steeped in postmodernism: irony, satire, and sarcasm were celebrated qualities in works of mainstream pop culture. Seinfeld’s blasé attitude and his gift for highlighting and questioning societal minutiae fit in perfectly in that era and, ultimately, exemplified it. But in 2018, when the world is bursting apart every five minutes, complaining about little things comes across as selfish and being ambivalent is considered a flaw."

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