Only a brave comedian like Jerry Seinfeld.
Go Duke University! (Except when you’re playing the Badgers.) One of the more prestigious institutions of higher education courageously invited the un-PC Jerry Seinfeld to deliver its commencement address Sunday 05-12-24. (We are obsessed with Mr. Seinfeld like he was with Keith Hernandez.)
Seinfeld criticized Woke for killing comedy. Our universities are battle zones of intersectionality, complete with occupying encampments. At some schools, graduation ceremonies are canceled entirely. For safety reasons. Indeed, a couple dozen students walked out of Duke’s outdoors ceremony when he was introduced. (One theory: it was organized by Jerry’s nemesis, NEWMAN! See! We can laugh at the pomposity.)
No one is more humorless than a Woke campus commissar!
Or a Madison WI elected official.
Seinfeld addressed a Woke bete noire. “Privilege is a word that has taken quite a beating lately. Privilege today seems to be the worst thing you can have. I would like to take a moment to defend it. (A lot of you are thinking. I can’t believe they invited this guy!) Too late. I grew up a Jewish boy from New York. That is a privilege — if you want to be a comedian.”
[Graduates cheer]
If I messed up a funny story around my relatives, they would go. “That’s not how you tell that joke. The prostitute is has to be behind the drapes when the wife comes in.” That you went to Duke — that is an unbelievable privilege. I now have an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from Duke University. And if I can figure out a way to use that, I will. …
You’re never going to believe this: Harvard used to be a great place to go to school. Now, it’s Duke. You didn’t fake your fabulous education; you earned it; you deserve it.
When someone asks, where did you go to school? You say, “I went to Duke!” Watch them take that uncomfortable hard swallow.
Seinfeld defended humor. That humor must be defended is where Woke has taken us.
The slightly uncomfortable feeling of awkward humor is okay. It’s not something you need to fix. Totally admire the ambitions of your generation to create a more just and inclusive society. I think it is also wonderful that you care so much about not hurting other people’s feelings … but … what I need to tell you as a comedian, do not lose your sense of humor.
You can have no idea at this point in your life how much you are going to need it to get through. Not enough of life makes sense for you to be able to survive it without humor. And I know all of you here are going to use all of your brains and muscle and soul to improve the world … but it will still not make a whole hell of a lot of sense.
It’ll be a better, different, but still pretty insane mess, and it is worth the sacrifice of an occasional discomfort to have some laughs … even if it’s at the cost of occasional hard feelings, it’s okay. You got to laugh. That is the one thing at the end of your life you will not wish you did less of. …
[Applause]
→ “Jerry Seinfeld’s speech was the real news; Why did the media focus less on his words and more on the 30 protesters who didn’t hear them?” — The Atlantic magazine plays catch-up.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Seinfeld put his Jewish heritage front and center on a campus setting; he challenged graduates to be proud of privilege — they earned it — but be a little less cocksure. They will be wrong, and often. Humor is how we cope with fallibility. As commencement addresses go, this has to rank with Steve Jobs at Stanford 2005. One regret; Jerry Seinfeld didn’t begin his address with his exaggerated side-mouthed ‘voice”: “Hell-OOOOHHH!”
Can UW-Madison invite Bill Maher?
Ricky Gervais? Dennis Miller? Adam Carolla?
4 responses to “Who defends privilege on campus these days?”
Put any (ANY!) despicable JoKe of a Lefty comedian (PTOOEY) against him, and it’s Dennis Miller in a 1st Round TKO!
The Gotch
Jessie Watters is better . Recent broadcast about wages. $20/hr. at fast food job means you are making six figures a year. Two people means you are making well over $100,000 a year. The reason being; the $ and, count as figures. Does this mean that J.W. will now be hired as tRump’s accountant?
Yea, except the resturant closes because they can’t afford the wages. Just look at California. Lefty logic, Dick!
Or they replace you with a robot that can do the job just as well, or at least well enough. And automation is getting smarter, faster, and more versatile all the time. But leftists will probably push for some law saying that robots are people and need to be paid too because of equity or some other conveniently malleable concept.