Comedian Jerry Seinfeld believes the movie business is overdue to being replaced as the dominant form of cultural entertainment and storytelling.
In an interview promoting his directorial debut film on Netflix, Seinfeld observed that movies no longer captivate audiences like they used to where everyone would flock to see and discuss hit films.
Directing was “totally new to me,” Seinfeld said. “I thought I had done some cool stuff, but it was nothing like the way these [movie] people work. They’re so dead serious! They don’t have any idea that the movie business is over.”
“[F]ilm doesn’t occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives,” he said. “When a movie came out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked.”
He attributed this to the overwhelming amount of content competing for viewers’ attention today.
“Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see,” he said.
Seinfeld suggested stand-up comedy has risen to fill the cultural void, as the raw, unscripted nature of live performances allows audiences to truly see comedic authenticity and “trust” what they are watching.
“Depression? Malaise? I would say confusion. Disorientation replaced the movie business. Everyone I know in show business, every day, is going, What’s going on? How do you do this? What are we supposed to do now? … Audiences are now flocking to stand-up because it’s something you can’t fake. It’s like platform diving. You could say you’re a platform diver, but in two seconds we can see if you are or you aren’t. That’s what people like about stand-up. They can trust it. Everything else is fake.”
While streaming services have produced many new shows, decades-old sitcoms like Friends and Seinfeld remain hugely popular as their entertainment value has stood the test of time compared to much of today’s overtly politicized Hollywood output.
