Did 'Man of Steel' Make Jerry Seinfeld Anti-PC?

To the many of us who were familiar with Jerry Seinfeld's work before he became the face of the Complaining About People Complaining About Political Correctness Committee it still feels like a bit of an odd turn for him.  For decades there were two things you could rely on from Seinfeld; precise, polished, clean cut comedy and an intense adoration for that champion of truth, justice, and the American way known as Superman.  Is it possible that the divisive 2013 film Man of Steel, based on Superman lore, played a part in turning the hero's most famous fan into a defender of crassness, insensitivity, and saying mean things?

When the movie came out Seinfeld seemed pretty excited about it, as evidenced by these tweets.

Seeing MOS this weekend.#willreport#justgladhezback

— Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) June 18, 2013

I will be reviewing Man of Steel on Friday.#ThanksSuperfans

— Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) June 20, 2013

That review never came, not on Friday or any day for months.  Half a year later in January, 2014 Seinfeld took part in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) where Man of Steel was brought up.  Then he had this to say:

I was so happy that they made another Superman movie! I'm really reluctant to be critical of it in any way. But I thought the glossing over of the figuring out a secret identity and why he felt he needed one was a huge missed opportunity for that character, and one of the most interesting things about Superman is the whole secret identity. So to me it was too much action / violence and not enough character study.

That's quite a modest response to a film so inflammatory from such an avid fan.  My own response was borderline vehement and I'm something of a stoic myself, as well as a faithful follower of the final Kryptonian.  I spent much of the movie desperately searching for something to like about it only to have something to hate slap me in the face.  In the second before "Superman" snapped his foe's neck as if he were the main course for fried chicken night on the Kent farm time slowed down and I whispered "no."  (At least I think I whispered.  After the deed someone in the back cheered and I suppose it's possible they shouted "yes" in response to my "no" in the front.)  I spent the rest of the night and most of the week in a daze trying to mediate between the optimism that I revere in the character and the film's total failure to honor that trait along with others on screen.  Ever since I have been pretty vocal about the opinion I landed on which is "fervently unfavorable."

Seinfeld, on the other hand, has been pretty quiet about it, and diplomatic on the one occasion that he acknowledged the film.  He was so excited for it and promised a review but kept his feeling to himself for six months.  In the seventh month he was interviewed by Buzzfeed where he was asked about the lack of diversity on his web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.  He reacted defensively and unapologetically.  Most would pinpoint the interview as the beginning of Seinfeld's battle with political correctness although it wasn't his first encounter with that specific issue.  His landmark sitcom Seinfeld was pretty white but not much more so than any other show of the time.  One episode, "The Diplomat's Club," had a story line about the character George attempting to prove himself not racist by making a friend out of a couple of black men he previously met in passing or whose home he invaded.

For over a year after the Buzzfeed interview Seinfeld was pretty quiet about the PC thing until he told ESPN radio that the grapevine had informed him of what inhospitable environments college campuses were to comedy.  The same week he got involved in a conversation about the topic on Late Night with Seth Meyers where he called the whole thing "creepy."  That's when he became a poster boy for the fight to say whatever you want all the time.

If I were to guess I would say Seinfeld's silence on Man of Steel may have been the result of not wanting to upset Warner Brothers, which no doubt has an aversion to having one of the most famous comedians in history bash the building block of their superhero cinematic universe.  That could be why he turned his anger at the audience and their perceived attempts at censorship.

In the previously mentioned AMA Seinfeld was asked about his decision to keep his comedy clean.  He said it was out of aspirations to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and that he continued with it after reaching that goal to stand out from the crowd.  Perhaps now that his fellow comics are trending towards watching their words Seinfeld is going in the other direction out of the desire to go against the grain that all creative people share.

One of the main themes of Seinfeld is the rules of polite society and the consequences of faux pas.  The characters are constantly putting their feet in their mouths and dealing with the fallout.  Maybe real life Jerry finally got so tired of playing by the rules and accepting the punishments of failure that he started to blame the game.

Despite Seinfeld's pristine reputation racial sameness was far from his show's only controversy.  A certain contest comes to mind but modern "social justice warriors" aren't terribly concerned with sexual content.  Homosexuality, on the other hand, is a matter of grave importance but on that front the show was somewhat progressive, at least for the 90's.  Declaring "not that there's anything wrong with that" was practically a rainbow flag for 1993 and that episode actually earned a GLAAD Media award.  If anything, it was a problem for a different, more conservative kind of PC culture, the remnants of which are still protesting things like gay comic book characters.

It's hard to claim moral superiority when your characters are as callous as the ones in Seinfeld.  When George's fiance died in "The Invitations" he, Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer reacted with a cold detachment.  In "The Marine Biologist," when Jerry goes out of his way to help a woman Elaine finds his charity so uncharacteristic that she suggests he's trying to sleep with the woman to which he replies "when Superman saves someone no one asks if he's trying to hit on her!"  That's why I've always been fascinated by the passion for Superman shared by both the real and fictional Jerry Seinfeld.  So powerful is the magnetic pull of the Metropolis Marvel's righteousness that it can affect even the moral compass of such cold and cynical people as the characters on Seinfeld.

Then in 2013 real life Jerry Seinfeld saw his hero take a man's life with his bare hands.  I like to think that's where the problem started.  Seinfeld saw the most hopeful, kind, and generous part of himself commit well intentioned manslaughter and it broke him.  If Superman can perform the worst sin known to man maybe the "what's the deal with airline food?" guy can be an edgy voice of rebellion against censorship.  If Superman can kill how good can Jerry Seinfeld be?  If Superman can kill there must be something wrong with society.  There can't be something wrong with Jerry Seinfeld.  Perhaps Jerry Seinfeld is projecting his problems onto someone else.