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Op-Ed: Why Jerry Seinfeld’s YouTube comments are completely wrong

Jerry Seinfeld has been making quite a few headlines recently for his controversial comments about the popular video sharing website YouTube. When asked about his thoughts on user-generated content on the Internet, the popular comedian responded by saying, “We have a giant garbage can called YouTube for user-generated content.” He went on to explain he wants to see less of this type of content, which he called “crap.”

Now, before I get into why Seinfeld’s comments really tick me off, let me just say I have a great deal of respect for him. Personally, I have never really been a fan of Jerry Seinfeld’s work but he is a successful comedian and rightfully so. He has a brilliant mind and his work has appealed to millions of people. With that being said, he is completely wrong about YouTube and about user-generated content in general.

First of all, I understand there is a lot of low quality content on YouTube. There are a lot of random fart videos and a lot ridiculous cat videos. We all know that. But that’s not really what I’m talking about when I say Jerry Seinfeld is wrong about YouTube and I don’t think that’s necessarily what he’s talking about either.

Over the last several years, successful YouTube channels have been popping up left and right. Not only are there YouTube channels which show clips from some of the major network shows like Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, but several independent actors, writers, comedians and producers have been putting their original content up on the site as well in hopes of getting some exposure and possibly make a little extra cash. In fact, YouTube offers an ad-sharing program that gives money to some content producers based on view counts and other factors and has even allowed many of the more popular YouTubers to make a decent living producing their original content.

As for what type of original content you can find on YouTube, it’s basically limitless. Because anyone can post content on the website, there are comedy channels, political channels, sports channels and even a few story-line based channels.

Brothers Benny and Rafi Fine started their now popular YouTube channel “The Fine Bros” several years ago. With high production quality, professional sets and well over 12 million subscribers, the channel features several popular series including their “react” series, which had its own spin-off on Nickelodeon in 2014.

Another popular content creator on YouTube is Shane Dawson. He has three channels and his unique sense of humor has reached millions of people through his well-produced sketch videos and parodies and even his daily “vlogs.” Now, Seinfeld may not enjoy certain types of content but I think the millions of people who watch these two channels daily would probably disagree with him on the whole “garbage can” thing.

I’m not the only one who has called Seinfeld out on his comments. In fact, some of the YouTube content creators themselves have taken to the world wide web to express their disappointment in the comedian. YouTuber Ricky Dillon took to Twitter last Friday to point out the irony in Seinfeld’s comments, considering the fact that he had once featured YouTuber Miranda Sings on his show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

disappointed in what Jerry Seinfeld said about @youtube when he himself had miranda sings (a youtuber) as a guest lol

Another reaction came on Shane Dawson’s channel, where YouTuber Alexis G. Zall, who has a popular channel of her own, posted a video talking about Seinfeld’s comments. In the video, she not only poked fun at Seinfeld’s age but also criticized his social media presence, suggesting that he could never be successful as a YouTuber.

In a nutshell, Seinfeld is just completely misinformed on modern media. While there is a lot of “crap” on YouTube and on the Internet, there is also a lot of quality content made by people who are passionate and serious about their work. And the kind of comments Seinfeld is making should be offensive to not only YouTubers but to anyone who works hard to produce content on the internet, including writers such as myself. That’s why, instead of watching the new episodes of Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, I think I’ll head on over to YouTube and see what I can find.

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