Seth Rogen has spent his career cracking jokes about everything from prepubescent struggles to political stereotypes, and most of it is quite literally captured on film. It may come as a surprise, then, that Rogen is distancing himself from fellow comedians who believe cancel culture will be the death of their industry. In a new interview with Good Morning Britain, Rogen said that he’s accepted some jokes in his older movies have aged poorly because that’s “the nature of comedy,” not “cancel culture.”
“I think conceptually those movies are sound and I think there’s a reason they’ve lasted. Jokes are not things that necessarily are built to last,” said Rogen in the interview. “To me, when I see comedians complaining about this kind of thing, I don’t understand what they’re complaining about. If you’ve made a joke that’s aged terribly, accept it. And if you don’t think it’s aged terribly, then say that.”
Honestly, it’s a welcome surprise to see a guy who runs his own cannabis company disarm cancel culture — which is practically a mainstream boogeyman now — so swiftly and accurately, and hopefully his peers are taking notes. “Getting criticism is one of the things that goes along with being an artist, and if you don’t like that, then don’t be a comedian anymore,” he continued. “To me, it’s not worth complaining about to the degree I see other comedians complaining about.”
Related Video
When asked by the Good Morning Britain host if he’s deleted old tweets due to inappropriate jokes, the Pam & Tommy star said he’s never had to because he’s not that kind of comedian. “I was never a comedian that made jokes that were truly designed to target groups that were subjugated in some way,” explained Rogen. “Have we done that without realizing it? Definitely. And those things are in our movies and they’re out there, and they’re things that I am more than happy to say that they have not aged well.”
“But in my career I’ve never made a joke that’s outwardly horrific in some way, and if you have, I would question why you did that,” continued Rogen. “Saying terrible things is bad, so if you’ve said something terrible, then it’s something you should confront in some way, shape or form. I don’t think that’s ‘cancel culture’, that’s you saying something terrible, if that’s what you’ve done.”
It looks like Rogen genuinely wants to keep growing to become the best person he can be, both in terms of the quality of his work and the company he keeps. Earlier this month, Rogen shocked fans be revealing that he has “no plans” to work with his lifelong costar and friend James Franco ever again due to the sexual misconduct allegations against him. Eventually, you have to draw a line and stand behind it, and it looks like that era of Rogen’s life is starting now.
