Seth Rogen Has Message for Comedians Who Complain About ‘Cancel Culture’

Seth Rogen doesn’t care to complain about cancel culture. The comedian made an appearance on Good Morning Britain to promote his new book, Yearbook, where he admitted that he’s not sure why many comedians are worried about the dreaded cancel culture’s influence on the industry. “There are certain jokes that for sure have not aged well, but I think that’s the nature of comedy,” Rogen said, per Insider. “I think conceptually those movies are sound and I think there’s a reason they’ve lasted as far as people still watching and enjoying them today. Jokes are not things that necessarily are built to last.”

“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,” he continued. “To me, it’s not worth complaining about to the degree I see other comedians complaining about.”

Rogen says he’s never felt the need to go and search through his old tweets for anything that might condemn him among the Twitter woke crowd today. “I was never a comedian that made jokes that were truly designed to target groups that were subjugated in some way,” he said. “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 Twitter, I’ve never made a joke that’s outwardly horrific in some way, and if you have, I would question why you did that,” Rogen concluded. “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,” he finished.

The comedian has apologized for a few of his career choices in the past. Most recently in the Sunday Times, he publicly denounced his longtime friend and collaborator James Franco, promising to cut his professional ties with him after the actor was accused of sexually exploitive behavior by multiple women.

“I don’t know if I can define that right now during this interview,” he said, of the duo’s possible continued friendship. “I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic.” When asked whether or not the situation was painful for him, Rogen replied, “Yeah. But not as painful and difficult as it is for a lot of other people involved. I have no pity for myself in this situation.”