Imagine how hard it is to try to think creatively when you have to keep in the back of your mind the need to conform to ever narrower and more unpredictable ideological restrictions. Then imagine how much harder it is to tell a joke. Humor is inherently about questioning received opinions and highlighting unexamined absurdities, small and large. Imagine having to watch out to make sure you don’t point out the absurdities that are off-limits for examination.

So maybe this new wave of comedians don’t want to be funny—or maybe they’re just not capable of it anymore, and they’re making a virtue of necessity.

Meanwhile, the old-fashioned comedians who don’t care about the woke restrictions will have to be dethroned, starting with the reigning king of comedy, Jerry Seinfeld. A review of his interview show, “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”—does it need any explanation?—worries that the show is “extra jarring…right now, given the warm reception that Hannah Gadsby’s ‘Nanette’ has received.”