When one of the most famous and beloved entertainers on the planet says he won’t perform for college students — a demographic practically hardwired to fawn over celebrities of even questionable talent — it’s a little like Derek Jeter saying he hates playing in the Bronx, or Billy Graham revealing he never felt quite welcome in the South. 
 
 But that’s what comedian Jerry Seinfeld just told ESPN’s Colin Cowherd: he doesn’t play colleges, where you’d think someone of his stature and his pop culture relevance would be appreciated, if not worshiped. 
 
 If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can play Columbia, and Rand Paul can play Howard University, what keeps Jerry Seinfeld from going into far friendlier territory? 
 
 College students today are just too politically correct. 
 
 Worse, he says they don’t even understand the political things about which they are straining to be correct. 
 
 "They just want to use these words," he said. Like, "‘That’s racist;’ ‘That’s sexist;’ ‘That’s prejudice.’ They don’t know what the f-k they’re talking about." 
 
 He’s not alone. According to Cowherd, Larry the Cable Guy won’t play colleges, and Chris Rock has also said he doesn’t because everything there is taken as offensive. 
 
 It’s an astute observation by Seinfeld, who made a career out of observational comedy ("Why do they call it a ‘building?’ It looks like they’re finished. Why isn’t it a ‘built’?") 
 
 Indeed, it must be jarring for a boomer like Seinfeld, who went to college in the early 70s, when students were debating real issues freely, to confront today’s college campuses, where students often invent issues about which to be aggrieved, many times on behalf of other parties, and then have to find "free speech zones" in which to discuss them. 
 
 Consider the uproar over a statue of a man talking to a woman at a Texas college, which some decided was a depiction of "mansplaining," or a man patronizingly explaining something to a woman. Paul Tadlock, the 79-year-old sculptor, said the piece — done for 20 years before its offense was "discovered" — merely depicted his daughter, a student at the time, talking to a friend. 
 
 Then there were the students at UC-Berkeley, who called for "an occupation of syllabi in the social sciences and humanities," which sounds serious. Rodrigo Kazuo and Meg Perret felt aggrieved that a classical philosophy course had the audacity to cover actual thought leaders from classical philosophy, including Plato and Aristotle — because they all happened to be white men. 
 
 And earlier this year a male student at Portland, Oregon’s Reed College was removed from the discussion portion of his freshman humanities class for questioning the statistics on college sexual assaults and challenging whether or not there is such a thing as a "rape culture." 
 
 Why on earth would a comedian like Seinfeld, whose career has focused on humorously pointing out absurdities bring his act to such an utterly humorless and incorrigibly politically correct setting? 
 
 In the past few years, Seinfeld’s confronted levels of political correctness that would have likely made his show an impossibility today. Last year, he was asked why the show featured so many white men and he responded, "People think [COMEDY]is the census or something, it’s got to represent the actual pie chart of America. Who cares?" 
 
 His boredom for these kinds of inquiries is palpable and understandable. The genius of the show, of course, was in Seinfeld and Larry David’s obsession with crossing the arbitrary and meaningless lines of "civil society" that demarcated what you were and were not supposed to say in polite company. 
 
 But imagine the hyperventilating headlines if "Seinfeld" aired fresh today: 
 
 Jerry ‘mansplains’ feminism to Elaine! 
 
 George's anti-Asian microaggressions! 
 
 Kramer stereotypes pimps! 
 
 Elaine slutshames braless friend! 
 
 Seinfeld’s distaste for college audiences is understandable, but lamentable. These are exactly the crowds who need to be shown how infantile their uninformed twitches at self-serious activism are. 
 
 But if "Seinfeld," the show, detested anything more than political correctness, it was altruism. As Jerry once said of the true spirit of Christmas, it’s "people being helped by people other than me." 
 
 So let’s hope someone else steps in to teach college students how to take themselves less seriously. 
 
 Contact Cupp at www.thesecupp.com ||||| Jerry Seinfeld made headlines earlier this week when he revealed in a radio interview that he no longer performs at college campuses because of the political correctness. While Seinfeld is known for being a clean comedian, who doesn’t use profanity in his routines and rarely delves into controversial topics, he thinks the obsession with being politically correct hurts comedy as a whole. 
 
 When Seinfeld stopped by Late Night on Tuesday night, host Seth Meyers engaged him on the topic along with New Yorker editor David Remnick, who was also on the show. Seinfeld held his line saying that there is a “creepy P.C. thing out there that really bothers” him, using an example of one of his jokes whose punchline is about a “gay French king.” He’s seemingly worried that it is becoming inappropriate for him to suggest that gay people “move their hands in a flourishing motion.” He feels that the lines of what is and is not politically correct are being constantly moved inwards, to the detriment of comedy. 
 
 It was nice of Seinfeld to stick around for the conversation, because earlier in the episode he made it clear that he did not want to be on the show at all: 
 
 Read next: Watch Jerry Seinfeld and Julia Louis-Dreyfus Having a Mini Seinfeld Reunion 
 
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 Listen to the most important stories of the day. ||||| American comedian Andy Gross has been left without an audience after hundreds of students walked out of his performance at Purdue University in Indiana on Saturday. 
 
 Gross, a former professional racquetball player, was reportedly making sexually inappropriate comments that members of the audience said bordered on harassment. Students left the performance saying they felt uncomfortable with how Gross was treating a participating female member of the crowd. 
 
 The show was part of Purdue’s annual Boiler Gold Rush event, which is a week long welcoming for freshman. Speaking to the Indianapolis Star, freshman Andore Fess said the show became uncomfortable when Gross asked for a volunteer. 
 
 “He brought up one of our Supers, which is a leader in our BGR orientation program, and he proceeded to harass her,” Fess said. “He made her stand closer and closer to him and made a joke about that giving him an erection and making his pants seem to say ‘let me out,’ referring to his genitals.” 
 
 Gross then stood back-to-back with the women and asked her to touch his thigh, Fess said. “I was pretty angry and just in shock that this seemingly very famous person was treating women like this at a school, and he continues to make jokes at the expense of women. He made a Matt Lauer joke. It was very distasteful, and once he started doing that, people in the audience started to get up. He just kept making sexual jokes even as the crowd was leaving.” 
 
 Purdue University has since issued a statement in regards to the performance, as per The Indy Channel: 
 
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 “On Saturday night, a comedian performed as part of our BGR student orientation closing session. Accounts differ as to what exactly happened on stage, but some portions of the performance were clearly inappropriate and contrary to the university’s values of respect and support for all. We will not work with this comedian again and are proud of our students who are standing up and voicing their concerns about the performance.” 
 
 Purdue University did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Other students took to social media to share their experience—using the hashtag #AndyGrossIsGross. People were also tagging Jimmy Fallon asking him to cancel an upcoming segment with Andy Gross for The Tonight Show. An NBC spokesperson told NBC's WTHR 13 that Gross was “never scheduled to appear” on the show. 
 
 “Last night, I shared my experience with sexual assault in front of 7,000 new students at Purdue,” one Twitter user wrote. “Moments later, I watched my friend get sexually harassed by Andy Gross on the same stage. Now, I can’t wait to watch us end his career.” 
 
 Another person wrote: “Imagine it’s your first weekend on campus and you sit through a brave young girl talk about her sexual assault only to then witness a grown man sexually harass another girl on stage in front of everyone… I hope no one gives this man the time of day again.” 
 
 In a statement to Newsweek, Gross' representatives said he was "profoundly sorry" that students were offended. "Andy has performed all segments of last weekend’s act for many years without complaint, including in venues such as the Laugh Factory, the Comedy Store, the Improv, and dozens of venues throughout the United States and abroad. 
 
 "Andy has never before been accused of sexual misconduct or harassment. Andy was oblivious and naive about the current environment on college campuses, and he sincerely regrets causing any offense or discomfort to any student participating. Andy has chosen to no longer perform on college campuses in the future. Further, he plans to change the parts that upset Purdue’s students. Again, Andy Gross sincerely regrets causing offense or discomfort." 
 
 This article was updated with comment from Andy Gross. ||||| NEW BRUNSWICK —It’s 9 a.m. on a Tuesday morning at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and 10 medical students sit around a conference table covered by coffee cups and clipboards. 
 
 Preparing to start their morning rounds, the students chat about what they watched on television the night before. 
 
 “Jerry’s girlfriend doesn’t like George,” third-year student Marlene Wang says, referring to the iconic 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld." “And he just couldn’t live with the idea of this person not liking him.” 
 
 This isn’t a discussion about nothing. More than 15 years after the final episode, "Seinfeld" is the basis for “Psy-feld,” a teaching tool designed to help medical students identify and discuss psychiatric disorders. 
 
 Every Monday and Thursday, third- and fourth-year medical students in the hospital’s psychiatric rotation are assigned to watch the 6 p.m. episode of "Seinfeld" on TBS. They begin rounds the following morning by discussing what psychopathology was demonstrated on the episode. 
 
 Wang says George demonstrates signs of narcissism as he neglects his own girlfriend to focus on Jerry’s. But fellow third-year student Ryan Townsend isn’t convinced. 
 
 “I wouldn’t say he is completely narcissistic because he actually starts to enjoy the idea that she doesn’t like him,” Townsend says from the other end of the table. “Narcissists can’t stand the idea that people don’t like them.” 
 
 The discussion is exactly what Anthony Tobia said he had in mind when he created what he calls Psy-feld in 2009. Although not a course, it is required part of the training Tobia provides. 
 
 “You have a very diverse group of personality traits that are maladaptive on the individual level,” said Tobia, an associate professor of psychiatry at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “When you get these friends together the dynamic is such that it literally creates a plot: Jerry’s obsessive compulsive traits combined with Kramer’s schizoid traits, with Elaine’s inability to forge meaningful relationships and with George being egocentric.” 
 
 Database of shows 
 
 Yes, for those who remember, there is a "Seinfeld" episode with a subplot about Kramer acting out diseases for medical students. But, no, that’s not where Tobia got the idea for Psy-feld. 
 
 The concept stems from a discussion with students about the final episodes of TV shows. That connected "Seinfeld" to an idea a student had for making a teaching tool about the characters in "Lost." 
 
 While it’s not unusual for medical school instructors to make reference to a television show or movie, requiring about 150 students a year to watch "Seinfeld" twice a week is, Tobia said. 
 
 “You cannot possibly pitch this idea to administration at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School without getting buy in from your chairman, and that’s not easy,” Tobia said. “Which is why most courses will start with what is traditional and allow course directors and teachers to reference film.” 
 
 Tobia is so sold on the concept he’s created a database of every "Seinfeld" episode and its teaching points. All 180 episodes and nearly every character in the series can be used for Psy-feld, he said. 
 
 For instance, five of Elaine’s boyfriends are the topic of an academic paper Tobia penned explaining how the men display core character traits that match the themes of delusional disorder. 
 
 Other characters, like Jerry’s foil, Newman, are “very sick,” Tobia said. 
 
 “Newman’s sense of self, his meaning in life, is to ensure that he frustrates Jerry,” Tobia said. “We actually have talked about Newman in that context and related him to Erik in 'The Phantom of the Opera.' The Phantom, while he starts out as being the tutor to the Prima Donna, actually has his life change and he is bent on revenge and that becomes who he is… and that’s Newman.” 
 
 The 'aha' moment 
 
 Fourth-year medical student Jason Breig struggled at first to see past the show’s humor. 
 
 Elaine’s difficulties with men seemed like bad luck, and George was just funny, he said. But after a few episodes, he said he began watching with a different perspective. 
 
 “You start watching and you’re like, ‘What is going on with George?’ Breig said. 
 
 Wang, who identified George’s egocentrism, said watching "Seinfeld" gives her more practical and relatable examples than any textbook could. 
 
 “In this way, it just gives you a more solid picture of the pathology rather than just giving you words,” Wang said. 
 
 The hope is that students have an “aha” moment, the kind that doesn’t come from a PowerPoint presentation, said Tom Draschil, one of the psychiatric department’s chief residents. 
 
 Nothing in medicine can fully be learned without experiencing it real life, Draschil said. But watching it on television helps, and the funnier a program is, the more teaching points it has for psychiatry, he added. 
 
 Tobia uses a similar approach in a monthly elective for medical students. In a lecture hall, students watch a full-length film, like "Fargo," and live-tweet their thoughts about characters’ potential disorders at the bottom of the screen. 
 
 He’s also pitching a course that would involve real-time Twitter discussion as students watch TV’s most can’t-miss shows live in their own home. 
 
 “In order for a surgeon to teach from a movie or TV show, there has to be surgery,” Tobia said. “In order for an internist to teach from a movie or TV show, there has to be the portrayal of an illness. Well, every movie, every TV show has human behavior, so a psychiatrist should be able to teach.” 
 
 Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
– Jerry Seinfeld made some waves by telling ESPN radio this week that he doesn't do shows on college campuses anymore because students are too politically correct. He doubled down on Seth Meyers' show last night, complaining about the "creepy PC thing out there," an atmosphere in which people are more likely to take offense than laugh at a joke, reports Time. For example, he's got a line about how someone scrolling emphatically through his phone looks like a "gay French king," but he senses audience hesitation, apparently because it's offensive to suggest that gay people "move their hands in a flourishing motion.” At the Daily News, SE Cupp is sympathetic and understands why he'd shy away from colleges— but she thinks it's "lamentable" because "these are exactly the crowds who need to be shown how infantile their uninformed twitches at self-serious activism are." Cupp complains that students today shut down debate and "often invent issues about which to be aggrieved." If not Seinfeld, "let’s hope someone else steps in to teach college students how to take themselves less seriously." One of those students, meanwhile, has penned an open letter to Seinfeld at the Huffington Post suggesting that he needs to sharpen his act. Jokes today can no longer be offensive "for the sake of being offensive"—they need to be smart and provocative, too, writes Anthony Berteaux. (He cites Amy Schumer as someone who tackles edgy subjects well.) "So, yes, Mr. Seinfeld, we college students are politically correct," he writes. "We will call out sexism and racism if we hear it. But if you're going to come to my college and perform in front of me, be prepared to write up a set that doesn't just offend me, but has something to say." (Click to see what show Seinfeld thinks is "one of the best comedies of all time.")