Jerry Seinfeld: The Audience Is Always Right

With a television series that affected American culture and a net worth of around $1 billion, Emmy Award-winning comedian Jerry Seinfeld can afford to be picky about where to perform. He certainly does not need to care about what his detractors think of him.

In a 2018 interview with The New York Times, Seinfeld was asked about performing at colleges. He replied, “I play colleges all the time. I would never say there’s any place I don’t like these audiences.” He went on to say, “I want to make them like what I do. I don’t always succeed but that’s my job. And never blame them, never. The worst possible situation—the deadest, most hostile crowd—I don’t care. It’s still my puzzle. That’s a professional attitude that I’d never ever compromise.”

Physicians care for a broad range of patients, doing what we can to improve their lives. Some of those patients may be hard to please, perhaps because they are suffering or maybe due to their personality. Should we ever blame patients when they are dissatisfied? Is it our professional attitude to make it our responsibility, our puzzle, to best meet their needs?

Throughout our careers, we continue to learn what we can to give our patients the best possible care. In this issue, we address advances such as the use of telemedicine for pediatric patients and the gamification of patient education. These topics are reflective of how we must be flexible and evolve our practice along with the technologies available to us and our patients.

We may not always make everyone happy but, like Seinfeld, we should neither let it get us down, nor should we stop trying.