― mark s, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― david h(owie), Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Andrew L, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N., Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Anyway, I want to hate this show, it's the type of cultural phenomenon that normally annoys me, but every time I stumble across a rerun I end up watching it and having some good laffs. Last night I saw the one where Elaine dates a mover but breaks up with him because of his stance on abortion. And George invites himself over to a family's house to watch their rented copy of Breakfast at Tiffany's because he didn't read the book for his study group. It was funny. I'll say classic.
― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:39 (twenty years ago) link
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:46 (twenty years ago) link
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:49 (twenty years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:53 (twenty years ago) link
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:54 (twenty years ago) link
BBC2 didin't treat these shows like the comedy gold they were (sticking them late evening etc WTF?!) whereas crap like friends and will and grace get prime time on C4 (OK the former was funny for the first two series).
crosspost: daddino doesn't rock anymore.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:55 (twenty years ago) link
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:56 (twenty years ago) link
I HAVEN'T EVEN BEGUN TO ROCK YET!
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:56 (twenty years ago) link
I'm afraid of you.
George Constanza is a brilliant character. A recognizable, even sympathetic monster.
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:57 (twenty years ago) link
Witness this and this. As well as this, once in a while.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 24 May 2003 20:03 (twenty years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 24 May 2003 20:23 (twenty years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Saturday, 24 May 2003 23:50 (twenty years ago) link
Also, I'm fairly sure I would love Larry Sanders, but I've never seen it because of the stupid fucking BBC.
― Nick H, Sunday, 25 May 2003 00:09 (twenty years ago) link
But I do think it's a great show, and sometimes ridiculously funny. And I think the "nihilism" (but it's not that - it's a sympathetic portrait of failed humanity) is what makes it great. Curb Your Enthusiasm does this too, but too much so - we need some real humor and niceness along with the nasty stuff. Also, the particularly New York voice of the show. Complaining about the hackneyed plot lines is like complaining that Buffy has to kill a vampire every week (well, ok, maybe there's something to that).
It's not my personal favorite tv show - I like sentimental, yuppie-sensibility stuff like Mad About You and Northern Exposure, which I won't make greatness claims for. And It's not the greatest tv show ever - whatever that is, it's probably not a sitcom - but I think a good argument can be made for best sitcom of the last 25 years
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Sunday, 25 May 2003 00:24 (twenty years ago) link
― Carey (Carey), Sunday, 25 May 2003 00:28 (twenty years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 25 May 2003 01:16 (twenty years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Sunday, 25 May 2003 01:18 (twenty years ago) link
― Nicole (Nicole), Sunday, 25 May 2003 01:55 (twenty years ago) link
― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 25 May 2003 02:07 (twenty years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Sunday, 25 May 2003 07:26 (twenty years ago) link
― luna (luna.c), Sunday, 25 May 2003 07:49 (twenty years ago) link
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 25 May 2003 07:50 (twenty years ago) link
I totally disagree with this. I've come to HATE the basic attitude of Seinfeld - I watch it every night, it's the only thing on TV in New Zealand - and Jerry's whole, 'My parents love me, aren't I adorable, you all love me, and I'm just gonna be a fucking bastard because I can' thing is really wearying after a while. Seinfeld doesn't even break a sweat. He's always as cool as a cucumber, looking at everyone else - looking at girls - and the sneer is never too far away. Larry David seems much humbler - he can hardly bear to look anyone else in the face, let alone laugh AT them. This makes 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' seem much, much nicer to me.
― m-ry-nn (m-ry-nn), Sunday, 25 May 2003 07:52 (twenty years ago) link
― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Sunday, 25 May 2003 08:41 (twenty years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Sunday, 25 May 2003 09:15 (twenty years ago) link
― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Sunday, 25 May 2003 09:33 (twenty years ago) link
― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Sunday, 25 May 2003 09:34 (twenty years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 25 May 2003 10:43 (twenty years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Sunday, 25 May 2003 10:45 (twenty years ago) link
Seinfeld has ruined me for all other sitcoms: I can't watch any of them without getting bored. I think it's actually gotten better in syndication: the episodes I thought were lame first time around seem funnier to me now. There's also a tragic, hopeless undercurrent to the humor that's perfectly disguised by its breeziness, tho it's probably fatal to take Seinfeld too seriously.
Also, after watching it 53,000,000 times I think I've started to fancy Elaine a bit.
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 25 May 2003 12:58 (twenty years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Sunday, 25 May 2003 18:16 (twenty years ago) link
― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 25 May 2003 19:22 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 25 May 2003 19:32 (twenty years ago) link
― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 25 May 2003 19:33 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 25 May 2003 19:34 (twenty years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Sunday, 25 May 2003 19:38 (twenty years ago) link
― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 25 May 2003 19:44 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 25 May 2003 19:47 (twenty years ago) link
― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 25 May 2003 20:01 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 25 May 2003 20:06 (twenty years ago) link
― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 25 May 2003 20:13 (twenty years ago) link
― sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 25 May 2003 22:40 (twenty years ago) link
But I'm not entirely without complaint.
They truly should have found someone else to play Seinfeld. In a stellarcomedic cast he stood out as a rank amateur, often botching the proceedings. The scripts stroke his ego shamelessly, pairing him withan endless parade of beautiful women and sparing him the severest discomfort. And his standup was horrible, an unintentional joke.
But he couldn't stop the show from being brilliant! Starting abouthalfway through the second season, the writers were so great atlayering several absurd storylines, culminating in these chaoticcomedic orgies that can only be compared to end-of-episodeclimaxes in _Fawlty Towers_. How come more sitcoms don'thave this format, instead of a boring linear string of sometimes-funny wisecracks? Mindless jokes _Seinfeld_ decidedly IS NOT.
Thing is, the early episodes were pretty crappy - that's partlywhy I think people don't like them, they got a bad taste in theirmouth early on and never gave it a second chance.
Also, the episodes are highly self-referential, so you haveto watch it from the opening credits, or half the jokes don'tmake any sense whatever.
And woah, are there actually people named Shoshanna?I know a Shoshanna and I thought that her name was a bizzare hippie side effect.
Oh yeah, and the sight of a pimp Kramer beingarrested for assaulting a prostitute = one of the bestendings ever.
― squirl plise (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 26 May 2003 01:00 (twenty years ago) link
they kinda did this same sketch a few years later as a game show. glad it's on YouTube now because I've been looking for it forever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsJYmf_G5d0
― frogbs, Thursday, 2 May 2024 13:48 (one week ago) link
Lots of otm comments on here lately.Cracks about his act become a running gag---he's selling out in reverse (or becoming The Great Hack)(or both of those, because he knows letting on that he is or "is" a hack is now good for business, on this hip show). At least once, it even leads to a confrontation (if you can't see it: the hawt Suthun Belle tells Jerreh she's seen his act).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3kTYCLSgsg
― dow, Friday, 3 May 2024 01:25 (six days ago) link
Tracy Kolis! She also plays Kelly (quite a different character---or is she) in "The Soup," Bania's debut:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soup_(Seinfeld)
― dow, Friday, 3 May 2024 01:38 (six days ago) link
More fuel for Jerrynalysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL2sr99Sv18
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 3 May 2024 12:23 (six days ago) link
Just catching up on the fantastic discussion that has gone down in this thread over the past several days. Question about that 1985 backstage SNL sketch, though: are they specifically making fun of Seinfeld, or was this specific style that much of a cliché of stand-up comedians at the time? It’s so on the nose that it’s hard to imagine it’s not the former, but how much of their audience would actually have gotten the reference? I WANNA KNOW!
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Friday, 3 May 2024 13:37 (six days ago) link
was wondering the same. I thought Seinfeld himself was relatively unknown until the show.
― frogbs, Friday, 3 May 2024 13:40 (six days ago) link
My best guess is that it’s one of those things, like half of the bits in Zucker Brothers movies, that is a pretty straight parody of a specific thing (in this case Seinfeld), but it’s funny enough that lots of people enjoy it as something random and inspired, with no idea that it’s referencing something at all, let alone what that thing is
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Friday, 3 May 2024 13:44 (six days ago) link
jerry was definitely known in 1985! everybody did stand-up like that by then. he was on the Tonight Show way before 1985. he started in the 70s. i certainly remember him from television back then and i am not a professional comedian. he was on Letterman a lot. like Leno.
― scott seward, Friday, 3 May 2024 13:52 (six days ago) link
that whole "did you ever notice..." thing started in the 70s. george carlin would start jokes like that. david brenner was a big influence on the 80s people.
― scott seward, Friday, 3 May 2024 13:57 (six days ago) link
Otm, yeah i think its one of those things where that style was the dominant mode and also Jerry was also one of its most visible proponents, so it would have worked as parody either way.
Has his 1987 HBO special ever come up itt? I think its up on youtube, a typical-for-its-time mix up standup and truly terrible sketches, some of Jerry's familiar material adapted into scripted sketch form with him dressed up as a little kid, a dog, a 1950s dad, etc, really excruciating stuff. A really interesting document of Jerry kinda going along with the accepted showbiz playbook of the day, going past the limits of what hes good at and eating shit. Its easy to imagine him taking off the dog costume and being like "if i'm gonna do a tv show it needs to be nothing like this"
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Friday, 3 May 2024 15:03 (six days ago) link