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So said Seinfeld..
The greatest virtue that creative individuals ought to be endowed with is this belief …..”I was a stupid kid two years back…. I think I have grown”..
If you divide your life-span into sectors of two years each and if you believe that every new segment instills in you the belief that your preceding life-segment was lived in inferior taste you are doing just about fine..
Its weird when you advertise a solitiary commodity by holding it responsible for your personal growth in any way…
It might seem like you are re-doing one of those soda commercials where soda companies hold their brand as being the one singular thing responsible for every personal ammendment your life has seen since you had that first sip of their brand of soda..
And even at the risk of tracing that path of sounding overtly one-dimensional in my outlook I have to confess, Seinfeld to me is one of those rare pieces of creative let-outs that I think has shaped up my sensibility as far as creative writing is concerned.
Who doesn’t like being called funny? I do.. I have always loved being referred to as funny. There are days when I feel like my life’s hit its listless bottom and the only thing that can lift up my spirits is a comment that I am quite a source of sunshine in someone else’s life.
And for the otherwise mundane life that I lead, that philanthropic accord is very important to me…
But what Seinfeld has successfully managed to do is totally change my perspective of what can be referred to as funny. And funnily enough, I have realized that in life the funniest moments arent the ones in which you are being funny per se. Its so much more than just that. Its just about being in a moment and letting all that you feel out. Sometimes an honest account of all that you feel at a particular moment maybe the funniest piece of creation you would have heard when replayed to an audience..
I see so many blog-sites and communities dedicated to Seinfeld where people seem to be overplaying this one thing about it being a show about nothing..
About NOTHING they reiterate.. But that ain’t the truth you see.. Every episode of the show( Atleast most of them) have a premise that is too simple and too everyday.
Parking a car, visiting a supermarket, Making a reservation, being stuck at the airport, getting inside a movie-theatre amongst a bunch of people, some of whom are interested in watching the movie and some who see it as a mere let-away from their morse lives.
And in the base of such simple day-to-day situation lies the humour that defines Seinfeld..
For me the show puts up a great theory in creativity. That great creativity finds its source in a universal philosophy. And a truly universal philosophy can be unearthed only by revisiting a part of our day-to-day lives.
Seinfeld goes into situations that are so life-like that the miseries, the philosophies and the ramblings of every character also seem to come with a sense of truth..
The humour that dictates the show is another point of distinction. Its not about one smart line after another. Its not being side-splittingly smart for once and downright stupid for another. Stupidity is hardly the source of humour in Seinfeld. Its the lack of a proper attitude amongst its characters that Seinfeld derives its limericks from .
As a case-study just glance at the following dialogue:
KRAMER: Are those shoes comfortable?
GEORGE: No not really.
KRAMER: They look comfortable.
GEORGE: I know that’s why I bought them but they’re not comfortable.
If you don’t find the above dialogue funny, maybe the show isn’t good enough for you( The modest me).
Or you could say, you aren’t good enough for the show( The realist me)
But these essentially are the kind of situations that made up Seinfeld. Larry David, who conceived the show along with Jerry Seinfeld fought with the producers of the show primarily because his idea of sitcom humour seemed to conflict with that of the producers who were hell-bent on sketching characters that had to learn profound life lessons in times of turbelence and day-to-day frustrations and finally discover each other and themselves. Larry David insisted that his approach was different and they either do the show his way, or they dont do it at all.
He scripted a whole episode which showed George, Jerry and Elaine just waiting at a Chinese Restuarant to get a seat. On, the exterior nothing happens thru the entire episode. The three just wait for a seat, whine at the hypocrisy of the restuarant owner, try bribing him for a seat and talk. But, in those 20 something minutes, an emotion develops out of their conversations that is an example of what Tarkovsky probably defined as ’sculpting in time’. A true depiction of human psyche when cornered for attention.
The imperfections of the characters were never caricatural.Seinfeld for most part never really loved its characters. It loved the situations that the characters found themselves in. It let its characters seep into those situations and discover their attributes. Many cookie-cutter sitcoms like “Friends” which for most part relied on a mind-numbingly dumb “Joey” or a unbelievably quirky “Pheobe” got itself into the mould of loving its characters more than the situations that they inhabited. The situations in “Friends” hence seem to be laced around a sense of fantasy and self-conceived cuteness.
Seinfeld too was hit by the same form of recession for most part of its 8th and almost the entire 9th season where it started to be a character-driven show. But for a lion’s share of its run it stayed true to its image of being the work of a pure, unadulterated genius mind that delved into simple plots and came up with mind-boggling transferences of it.
The one question that has often been put before me when I sing lavish praises of it in public is,”For a popular American sitcom that it was, what relevance does Seinfeld hold with respect to an Indian scenario?”. Although, most of my reactions and applauses for the humour on the show were primarily involuntary I have over the past few months devised carefully about why Seinfeld breaks such a cross-cultural frame of reference. Yes, I agree a few Jewish jokes and sensibilities can sound pretty arcane and some concepts on the show too cognoscenti ( Those who have seen the “double dipping” situation in one of the episodes or the term “anti-dentite” which wont make sense to somebody who is not familiar with the term “anti-semitism”) .But the fact remains that those are just manifestations of human irreverence over a situation seemingly unfamiliar to us on the outside but something that has a rather true form of connection if u look at our lives carefully.
Like there is an episode where Jerry gets caught up with a rather insensitive friend of his who doesn’t really care about the other person he is sharing time with. I have had to deal with a self-absorbed person just like that once and Jerry’s midset and trauma being protrayed in that episode was like picking a part of my brain and replaying it for me. Its because of such situations which have such a distinct sense of truth about them that the sitcom manages to scale heights that not many TV Shows or for that matter any form of creativity has.
Seinfeld was probably the funniest show of all time, but the fact remains that its humour wasnt the greatest thing about it.
Even while demanding a watch devoid of sentimentalism and concern it made us peep into the great misanthrope residing within everyone of us. It makes you think, it makes you wonder, it makes you theorize. And if you have experienced what I have it can just make you wanna write. It teaches you an important lesson in creativity. That everything you observe intently in life can actually be a source of literature and rational philosophy….
36 Responses to “So said Seinfeld..”
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Wow! Thats one of the most well written pieces I have come across in recent times!
“It makes you think, it makes you wonder, it makes you theorize. And if you have experienced what I have it can just make you wanna write. It teaches you an important lesson in creativity. That everything you observe intently in life can actually be a source of literature and rational philosophy
Sreehari: wonderful piece on one of my icons. You need to have drunk deep from the fountain of life to write the way Seinfield was written. As you say intent observation is the source for great creative works. And Seinfield was a top example of it except for the last two seasons.
Sachin,
Thank u for those kind words. And am glad that it struck a chord. Being prophetic is tough if u dont find too many takers :)..
Subrat,
Ahh, its just that every time I get off my couch after watching an episode of Seinfeld and I let my remote-control ruminate a bit, and try latching onto something equally fantastic I fail miserably. Once u get the brilliance of the show, nothing else on the horizon seems to match up to it..
Brilliant post Sreehari ! …reminds me to do a piece on Richard Pryor ! Cheers ! :)
Very well written n analysed..
the beauty of the show was that it made us realise that mundane things like “waiting for a seat in restaurant” or irritating things like “u gotta see the BABY” can also be good moments to remember by provided u alter ur viewpoint slightly.. i can never stop seeing the reruns of seinfeld which is more than wat i can say of friends..
FYI: larry david quit writing after season 7 maybe that explains the slight dip in quality..
@ Sreehari -
Well written. Cosby used to say that in his show, whenever there wa a joke and a truth of the moment or character, they always cut the joke and went for the truth.
The writing on Seinfeld is insanely clever without calling attention to it’s cleverness due to the truth of the situations characters find themselves in. I don’t know the history of how Larry david and Seinfeld got together, but that has been Seinfeld’s brand of stand up comedy.
Unfortunately there are too many imitators these days and none match up to the oriiginal.
Try watching episodes from season 1 and compare with everything from season 3 onwards. They didn’t hiot their groove until the end of season 2. Seasons 1 &2 were funny, but they just killed after that. Didn’t watch the last 2 seasons.
And agree about Friends. Warmed over dog vomit.
ah, Seinfeld. The one thing that stood out for me was the underlying commentary about basic human nature. Regardless of the circumstances, at some point you had some idea how things would turn out.
Not because the script was in any way predictable, but because you could trust each character to act in a way true to his/ her basic nature.
I think the reason it enjoyed such a mass appreciation during its time instead of being relegated to a niche audience like other post-modern tv shows that relied on intertexuality and knowledge of topical issues for their humor, is that this one reached out to the basic nature
of every viewer, like you so rightly pointed out.
That was a wonderful write-up. Though that comment about “not being good enough” was kinda odd. Why be judgmental about something as subjective and individual as people’s understanding of humor?
To have such an elitist comment in an analysis of one of the most wide reaching tv shows is pretty ironic in my opinion, and takes away from an otherwise fabulous job.
Misha, you remind of a Russian kids penpal magazine called “Misha” I used to read when I was a kid! Haha!
@machhar..n ya sputnik…!!..
the colourful magazines ..a communist version of reader’s digest..
..and those wonderful low cost mir publications…i had a big book of illustrated russian tales in english..for only 5 rupees..in 1986..when i was all of 5 years old..
…even russia’s rigid communism had some wonderful things about them…
..nostalgia…
sreehari.. great stuff. I love Seinfeld but have never been observant enough to realise that its actually about nothing! Frankly it was just the kind of TP i wished I could do with my friends.
Also loved the dividing life into two year segments bit. Is that Seinfeld too? A good thought to end the year on!
Playback, thanks!!!
Sudhir,
Hmm.. I think the Susan death episode in the 7th season finale did contribute to Larry David leaving the show.. There was a lot of criticism wrt the characters’s laconic reactions following Susan’s death and a general feeling that the show had gone a bit too far in tainting their personalities.. But the 8th season had some nice things about it.. The Little Kicks was good.. Bizarro Jerry was fine… There were some good stuff but a lot of it deleved into elements of fantasy.. Like the night-club in Bizarro Jerry turning into a slaughter-house overnight… It was still funny, but like I said funny wasnt the only thing about Seinfeld..
Yeah Dabba, I agree season 3 was when the characters became all flushed-out but season 1 and 2 had probably some of the most tru to life episodes. Like “The Jacket” in which Jerry and George get caught up with Elaine’s petulant dad and try to wriggle out of it.. Or “The statue”..or “The Chinese Restauarant”..
I think the worst episode that came out during that period was “The Deal” which Larry David insists was written under immense pressure from the network executives who wanted Jerry and Elaine to come together…
//Though that comment about
Trypophan,
No that wasnt Seinfeld, that was my bit:)
cool.. sorry if that was a slur on your creativity :d or maybe you could take it as a backhanded compliment. I am going to adopt it as my new years resolution ^:)^
Sreehari….A very well written piece. I am a huge fan of Seinfeld (the show and the man). We are a few friends here who speak in Seinfeld quotes most of the times (I am sure there are many more such people out there). I’ve seen him perform live and you notice during his interactions with the audience that the guy is genuinely funny, rather humourous.
I think there are people who love Seinfeld (the show) and there are the rest who don’t really care much for it, there is not much gray area. I think one of the things that really worked for the show was the fact that the characters were shown mostly devoid of any emotion, ruthless maybe for lack of a better word. Someone’s poison was always their meat. Every other sitcom I’ve seen would go emotional and tug at the heart once every few episodes, but not Seinfeld. They did the regular thing of going for a coffee on hearing about Susan’s death, or seeing George on a stretcher in the hospital, or Babu getting deported to Pakistan. And many many such instances.
Another thing was most of the dialogues were punchlines. Each character had a parallel track but none of them had long scenes. Everyone was given short scenes every couple of minutes.
And you are right, Friends pales in comparison. It has its moments sure, but does not compare to Seinfeld. As an aside, I can’t stand Phoebe. I find her stupidity intolerable.
I’ve never tired of Seinfeld reruns. We friends give each other the DVDs as b’day gifts, despite watching it regularly on TV.
^I would argue FRIENDS was never on the same plateau as Seinfeld..it never tried to be metaphysical the way Seinfeld managed to be. I thought it was just a soap opera with incidental comedy.
BTW anyone who’s a fan of Jerry Seinfeld should check out “The Comedian”, a documentary by Christian Charles.
It follows Jerry’s life post Seinfeld, as a stand-up comic.A really insightful, tongue in cheek look at what makes comedy such a serious business.
Nadeem,
Yeah , I guess Seinfeld has to be credited with creating the maximum number of punchlines…
But at the same time, whats interesting to note is the fact that it never overplayed with their punchlines, unlike Friends.
And also all those punchlines were born naturally out of the characters’s dilemma or moment of misery. They weren’t left hanging loose without any purpose..
“Not that theres anything wrong it”
“They are real and they are spectacular”
“you can’t over-dry, just like you can’t over-wet”
“But, I dont want to be a pirate”
And many more. But the thing is, they never took their gr8ness too seriously and hence never overplayed them. Moved casually from one form of writing genius to another.
Finally, with the self-realization that a certain degree of complacency had crept in they just decided to hit the dock..
Misha,
Friends was never as good as Seinfeld. I never was in opposition to that statement was I?
You can never have a line like this one in Friends..
“You know, I used to think that the universe is a random, chaotic, sequence of meaningless events, but I see now that there is reason and purpose to all things”
Or a situation like George and Jerry discussing what signal-song shud George sing while Jerry wud be changing the phone-machine tape..
“Tippy Toe”.., “Lemon Tree”. or “How to solve a problem like Maria”..
Thats why I did mention that it was a certain philosophy and a discipline born out that urge to stay tru to that philosopy that the witers followed that made the show so great..
But, at the same time u cant argue that Friends was always a more popular show. I can say with respect to India atleast that Freinds is more popular over here…
Speilberg is a more popular figure than Scorsese.. would u disgree with that? Thats an objective truth..
I believe Scorsese towers above all American filmmakers.. But thats my opinion and its subjective..
As Kenny Banya would say, Sreehari:
GOLD!
Sreehari, thats exactly my point, that comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges. If we were to compare it to Frazier, that would be a fair comparison, because at least its an even playing field.
FRIENDS succeeded at what it attempted to be, which was a basic sit-com. So naturally its more popular, for the same reason chocolate dough nuts are more popular then flan, or that karan johar’s more popular then anurag basu. You can’t deny the mass appeal of 6 pretty people in great clothes and some romantic involvements. throw in a bundle of witty one liners, and you’re golden.
The success of FRIENDS isn’t surprising. The success of SEINFELD, personally, is. None of the stars are particularly attractive, and all the characters are fairly annoying. Yet it was the number one show for two seasons in the US. THAT surprises me immensely, and I think is rooted in the fact that it had such a wide reaching appeal.
The indian TV audience is in mind-f*ck mode in my opinion. their brains have been hammered with special news reports on upcoming nuptials and alleged affairs of bolly celebs, Their soaps are dominated by mother in laws battling daughter in laws in well pressed silk saris and 3 layers of make up, who always face the camera no matter what they might be doing. Their sit coms have the same mother-daughter in laws in the same sari’s with some slapstick and background applause thrown in. Right now they wouldn’t know good tv if it hit them in the face, I bet even malgudi days would have flopped miserably in todays arena. but while I agree that some of the cultural references would escape an audience not predominantly English speaking (where friends would still be watchable) I still feel most people in any culture would relate to the core of Seinfeld.
What about the weirdest of them all…. Cosmo Kramer?
Like George once said about Kramer ‘People should plunk down two grand to be Kramer for a week. Do nothing, fall ass-backwards, mooch food off your friends, and have sex without dating!’
Seinfeld, more than any other show, was about modern social constructs. What was appropriate and inappropriate conduct in dating, in public, at work, etc. Seinfeld really isn’t a show about “nothing.”
The characters on the show do have a core moral code. They never cheated on who they were dating. The closest they came to violating this was when George slept with a married woman and when Elaine and Jerry were “waiting out” a marriage so they could date the man and woman, respectively.
They did their best to help their friends. Even if Jerry did steal a marble rye for George, that shows to what lengths Jerry will go to help his friend.
One great thing about the show was the frequently self-defeating nature of the stories. There is something comically ironic about people’s well-intentioned plans coming back to bite them in the ass.
The show started to rely a little more on gimmicry (the backwards episode “The Betrayal”) or on self-deconstruction and cartooniness, but the last two seasons were still pretty good, and much better than many shows are at their best.
//FRIENDS succeeded at what it attempted to be, which was a basic sit-com. //
I think that is the basic philosophy that mediocrity often thrives on..And its not even a pertinent philosophy, but more of an excuse for one’s deficiency. Like someone saying, David Dhawan is better than a Mani Ratnam because, he doesnt attempt to be a Mani Ratnam. I think thats a lame thing to say..
Also Misha,
I approach such a situation with a capitalistic frame of mind (If I had to put it that way). I am selling something. And I am selling something to people with a pre-conceived notion of what is a gr8 thing in a certain genre..
When aiming to address a mass thingy, mostly composed of people who believe that an X, Y or Zee reference in creativity is the alpha and omega of its genre, when u try saying that “No, there is a more viable option”, the comparison has to be made with respect to whats CONSIDERED SUPREME and not what is actually a logical comparison…
If I am selling a newer, enriched variety of wheat to a state thats high in rice consumption, a state where wheat is a rarely used as a cereal, I ought to pit my wheat against the existing rice variety and not against the wheat thats already in provision..
//Seinfeld, more than any other show, was about modern social constructs. What was appropriate and inappropriate conduct in dating, in public, at work, etc. Seinfeld really isn
Man, this conversation has become so deep I’m not even getting some of the sentences….I’m sure the makers of Seinfeld didn’t think so deeply while creating these characters….:-)
Since I do not have something so profound to say as some of you guys I’ll put in one of my favorite scenes. To be honest, the list of fav scenes is simply too long……
Its the one with the lady who plays the closet designer - Marla. Jerry and George are in the bar where Jerry performs and he sees Marla with a friend. The next scene of the introductions was simply genius. Jerry and Marla look at each other exclaiming their respective names…
“Marlaaaaa”
“Jerryyy”
And then both introduce the respective friends to each other and the friends in turn….
Jerry: “George. Marla…..Marla. George”
George: “Marla”
Marla: “George”
Marla: “Jerry. Stacey…..Stacey. Jerry, George”
Jerry: “Stacey”
George: “Stacey”
Stacey: “Jerry, George”
Jerry looks at George indicating he wants to be alone wtih Marla…
Jerry: “George”
George: “Jerry, Marla” And then looking at Stacey “Staceyyyy” and walks over to her leaving these two alone.
Damn, that was tiring……I still laugh thinking of that scene….
Awesome post Sreehari. I’m a huge fan of Seinfeld (proof: I bought that Seinfeld box set last Thanksgiving).
Kinda inspired for a little skit thing I wrote years back :
http://storymania.com/cgibin/sm2/smshowtitlebox.cgi?title=Stupidallicallidumbocious&category=shortstories&page=28
The last two seasons had a different flavor since Larry David had left, and Seinfeld tried to stamp his own style (he came back to do the Finale). I still think some of the funniest episodes are in Season 9, not sure why. Just FYI, I love all of them.
Since discovering Seinfeld, I’ve realized how lowly Friends or Everybody Loves Raymond or any other show is.
@ Nadeem (28)
I looove that scene !!
Pratik,
For me the beauty of the show when at its best lay in the way it derived its dialogues from various sources. Literature, science, theatre, movies..
Its not a case of direct spoofing but just creating a sense of deja vu.Just getting it right and not overdoing it…
Like when George says.. “A George divided against itself cant stand”… I really cant put my finger and say ,”Ok the source of this dialogue is actually this..”
But there is a source and its probably from a mathematical or scientific theory where we state stuff like.. “A certain thing divided against itself…”…
Sometimes it was movies.. like that line from the Little Kicks where Jerry says.. “I am big. Its the bootlegs that got small”.. That of course is a direct reference to that famous Gloria Swanson line from Sunset Boulevard.. “I am big, its the pictures that got small”..
Sometimes it was theatre.. Like in “The switch” where Jerry and George are discussing ways in which they could materialize their “roommate switch plan” and George just looks up at Jerry and scorns..”You disappoint me my friend”..
The spoofings were all slyly done, like it happens in real life.. A part of what we see and hear, being stored in our subconscious and it LATER getting replicated in our day-to-day conversations..
And like I said, they never overdid it. Just put it perfectly and moved on..
See now, I have no clue about those references you speak of. I have not seen Sunset Boulevard. And yet I find it amusing in my own little way. Same for Jerry addressing George as Biff; I have not read Death of a Salesman. (I know what I need to read next) For e.g. Jerry’s “ba-byes” are so damn amusing. Now there might be a source like you said. I don’t know of them but they’re funny alright.
My last comment made me realize something. In a way, Seinfeld is quite self-centered in that sense, making references to Superman, Biff, Sunset Boulevard and whatnot, regardless of the audience’s familiarity with it(I guess some of them are icons of American culture. Some comments related to those sources stumps me. But yet, there I am still watching it. If this was elementary school, Seinfeld was this cool know-all kid. I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but I wanted to listen, to learn.
// If this was elementary school, Seinfeld was this cool know-all kid. I didn
The movie references that i remember are the one in which Kramer , Newman and Jerry enacts the “JFK” scene about the second shooter in JFK film it was bullets in the film and in Seinfeld it was “Spit”…it was outstanding enactment and hilarious…
other one is the episode in which elaine’s bf does a Schindler’s list last scene in which he says i could have taken you to the zoo , to the museum etc when jerry’s parents are leaving the city….
Also there was Godfather reference when Kramer was made the godfather they lose the door on jerry
jerry does jack of few good men “u cant handle the truth”
Jerry screaming “I’m not an Animal” when mistaken for nose picking by his gf is obviously from the Elephant Man
then there is reference to “last if the mohicans” when Kramer is lost in the city somewhere
one more reference to Midnight cowboy when Kramer does a dustin hoffman on the bus to jersey with Jerry
There are plenty of fun references and as Sreehari rightly said …it was never overdone and thats why it’s so much fun…
Yep, I spotted that Pulp Fiction reference the second time I saw it. The first time I saw it, I hadn’t watched Pulp Fiction. Then, of course I finally did, not just due to Seinfeld but for its supposed cult status. Pretty darn awesome. That Newman rocks!! He’s a masterpiece!
Amit,
Now that is some list..
Pratik,
Like I said.. It wasnt just referencing of movies that made the show so special. You could also have like a scientific theory, the postulates of which being spoofed to make a dialogue..
So, you could have something like.. “The force of attraction that exists between two particles is directly proportional to their charges and inversely proportional to the distance between them”.. And then u might see it being spoofed to make up a dialogue in the show..
You the viewer might not know the exact source from where the dialogue’s been spoofed but there is a subconscious literary connection..