Not only is "Seinfeld" vastly overrated, any claim that it pioneered the concept of "a show about nothing" is ridiculous and imbecilic.
Not only is "Seinfeld" vastly overrated, any claim that it pioneered the concept of "a show about nothing" is ridiculous and imbecilic.
First of all, yeah, come at me. "Seinfeld" is only kinda-sorta funny, at best. Seinfeld himself is really not funny at all. His act is perpetually stuck between the oldschool, early 1950s-style, cigar-waving "hyuk-hyuk, get a load of all my jokes about women drivers" comedians and the post-Lenny Bruce era, where everything just boils down to telling boring "slice of life" stories with mildly clever exaggerations.
Seinfeld manages to pick and choose all the worst elements of both those eras and smush them together into a tremendously boring, un-funny standup act.
Annnnd that's what gets translated to the show. Boring, egotistical, overly-New-York-focused, pretentious nonsense.
Like I said, come at me about that. I know people disagree. I truly do not care what you want to say to me, about it. You're simply wrong. If you like his comedy or his show, you just have bad taste. I can't fix that. I can't change your mind. You can't change mine, either. But I'm objectively correct that he and his comedy material both suck.
But the whole "show about nothing" thing is what really boils my ass. You can argue that the show wasn't "about nothing," in the first place. And that's, like, whatever. There are valid arguments, there. In fact, I'd like to accept those arguments, then proceed under the assumption that the "show about nothing" concept really is a "show about nothing, and therefore about everything."
This is the important point: the thing I disagree with is this wretched and insulting notion that "Seinfeld" was somehow a PIONEERING television show, in this context of being about nothing and/or everything.
That's my problem. The claim that "Seinfeld" did any of that shit first. The implication is that all prior television, especially all prior comedies, were somehow locked into a "this is a show about a particular topic" mentality. And, like, "nobody had the GENIUS and the GUTS to make a freewheeling show about just, like, whatever topics came to the minds of the genius writers, and their groundbreaking stream-of-consciousness comedy process."
That's fucking horseshit. Horseshit of the highest fucking caliber.
I suppose these turd-brained fucksticks believe that "I Love Lucy" was about a Cuban guy who had a job as a bandleader and his wife, who sometimes tried to get into showbusiness. And "The Honeymooners" would be about a guy who has a job as a bus driver. And "Taxi" was a show about cab drivers, driving their cabs.
Of course, that's not what those shows were ACTUALLY ABOUT. They were basically shows about nothing, just as much as "Seinfeld" was. They were often about relatable problems in domestic life, they were sometimes about people trying zany get-rich-quick schemes, they were sometimes about the fears and perils and hopes that surround pregnancy and childbirth, they were often about the uncertainty and passion and sacrifice that people put themselves through, for their budding careers, or their workaday jobs. And they were about a million other things that all fit the "show about nothing" mold BETTER than "Seinfeld" ever did.
I say they did it better, because they weren't exclusively about sad, angry, borderline-psychopathic reprobates, who seem to have no goals or aspirations, beyond smirking and talking shit about people behind their backs, swilling coffee, and occasionally trying to get laid. They were shitty people, with shitty attitudes. I know that's part of the joke...but it wears thin very quickly, and my point is that other shows did a similar "it's a show about nothing...but really everything" theme, but their casts of characters WEREN'T entirely populated by malignant, fundamentally worthless narcissists.
Basically, I implore people to stop worshipping that fucking show, as if it was some kind of groundbreaking, high art. There were way better classic comedy shows than that piece of shit, from its own era and the TV eras before it.
Oh, and before you point out that I accused Seinfeld of being overly New York focused, but also used three other shows set in New York as counterexamples, I realized that just now.
And I don't give a shit. I can keep going. "Green Acres" wasn't really about farming. "The Bob Newhart Show" wasn't really about psychiatry, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" wasn't really about TV production, and "WKRP in Cincinnati" wasn't really about radio production.
The shows about nothing and everything are THE MAJORITY of all the shows. Certainly, all the good ones. It's harder for me to think of reversed examples, where the show is just what it was supposed to be "about."
Like, yeah, "Flipper" really was about a fucking dolphin, and "The Flying Nun" really was about a flying fucking nun. And those shows fucking sucked.
I think I can consider my point thoroughly made.
Now, all you assholes can start typing abuse at me, for daring to dislike your idol. I won't be reading that shit. Not sorry.
I also quickly stopped reading.
I never really watched Seinfeld. If it was on I saw a few minutes of it.
My problem is saying "you like this thing? Well you're WRONG."
You sound like a narcissistic child who can't fathom the idea that some people like things you don't like. Also this isn't an unpopular opinion. Like, Seinfeld was a huge show 30 years ago. I would imagine a lot of people disliked it for whatever reasons you're ranting about.
Just as a point of clarification, a critic of the show called it a “show about nothing”. Jerry took that and used it as the plot of the show within a show that he and George wrote the pilot to, Jerry! Then people started referring to Seinfeld that way, but it never was about nothing, in fact it usually had 2-3 storylines per episode that they found a way to converge at the end.
I get that you don’t like the show, but at least get your facts straight.
You have the distinction of being the first person on Lemmy I’m blocking, not because you said something bigoted or objectively cruel, but because based on that essay and your subsequent comments I simply think you and I have such drastically different tastes on things that I just don’t care to hear your opinions on anything else. Genuinely wishing you good luck in your future
Congratulations on the unpopular opinion. What mostly sets Seinfeld apart from other sitcoms that came before and what earned it “show about nothing” is that it didn’t have any “teachable moments”. The characters are shitty people doing shitty things who never grow, they never change or learn a moral lesson, they just stay as crappy people throughout the show’s run.
Of course in today’s environment with IASIP it’s just commonplace (IASIP is a spiritual descendent of Seinfeld), but when Seinfeld came out, no matter what kind of zany/grumpy/snide/mean characters were on a show, everyone came together at the end and learned a lesson about X. Other shows that were out the same year as Seinfeld were Family Matters, Saved by the Bell, and Coach, that’s the environment it existed in. Today it's expected more than anything, but at the time we were coming out of 80s tv and it’s shitty moralizing attitude about everything. If somebody did something wrong, they were going see the error of their ways and try to be a better person, by golly (awwwww sound effect).
Granted, Married with Children came out in 1987 and was doing something similar, but it was a bit raunchier/low-brow and the storylines weren't as "clever" or off-the-wall, so probably didn't have the same sort of appeal. MwC was more in the vein of All in the Family, if anything.
I respect the unpopular opinion, but disrespect the wrong / inconsistent stuff for a lot of it...
For example with the "show about nothing", its an in universe joke about a TV show George thought up
Wasn't it more that Seinfeld cemented and standardized many concepts, rather than invented them?
Regardless, doing so or even creating an entirely new genre doesn't make a show good. In fact, often a piece of media that makes an entire new genre or cements/standardizes a lot of concepts for a genre can suck because it's all new or hasn't been standardized yet, so there is a lot of floundering around to figure out how it all works
I hated Seinfeld and hated it more than I might have otherwise because it felt like everyone else loved it SO MUCH and wouldn't shut up about it. But damn dude. This is a lot of feelings about a show that sucked decades ago.
You're just objectively wrong throughout. Not liking it, sure. You do you boo.
It was never a show about nothing. It was a 90s sitcom. It had an A plot and a B plot. Had arching character stories that ran season to season that were directly related to how shows didn't drop all at once but once a week for a period of time then NOTHING as a cliff hanger for a year. So a drastic change or a big season finale actually meant something because there was most of the year someone would talk about it.
As to you just not liking it, I can see that. Especially if you're younger. When I was younger I hated it. Absolutely not funny. When you are their age, all that crap that happens to them, happens to you. Obviously they are the worst versions of people possible which is the point. And yes that too is pioneering, because you were always supposed to support the characters. Give it a decade, and rewatch. You may chuckle. Or not. Doesn't matter.
Seinfeld himself I don't find funny. And he's a terrible actor (self described). Jason Alexander is a god. Dreyfus is intolerable. I can't stand anything she's in, except Seinfeld where I hate her but watch her. But even with that, it's a good standard 90s comedic sitcom. Formulaic and somewhat unpredictable the first time. Obscenely quotable today.
You okay? I get the unpopular opinion and actually agree with some of it but damn you are angry that people love that show. Also, I don’t think you know what the word objectively means because your whole argument about Seinfeld not being funny is complete dependent on your personal feelings about his type of humor.
I agree that Seinfeld himself isn’t funny. I also agree that the show is clearly not about nothing. It’s a show about a group of friends getting themselves into ridiculous situations. I can however say that while your opinions are valid, Seinfeld factually is the most popular sitcom of the 90s.
Anyway, like you said, your mind isn’t going to be changed and neither are the minds of the millions of people who disagree with you. Thanks for the post.
I've seen a handful of Seinfeld episodes. I thought they were okay, but there was one character that really annoyed me, with his whiny, nasally voice and his absolutely awful attempt at delivering jokes. Comedy just died every time this guy opened his mouth; he was so cringey. I thought, if they got rid of that one character, the show would drastically improve. I actually stopped watching because I hated seeing him on screen in every episode.
I found out later, that character was Jerry Seinfeld himself.
You really invested time into this Seinfeld thing. I just started watching it for my first time this year. It's amusing. That's all.
I still watch Seinfeld every day. Hard disagree
I'm not going to get into the whole rant, you think what you want, this is the place for that. But it wasn't pitched as "a show about nothing", that was an arc in the show but it's not at all what the actual theme of the show is
In a Reddit AMA, Seinfeld revealed how he and David really pitched the sitcom to NBC. The actor noted, "The pitch for the show, the real pitch, when Larry and I went to NBC in 1988, was we want to show how a comedian gets his material. The show about nothing was just a joke in an episode many years later." That's exactly what the show is, and for the first seven seasons, every episode sees Jerry performing stand-up comedy, making jokes based on exactly what that particular episode is about
https://screenrant.com/seinfeld-show-about-nothing-jerry-larry-david-pitch/
So don't worry so much about the show being about nothing. It's a sit-com.
Dude just pop some bars. You're clearly lapsing. It's not that serious.
Same thing goes for 'Curb Your Enthousiasm'. After all the raving reviews I figured I'd give it a try and immediately got the feeling it was the kind of show that 'you'd have to get through the first five seasons' before it got any good and it would just have some funny moments.
I just found myself thinking: is this it?
I lived in San Francisco in the 90s. I was in my 20s. I didn’t own a TV. Often, on Thursday nights, I’d go over to a friend’s house and watch TV to see Seinfeld. It was the only comedy show that I can recall worth watching. We always laughed at it. Maybe because we could relate to the characters and situations, I don’t know; I don’t want to analyze it. Never saw the standup comic himself even though I was going to standup comedy back then. Never bothered with the meta stuff about the show like criticism and shit; ain’t got time for that. If anyone brings up the show now then I will recall it fondly. That is all.
I feel like you guys dunk on Seinfeld too much. I've even rewatched it because I enjoyed it so much. Though it came to me as a surprise when someone on lemmy pointed out that Jerry is a pedophile.
The jerk store called...
"The pitch for the show, the real pitch, when Larry and I went to NBC in 1988, was we want to show how a comedian gets his material. The show about nothing was just a joke in an episode many years later."
-Jerry Seinfeld
The "show about nothing" is a joke meme taken from an episode. So there's no point in ranting about something that never existed.
Yeah, I'm not reading that wall of text but I agree. It's an unpopular opinion but I've never laughed once at anything on Seinfeld. I've seen episodes here and there because I definitely tried watching it. Just.... meh.
Upvoted for actually unpopular opinion.
But also YOU'RE COMPLETELY RIGHT.
(username does not check out though)
100% agree.
Go back to Reddit. Your zoomer doesn't like old shows schtick is played out.
I think you have it spot on, mate.
love you op!!!!
Agreed. It's absolutely overrated