The Tonya Harding parody (with Bette Midler’s understudy) was pretty topical.
Both those things were just subtle references to topical things compared to the Bernie Madoff jokes.
The point I’m making is that Seinfeld never really actually REFERRED to current events the way that was done with Bernie Madoff. Did they ever do a storyline actually based around a current event?
That seemed to be more Curb writing than it was Seinfeld writing.
It’s because of this that i find the “Seinfeld” writing to be kinda poor. Sure the characters were written the same, but it wasn’t really like the real Seinfeld at all.
…And vice-versa. I loved the little “Take the pen!” bit, a wink to the Astronaut Pen episode of Seinfeld. There’ve been other examples the past couple weeks as well.
I also find it brilliant that Larry and Jason don’t get along. No idea if that has any basis in reality.
But it’s not the real Seinfeld. It’s a show-within-a-show that’s based on a show that used to be a real show but is now a fake version of the former real show on a current show that’s about fictional versions of the real people who used to be on the show. Or something.
They made current pop culture references at least, like the Schindler’s List episode and the English Patient episode.
I thought the Madoff connection was pretty Seinfeldian. There were plenty of pop culture references, from George Steinbrenner to J. Peterman to the examples cited above. It seemed pretty simple - George invested money with Madoff and he lost it all. It wasn’t like George was living next door to Bernie or anything.
I thought it was obviously self-serving to both Richards and to the show. As soon as I recognized the reference, I assumed that Richards probably only joined the show under the pre-condition that the issue would be addressed.
I think it’s based on Jason trying to make George Costanza an unlikeable selfish asshole, and that George is based on the real life Larry David. So Larry doesn’t like it that Jason tries so hard to make George the turd he is.
The LD/Jason scenes were George vs. George, the fictional George vs. the real life George. And they were brilliant, as was the whole script.
If I remember correctly from the DVD commentary, I believe Jason Alexander and Larry David had a big fight and were not on speaking terms during “The Pen” episode of Seinfeld. Things were so bad that George does not even appear on that show.
I’m guessing the pen bit on Curb Your Enthusiasm is a little nod to this backstage drama.