# "Seinfeld" finale "Did not do the research" ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055 "2011-10-18T17:48:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/21 "2011-10-19T05:13:24Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m not a particular fan of Seinfeld so I’ve missed a lot of episodes. But I think it’s debatable that they were trying to help everyone whose life they screwed up. > > People they were trying to help: > Babu Bhatt - Jerry gave him sincere but ill-advised advice about his restaurant and helped him get a job and apartment but inadvertently lost his mail And Babu was an ungrateful bastard, to be quite honest. The first Babu episode was on in syndication yesterday and Jerry really goes out of his way to help him out and it’s just through sheer bad luck that Babu’s restaurant fails. – No one visits Babu’s restaurant aside from the Seinfeld 4. – Jerry suggests he add some Pakistani dishes while emphasizing “I am NOT a restauranteur.” – Babu counters by saying he will extensively remodel the entire restaurant and change the menu to all Pakistani food. – No one comes in after Babu’s changes. – He screams at Jerry and violently chases him from the restaurant. The Visa renewal is even worse. – Babu’s Visa renewal is put in Jerry’s mailbox. – Jerry is out of town and Elaine picks up his mail. Respecting his privacy, she doesn’t look through th email while he’s gone. – Jerry comes back and Elaine forgets to give him his mail for three weeks. – Babu is deported for failing to renew his Visa _ **that he knew was late** _. How can the blame for either of those scenarios be laid at the feet of the Seinfeld 4? In the first, Babu is entirely to blame for starting up a poor restaurant and continuing to run it into the ground with bad decisions. In the second case, Babu knew his renewal application was late, but he never checked with INS about it. What if it wasn’t delivered to Jerry? What if it was just lost in the mail? Babu has no one to blame but himself. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/22 "2011-10-19T05:31:57Z")
I loved the finale and I think that if you did judge the characters they should be thrown in jail as a menace to society. And, I think, that what the writers were saying as well. It’s sort of an in joke. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/23 "2011-10-19T05:40:03Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > I loved the finale and I think that if you did judge the characters they should be thrown in jail as a menace to society. And, I think, that what the writers were saying as well. It’s sort of an in joke. It’s been pointed out that the premise of the show was that it was about four people who do nothing. And the punchline was they were imprisoned for literally doing nothing. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/24 "2011-10-19T09:49:07Z")
The reason I didn’t enjoy the finale was that it was really just a glorified clip show. The trial was just an excuse to revisit memorable moments from the series. That wouldn’t have been so bad had it not been for the fact that immediately preceding the show was an actual clip show. When we got to the episode, I felt I had literally just watched it. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/25 "2011-10-19T13:56:10Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > I can’t believe Larry David came back to the show to write that finale episode. The Seinfeld reunion episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm were great, but I guess it’s not a fair comparison. I liked how in those episodes of CYE, people kept commenting to Larry about how disappointing the \*Seinfeld \*finale was, and this was his chance to make up for it. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/26 "2011-10-19T15:01:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > \ Mall Security Guard - testified about catching Jerry urinating in a parking garage Yeah, but in Jerry’s defense, he had Uromisotisis Poisioning. Very dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/27 "2011-10-19T16:03:39Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m not a particular fan of Seinfeld so I’ve missed a lot of episodes. But I think it’s debatable that they were trying to help everyone whose life they screwed up. > > People they were trying to hurt: > Mabel Choate - Jerry stole a loaf of bread from her > Donald Sanger - had a fight with George that led to his house burning down > Lola - George did take her handicapped parking space. Kramer and George did subsequently buy her another wheelchair but they bought her a discount one. > Sidra Holland - testified that Jerry and Elaine conspired to feel her up. The actual incident was an accident but Jerry and Elaine had been conspiring. > Joe Bookman - Jerry had forgotten to return the library book > Robin - testified how George panicked over a kitchen fire > Mall Security Guard - testified about catching Jerry urinating in a parking garage > Leslie - testified that Jerry made fun of the shirt she had given him which hurt her design business > Yev Kassem - Elaine revealed all his recipes and forced him out of business > > People that they were trying to neither help nor hurt: > Dr. Wilcox - testified that George was happy about Susan’s death > Marla Penny - testified about the masturbation contest > the Detective - mistakenly assumed Kramer was a pimp > George Steinbrenner - mistakenly thought George was a Communist > Marcelino - argued with Jerry over a bad check which he refused to stop displaying > the Pharmacist - testified that Elaine bought a lot of birth control > Fred - testified that Elaine once exposed a nipple on a Christmas card > Justin Pitt - mistakenly thought Elaine tried to kill him > > People they were trying to help: > Babu Bhatt - Jerry gave him sincere but ill-advised advice about his restaurant and helped him get a job and apartment but inadvertently lost his mail This is a great list, but you forgot the whale that George saved, albeit from Kramer’s errant tee-shot (" The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli!") ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/28 "2011-10-19T16:14:01Z")
> [@phungi](#): > > This is a great list, but you forgot the whale that George saved, albeit from Kramer’s errant tee-shot (" The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli!") But he wasn’t trying to save the whale for the whale’s sake. He saved the whale because Jerry told the woman George wound up dating that George was a marine biologist, and he didn’t want to mess that up. “Why couldn’t you have made me an architect? You know I always wanted to pretend I was an architect!” ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/29 "2011-10-19T20:17:08Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > How can the blame for either of those scenarios be laid at the feet of the Seinfeld 4? In the first, Babu is entirely to blame for starting up a poor restaurant and continuing to run it into the ground with bad decisions. In the second case, Babu knew his renewal application was late, but he never checked with INS about it. What if it wasn’t delivered to Jerry? What if it was just lost in the mail? Babu has no one to blame but himself. I’ve always thought the same way. Babu’s restaurant was deserted, he wasn’t going to make it. Jerry’s suggestion might have cost him more (probably in interest-free government loans), but he probably would have failed either way. And he didn’t have to listen to Jerry. If anybody is at fault about the renewal application, it’s the mailman or Elaine, not Jerry. As soon as Jerry knew about the application, he did what he could. Maybe it was even addressed wrong. There were also references to Jerry getting Babu an apartment in his building. Jerry is a good man, very good man. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/30 "2011-10-19T20:41:40Z")
How about if I spill hot coffee on myself, can I get free coffee for the rest of my life? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/31 "2011-10-19T21:47:48Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > How about if I spill hot coffee on myself, can I get free coffee for the rest of my life? Did you put balm on? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/32 "2011-10-19T21:52:56Z")
A lot of people have pointed out “It’s a TV show.” But … I already adjust for the TV version of the legal system. And the finale was way … way beyond that. There’s a saying in comedy, Seinfeld uses it himself: “Buy the premise, buy the bit.” If the audience accepts the premise, then the bit will get laughs. Did not buy the premise. So it wasn’t funny. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/33 "2011-10-19T23:53:08Z")
I also felt there was another thing that was always overlooked. The mugger had a gun. In all Good Samaritan laws, there’s no mandate forcing you to put yourself in harm’s way in order to help someone else out. They caught the mugger’s face on tape, that was good enough. If they had charged in, the mugger might have shot all 5 of them. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055/34 "2011-10-20T02:43:46Z")
… which might have made it the greatest series finale ever. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-finale-did-not-do-the-research/600055.md?page=1)