# Seinfeld or Friends? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 25, 2019, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204 "2019-08-25T07:43:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/61 "2019-08-26T23:08:06Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Neither show appealed to me, but I absolutely can’t stand Jerry Seinfeld. So if forced to choose, I guess it would have to be Friends. Ditto! I’ve seen between a dozen and two dozen episodes of Friends, but probably only half a dozen of Seinfeld that I was able to get all the way through because they characters are just such awful people. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/62 "2019-08-26T23:21:15Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I doubt that I could hang out with the _Friends_ for longer than 10 minutes. > > _Seinfeld_ and his cahoots, however, are very interesting and more in my league: Creative funny types looked down on by most people. This is my take also. I imagine that if the Seinfeld crew existed IRL, I would fit right in, warts and all. Whereas the Friends crew are what I call “conventionals”, and wouldn’t have wanted me around (OK, maybe I would have shown up as one of Phoebe’s boyfriends for half an episode, but they would have all tried to get her to dump me). ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/63 "2019-08-26T23:30:50Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > This is my take also. I imagine that if the Seinfeld crew existed IRL, I would fit right in, warts and all. Whereas the Friends crew are what I call “conventionals”, and wouldn’t have wanted me around (OK, maybe I would have shown up as one of Phoebe’s boyfriends for half an episode, but they would have all tried to get her to dump me). Not really relevant to the question posed in this thread, but just the other night I had a dream that I guest-starred in an episode of Friends, as Rachel’s new boyfriend. Off-camera, Jennifer Aniston seemed to really like me, but none of the rest of the cast would talk to me. I don’t know what this means. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/64 "2019-08-27T02:45:01Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > …Seinfled is now unbearable to watch. So you’re saying you run away from it? > [@Wheelz](#): > > Not really relevant to the question posed in this thread, but just the other night I had a dream that I guest-starred in an episode of Friends, as Rachel’s new boyfriend. Off-camera, Jennifer Aniston seemed to really like me, but none of the rest of the cast would talk to me. > > I don’t know what this means. How YOU doin’…? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/65 "2019-08-27T04:01:36Z")
Friends was a good sitcom with great casting and some great episodes. Seinfeld was a great sitcom with great casting and some episodes that were artistic masterpieces. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/66 "2019-08-27T04:43:38Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Friends was a good sitcom with great casting and some great episodes. > > Seinfeld was a great sitcom with great casting and some episodes that were artistic masterpieces. QFT. One of those times I wish there was a Like button. ---
**Author:** ![Haldurson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@Haldurson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haldurson)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/67 "2019-08-28T22:29:24Z")
Having grown up in New York state (born and lived in NYC for a few years, then raised in the suburbs), I could relate to a whole lot of Seinfeld, which was as authentic a New York sitcom as I’ve ever seen. Friends was just ‘ok’. I completely lost interest in it before the series ended. It just seemed phony and superficial compared with Seinfeld. Friends was a typical sitcom and had all of the failings that stereotypical sitcoms have. Seinfeld, on the other hand, seemed like authentic New York. And it was different. Friends was ok, not even, imho, among the better sitcoms of the day. But it was occasionally funny. Seinfeld was something that transcended the whole sitcom mold. There were a whole lot of sitcoms that I liked better than Friends. Friends was ordinary. But there is very little that has ever come close to Seinfeld in its humor and originality. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/68 "2019-08-28T22:39:55Z")
\*\*\*Sitcoms better than Seinfeld: \*\*\* M_A_S\*H All in the Family The Dick Van Dyke Show Barney Miller (which is an even more accurate snapshot of NYC) Taxi Get Smart Mary Tyler Moore Show WKRP Community The Good Place Futurama The Simpsons (well first 12 years) I actually like Scrubs more, though I acknowledge that is an odd choice. I Love Lucy at its best was better and really created the sitcom genre that All in the Family shook up. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/69 "2019-08-28T22:55:33Z")
I see you don’t have Friends on that list. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/70 "2019-08-28T23:00:17Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > I see you don’t have Friends on that list. 🙂 A very average sitcom at best. The list of \> Friends would be 100 long not a dozen or so. ---
**Author:** ![Gremson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Gremson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gremson)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/71 "2019-08-28T23:27:39Z")
Has to be Seinfeld. I don’t love it but at least understand it. Friends loses me with their extravagant lifestyle. Those apartments can’t all be passed along rent-controlled. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/72 "2019-08-29T19:08:10Z")
I tried to watch Friends twice, but gave up. So plastic and phony and unfunny. Odd how some people hate the Seinfeld characters when it’s the Friends characters who are repulsive to me. Seinfeld characters had their quirks, but were believable as real people, and so many episodes were genius. Friends was fake, fake, fake, fake. Also, Seinfeld was the first of the “friends” shows. Seinfeld was a midsummer replacement that took a little while to catch on, but Ellen DeGeneres’s sitcom was a copy called “These Friends of Mine” (later changed to the Ellen DeGeneres Show). Friends came next and was a rip-off of a rip-off and the paleness of its imitation was really clear. David Schwimmer makes my skin crawl so there’s that, too. Whenever I say the word “pony” now I can’t help but say it in the accent of that old Polish lady. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/73 "2019-08-29T21:51:24Z")
> [@Gremson](#): > > Has to be Seinfeld. I don’t love it but at least understand it. Friends loses me with their extravagant lifestyle. Those apartments can’t all be passed along rent-controlled. That was the story – Chandler and Joey were in a rent-controlled apartment, Monica took over her grandmother’s, Ross was making enough money not to worry about it, and Phoebe always lived with someone else. It has as much logic as Kramer being able to sublease an apartment next door to Jerry (and from Paul Buchman of\* Mad about You\*, no less.) There are reasons to love or hate both shows, but when you start picking apart premises like how characters can afford to live like that, everything unravels. The last sitcom characters who could actually afford to live where they did were Mary and Rhoda in \* Mary Tyler Moore\* show - in the Midwest, in rooms converted to studio apartments, upstairs from the owner/landlord. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/74 "2019-08-29T21:58:37Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > The last sitcom characters who could actually afford to live where they did were Mary and Rhoda in \* Mary Tyler Moore\* show - in the Midwest, in rooms converted to studio apartments, upstairs from the owner/landlord. Will & Grace (well, at least Will) ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/75 "2019-08-30T01:09:08Z")
I’m in the group ‘ **love _Seinfeld_ and have seen every episode many times, but have never seen a _Friends_ episode all the way through**.’ As for the ‘_Seinfeld_ characters are awful people’ idea: I love that the show commented on this many times. One episode from the widely-derided (and admittedly disappointing) eighth season accomplished this masterfully: _The Bizarro Jerry_. I never pass up a chance to watch the coda, and never fail to laugh out loud. Given the accolades for _Friends_ posted in this thread, I’ll try to watch it again. (I do think Lisa Kudrow is a comic genius, and I loved her shows _The Comeback_ and _Web Therapy_.) But I doubt there’s any way _Friends_ could ever displace _Seinfeld_ in my esteem. > **[The Bizarro Jerry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bizarro_Jerry)** > > "The Bizarro Jerry" is the 137th episode of the American television sitcom Seinfeld. This was the third episode of the eighth season, originally airing on the NBC network on October 3, 1996. The title and plot extensively reference Bizarro Superman originally published by DC Comics. This episode introduced the phrase "man-hands.” > Elaine breaks up with her boyfriend Kevin, but they decide to remain friends. Kevin proves to be a much more reliable friend than Jerry. Jerry suggests to Elaine that K... > **["Seinfeld" The Bizarro Jerry (TV Episode 1996) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697657/)** > > The Bizarro Jerry: Directed by Andy Ackerman. With Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards, Jason Alexander. George uses Susan's death to pick up women. Elaine's new friend is Jerry's exact opposite. Jerry's new girlfriend has manly... ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/76 "2019-09-01T05:01:17Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Incidentally, I’m surprised by the number of people here who love one and loathe the other. Yeah, same here. I like both, just prefer _Friends_. I, too, don’t understand the loathing for either show. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/77 "2019-09-03T08:30:36Z")
I prefer Seinfeld. With Friends, I felt like I was obligated to laugh after each line. It’s the same feeling had watching the original Roseanne show. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/78 "2019-09-03T12:35:27Z")
> [@JpnDude](#): > > I prefer Seinfeld. With Friends, I felt like I was obligated to laugh after each line. It’s the same feeling had watching the original Roseanne show. The first few years of Roseanne I thought were pretty good, it didn’t keep up the quality and completely nosedived the last few years of course. So very uneven. But at its best, it was better done than friends and at its worst it was a terrible sitcom, worse than the generic sitcoms. Roseanne also stood out as one of the rare realistic working class sitcoms in the 80s. We had a bunch in the 70s (thanks to Norman Lear) and the 50s had them. But in the 80s, we had Roseanne. Married with Children & Simpsons played far less realistic and used very broad humor. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/79 "2019-09-03T15:12:22Z")
Both shows were very good, but Seinfeld was better. The best Friends episodes were better than the least funny Seinfelds, but Seinfeld was on average a funnier show, and had almost no BAD episodes. > [@carrps](#): > > Also, Seinfeld was the first of the “friends” shows. Seinfeld was a midsummer replacement that took a little while to catch on, but Ellen DeGeneres’s sitcom was a copy called “These Friends of Mine” (later changed to the Ellen DeGeneres Show). Friends came next and was a rip-off of a rip-off and the paleness of its imitation was really clear. Sitcoms about a bunch of friends didn’t start with “Seinfeld.” ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204/80 "2019-09-03T15:24:49Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I liked \*Friends \*at the time, never liked \*Seinfeld \*(and absolutely \*\*\*loathe \*\*\*_Curb Your Enthusiasm_). Haven’t really seen much of either since. > > I also liked _Joey_, and _Episodes_, I think Matt LeBlanc’s comedy chops are undersold. I did take a look at ‘Joey’. I think a program about a struggling actor trying to get ahead in L.A. would be interesting. It was such a disappointing pile of lame sit-com horse shit, wasn’t he involved with a female relative or something? Wasn’t there a smart-mouth kid involved? My memory is hazy, but I think IRL if there was any justice in the world, ‘Joey’ would have overdosed behind the dumpster at the restaurant where he makes a living bussing tables. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seinfeld-or-friends/839204.md?page=5)