I also just have to add this line: “He says you grow hair, look like Stalin!”
The only thing that dates the show at all is the ancient PC in the background (left as you face the screen) of Jerry’s living room. And today you can just assume he keeps it for sentimental reasons.
Ten years- damn. Doesn’t seem it.
It’d be difficult to argue that the clothing isn’t dated (although I agree that Kramer’s clothes are ageless), but the humor and the show in general really aren’t. It’s so rewatchable, and I think it will continue to be so for a very long time.
I liked it at first, but it was so misanthropic that it eventually became painful to me. Now, post “nigger nigger nigger,” my fellow vidstore workers and I tend to snigger into our sleeves when people pay rental fees in order to go back and revisit it. Granted, I never liked it very much, but with the hindsight of ten years it seems to me especially valueless.
This excerpt from the article nails it for me:
You know, that paragraph works great if you imagine Jerry doing it during his opening standup routine.
Exactly; why his comedy routines suck too.
I liked it when it originally aired, then I went through a period where I couldn’t stand to watch it. I don’t really know why. Lately, I’ve been watching the reruns on TBS sometimes and I have rekindled my love for the series. I pretty much like the whole series, even the later years that a lot of people don’t like.
“I’m not going to be doing any…inserting in that area!”
“I’ll be back later. We’ll make out.”
“It’s kitschy!”
“And afterward, she’ll need a little shot of penicillin.”
“There was shrinkage!”
“It shrinks?”
“Like a frightened turtle!”
“I’m better than they are!”.
"You’re worse!"
“He’s Kiiiiinda losing his hair.”
"He’s bald?!
“You got me blacklisted from Hop Sings?!”
“She name name.”
“Well, if it isn’t Shecky the Moel!”
“Boo! There, you flinched!”
“I’ve got hand!”
“And you’re gonna need it.”
"You’re a mailman! ‘Neither rain, nor sleet, nor-’ It’s the first one!
“I was never much for creeds.”
My favorite, most side-splitting scene was from the “I choose not to run” episode where, for the benefit of an old high school friend, Jerry and George are pretending they haven’t seen each other since high school either (paraphrasing from memory):
“So what have you been up to?”
“Well, I’m a comedian.”
“Oh. Do you do that ‘ever notice how’ kinda stuff? …I never cared for that.”
“Reeeaally… So I see you went bald there.”
“Well, gotta go, my limo’s double parked.”
“Hey, you got a hole in your sneaker.”
I watch it daily, and I think it’s funnier with repeated viewings - you notice the weird little in-jokes they kept up throughout the series (Elaine constantly mispronouncing words for no apparent reason plot-wise, “That’s a shame”, wanting Jerry to go into the Bloomingdale’s executive training program, etc.). I’m actually a fan of the later episodes more than the earlier ones (as Hippy Hollow pointed out, if it doesn’t have Jerry doing stand-up at the beginning, I know I’m going to like it). For the most part, I have no trouble understanding why people are turned off by specific TV shows/movies/bands/whatever, but I seriously don’t get how anyone could not find this show funny. I can’t even imagine what shows they would find funny - Two And A Half Men? Sex & The City? Will & Grace? I just can’t figure it out.
“That chimp’s all right. High five!”
“She’s a two-face.”
“Like the Batman villain?”
“If that helps you.”
“Wait a minute, back it up. Beep, beep, beep.”
“Beep beep beep?”
“I’m not a grease monkey. You’re the grease monkey!”
“David, that is so stupid.”
“No it’s not! I’ll tell you what’s stupid: You are! Stupid.”
“Ta-ta, Mr. Tuttle.”
“Seinfeld, you useless pustule!”
“DO you hate me because of my lazy eye?”
“This is the AMA. We just need to confirm that your last name is Benes.”
“Yes. What…”
“Goodbye.”
“Hello?”
“Get off the line, we need to make another call.”
“Mr. Marbles?”
And, as mentioned, George’s answering machine message, which is one of the funniest things on any sitcom ever. Another one that cracks me up still is the tirade Mr. Bookman, the library cop, goes off on in Jerry’s apartment.
I don’t think anyone is arguing that it didn’t have scattered funny lines. That’s certainly not the angle from which I’m criticizing it. Not to say that arguments or evidence is a valid approach of discussion in these kinds of things; only that the evidence you’re providing wouldn’t even be a valid response if they were.
Coming to theaters this Friday … Kevin Bacon … Susan Sarandon … “You’ve gotta get me over that mountain!” …“NO!!!” … BANG BANG … AAAHHHHH!!! … There’s no place higher than … Mountain High.
I’ve watched this show nearly every weekday since it went off the air and I don’t personally see a time when I’d think “okay, this is enough.” Love it.
ETA: The in-joke that I love, but only noticed somewhat recently, is that on two separate occassions, a character (Putty in one, the Maid in another) were talking about a CoCo. Putty says of the sign-language chimp, “CoCo… that chimp’s alright!” In a completely different episode, the Maid says of a woman who works at her maid service, “CoCo …that girl’s alright.”
It is not dated. Many of the lines are repeated in daily conversation.
George was funny. He was not a likable character. That is what confuses the memory. It is not that George was a badly written character ,it is that when you think of him jerk comes to your mind. good memories rarely start with jerk.
Actually, if memory serves it was a Mac Classic.
Infidel! You forgot “Chunnel”!
-Joe
That’s gold, Jerry! Gold!
What I notice is that the cordless phones are HUGE, and they pull the antenna out to use them.
Yep. Funny is funny.
“The correct answer is, The Moops”
“There’s NO MOOPS!!!”
Yep. Jerry’s a Mac guy. For a while he had a 20th Anniversary Mac. Interesting, as it’s something of a precursor design-wise to the current iMac.
