Was Seinfeld (and crew) Funny?

Cafe Society
21

Wow, I’m surprised at so many negatives. Most people I know who watched it at all really liked it, including me. I watch the syndicated reruns all the time.

As someone mentioned before, it was great because it was different in that it didn’t always wrap things up in a nice, moral, happy ending. It was funny because it took all the little, unimportant aspects of everyday life and blew them up to large proportions.

The characters were not supposed to be exactly like real people! They are caricatures. Exaggerations! Of course George was a neurotic, weenie, jerk! And Kramer was totally nuts. And Elaine was pretentious. And Jerry was sarcastic and shallow. And they were all completely selfish. They weren’t supposed to be people you would want to be friends with.

Of course, different strokes for different folks and all that. I’m curious, though, those of you who didn’t find Seinfeld funny–what sitcoms DO you find funny? Someone mentioned Becker, which I’ve only seen twice and it didn’t strike me as anything special. Frasier is still good sometimes, though it jumped the shark long ago. The Simpsons is probably my all time favorite, but then it can play by different rules, being animated.

22

Seinfeld is probably the funniest show I have ever seen. I think the genius of the show is to take everyday life as its subject and then twist it outrageously to generate laughs. I don’t know any other show which does it so well particularly with the parralel sub-plots which are the Seinfeld hallmark.

As for the individual actors I thought the reason the show worked was how beautifully they played off each other. So asking who is the funniest individually is somewhat besides the point. Yes Jerry is the blandest of the bunch but you need that to balance Kramer’s wackiness and George’s whining. Plus since Jerry is based on himself he can’t be quite as crazy as the others.

I find most other network sitcoms mediocre at best, Frasier being the chief exception (I loved the Frasier re-rerun on ABC tonight btw; the one about both of them thinking that the other is after the woman they fall for; anyone else watch it? ). But of course different people have different tastes and I guess there are people out there who find Friends funnier than Seinfeld.

23

Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm is much funnier than Seinfeld ever was. Much smarter too.

24

I liked the show, although it wasn’t anywhere near as big a hit on this side of the pond. Mostly though, it was just an appetiser for the Larry Sanders Show, which was on immediately after.

25

Echoing the OP: the only reason I could stand to stay in the room when other people were watching the show was Kramer.

The writing was a cut above average.

I didn’t like the personality of the other actors, as portrayed. That fat guy was just a pathetic excuse for a human being. He made my skin crawl.

26

I loved the show. I still think it is the best thing since sliced bread. I’ve seen Curb your Enthusiasm and it can’t hold a candle to Seinfeld. The show about nothing deserves all its accolades. George, Elaine, Kramer and Jerry as the straight-man fit together perfectly.

I can’t even begin to think of a show even close to being in its league.

27

I like the shows.
They are not hysterically funny but my favourites are when all 4 characters are somehow involved in the plot.

28

Another positive vote for Seinfeld. I still watch the reruns on TBS whenever I can. Probably the funniest show I’ve ever seen. And the characters are supposed to be jerks. That’s what makes the show funny, seeing how four people can ruin the lives of everyone they come in contact with.

29

Since the smartest people I knew were watching Seinfeld and loving it, I was disappointed in myself for not liking it. I thought maybe I wasn’t quite as bright as I’d always thought! This thread makes me feel better, cuz I never got it.

Becker cracks me up, though.

30

Seinfeld sucks.

That was what was wrong with it! I don’t want to watch 4 losers obsessing about hangnails for half an hour, no matter how witty the bon mots they throw off are. I know people like that and they’re not funny, they’re boring.

31

The show was brilliant, and what made it so was the well drawn characters and tight writing. The show could fit extraordinarily complex plots into half an hour better than Friends can fit one.

And the characters - those who hate the show because of them: are you the guys responsible for the mawkish crap the networks churn out because viewers apparently only want to see “nice” guys? Give me someone nasty! Nasty people are interesting and more real.

I can watch George trying to contain his glee over the death of his fiancee, but I can’t stand Ray Romano’s loveable bumbling for half an episode.

I suppose you all hated Fawlty Towers because Basil Fawlty was so mean, am I right?

32

I loved Fawlty Towers, because Basil was funny. He also wan’t a total moron.

I get that. But they were all idiots. There is nothing funny about people running around acting stupid.

The plots required everyone to act in ways no human would ever act. Charicature involves exaggeration of real qualities, and none of the Sienfeld crew behaved like real people in any situation. There also was a junior-high locker room view of relationships that was completely unappealing.

I’ve only seen one episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm and I found it very easy to.

33

My favorite sitcom, bar none. I watch it almost every evening. There’s no Seinfeld trivia question I can’t answer.

The show featured no touch-feely moments, no commercials set to Enya, no ‘on a very special…’ It was a sitcom that never took itself seriously and understood that it wasn’t on TV to teach anyone any lessons in morality.

The sea was angry that day, my friends. Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli…

34

George is getting angry!!

:mad:

35

I’ve had to endure several episodes because other people wanted to watch. I agree with everyone who said Kramer was the best, there were only a few times that I found the show amusing and every time it was something Kramer said or did.

36

This thread is funny because I recently started watching reruns of Seinfeld again. I was burned out a few years ago from watching them too often but I took a few years off and it’s now on locally when I’m eating dinner in the living room every weeknight.

This, to me, is the funniest sitcom ever. Bar none. The Simpsons would have been a contender if it had gone out on top, instead of dragging itself along for the past few seasons - I still watch it, but it ain’t the same as it was in its prime. Seinfeld was consistenly good throughtout most of its run.

Seinfeld himself is not all that funny. I don’t enjoy his standup. He’s basically the straight man on the show, with occasional moments that are really funny. But George, Elaine, and Kramer are consistently the funniest things on the show. So many bizarre, inventive, intertwining stories and situations in every episode. I still laugh my ass off when I seen most of the episodes - they’re just so bizarre and surreal.

And the supporting characters - Newman, Puddy, and the Costanzas in particular - really make the show what it is (kind of like the Simpsons). There are so many funny moments with George’s parents - George’s mom ending up in the hospital after walking in on him “treating his body like an amusement park”, George’s dad in the Festivus episode - “As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be a better way” and the fighting with George during the Feats of Strength.

I din’t like George as much in the early episodes - he was a cheap Woody Allen knockoff - but in the later ones he was probably my favorite character. Mean, angry, deceitful, short, bald, stocky, slow-witted, and overally one of the best characters on television. Elaine is also very good - the character was funnier than any other female role on any sitcom that I’ve ever watched. The sponges, the dancing, and her interactions with Puddy were all hilarious.

But the thing that really impresses me about the show is that it went out on top (very much like the episode when George would make a good joke at a meeting and walk out right away, leaving them wanting more). Seinfeld turned down a tenth season that would have paid him something like $110 million because he didn’t want to do the show anymore. Some say that the last season wasn’t good anyway, but it’s still not bad - better than any of the last four Simpsons seasons have been. I have to respect the guy for that one.

I also want to know what shows the people here who don’t like Seinfeld watch. I’m just interested in knowing.

37

While the show was originally on, I watched, and dropped out several seasons in… but then it came back with a bang with ‘Master of my domain’, and I devoutly turned in every week.

The final episode was the weakest ever. We shall not speak of it.

But… Kramer setting the flag on fire… Jerry’s “I choose NOT to run”.

Puddy “The devils! THE DEVILS!”

Elaine: Poppy seeds!

Classic moments.

38

I find it interesting that several people who didn’t particularly like the show found Kramer the most palatable part. I think that says something, since I found him the least interesting and funny character. (Which still made him pretty amusing!) His style of humor was rather different than the rest of the show–more physical, less verbal and intelectual. More dynamic, and less mean-sprirted (sometimes, anyway).

I’m also curious what the Jerry-haters like watching.

Best episode: “The Boyfriend”

39

The thing I liked about Seinfeld was that the characters always got themselves into bizarre situations by doing things that regular folks might idly think about, then disgard as impractical or stupid.

Consider the time that George thought of the “perfect comeback” for an insult dealt to him previously. He hopped a plane and flew to Cincinnati (where the original insulter had moved) just to try to recreate the situation and use his comeback (which, of course, backfired).

Then there are all of Kramers zany plans that never panned out (“levels” instead of furniture, carting soda cans to Michigan to cash in on the 10 cent deposit, storing blood in his refrigerator rather than trusting a blood bank, cooking in the shower, etc, etc).

And then there was the time Elaine cheated on the IQ test for George. And, of course, who could ever forget the time that Elaine ripped Puddy’s Jesus fish off his car and changed all his Christian radio presets. Classic.

40

I’ve be a huge fan since the Seinfeld Chronicles first appeared.
I thought at the time it was brilliant, but too hip for the room and would never make it on network television.
Thankfully I was proven wrong and was rewarded with years more of Seinfeld.
You weren’t expected to like the characters. They were shallow and self-absorbed. They were inconsiderate to almost every character they interacted with.
They took the mundane peeves of life to a higher plane of comedic introspection. Everything centered around them.
While I was disappointed by the final episode, I think it was brilliant that they brought back all of these characters that they had abused over the entire course of the show to testify to their shallowness and self absorption and convict them of their callousness.
I have trouble understanding how some cannot see the humor of Seinfeld, but then I just don’t see the humor of Jackass. Different strokes… (the expression, not the sitcom.)