Comments on: Much Ado About Nothing

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 03:50:23 +0000

I like this post. I have never watched Seinfield regularly, but I have seen my share of episodes over the years. I love what I have seen, and I agree with a lot of your analysis. A lot of what we care about is nothing, at least to the world. Some of my favorite interactions between Seinfield characters is when they are ll trying to have their own conversation and are all talking at the same time. That’s how it is most of the time. We are thinking what we are thinking, and we hardly care about our surroundings. Maybe Seinfield doesn’t talk about love because that requires sitting down and talking to someone- really caring about that person and their thoughts. And who has time for that?

By: W.E.B. Adamant

W.E.B. Adamant — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 01:02:51 +0000

I’ve always enjoyed watching Seinfield. It was one of the few shows my mom and I would especially sit through the reruns of. But it was also one of the few shows i would elect to watch on my own without her. There was something very adult about their problems and something extremely childish about how they handled them that I found attractive and funny.

Nice write-up, Jacob. You pulled a “me” and wrote a word or two quite a few times into the post (like “admittedly), but otherwise, a damn good job.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:58:24 +0000

jsoliver, nice analysis of “Seinfeld.” Your thesis was well-stated and well supported. To say that “Seinfeld” is really a show about nothing is ridiculous when you think about its ability to cover topics that actually are very important to us as individuals and as a society. You mentioned that the show is “about what we are, here and now” and although I agree completely with that statement, I like to think it’s about even more than that.

With its great popularity, “Seinfeld” was not only able to cover topics of our everyday lives that were important at the time, but also more controversial topics that may have been less acceptable in our culture had it not been for the show’s influence. With its ability to make people laugh, “Seinfeld” was able to cover rather taboo subjects such as homosexuality and masturbation to make its audience and our culture more comfortable with these issues. For example, in the famous episode entitled “The Contest” Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer make a bet to see who can go the longest without masturbating.

At the time, masturbation was not yet a subject widely discussed in our society and the fact that “Seinfeld” was able to air an entire show based on the topic was relatively controversial. Throughout the episode the characters have various conversations inferring that they all masturbate regularly, with Kramer claiming he does it everyday and George explaining how he got caught doing it by his mother. The show was able to come up dilemmas for each character that many people were able to relate to, thus making light of the subject and making it a more comfortable topic of conversation. Also, the fact that Elaine, the female symbol of the show, was included in the contest and ultimately lost introduced the subject of female masturbation as well. “Seinfeld” was able to assist in what we have become as a culture because it was not only about what we as individuals and a society were really about at the time, but also about what important topics were on the horizon and where we were headed as a society.

By: binaryprimate

binaryprimate — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 04:32:25 +0000

You know, Jacob, Seinfeld’s one of those shows where it’s hard to claim a favourite. I was thinking about how light Seinfeld is. What I mean is, there isn’t really any cold hard morals to learn or correctional statements about society. Seinfeld is a nice hiatus from thinking critically about the state of humanity. Instead, it’s chuckle about some of the more complicated, though enjoyable, moments of life.

By: rawra

rawra — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 04:11:30 +0000

I like your take on Seinfeld, that it’s about everything instead of just nothing.

Plus it’s Seinfeld. So, in the words of Anthony, “Go you.”

By: donnadb

donnadb — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:40:28 +0000

A wonderful exploration of what that common appellation “about nothing” might really mean. I disagree that it’s about “everything that’s important to us,” because the mundane concerns of our lives are not everything, but they do deserve elevation into consciousness to be explored precisely because we don’t typically think of them as important — yet they are where we live 90% of our lives. So what’s important in the show is that it refuses to engage what we’ve all agreed is important, and its perverse insistence on treating “close talkers” and the etiquette of housewarming gifts as critical questions, while simultaneously condemning its lovable characters for their shallowness (something the characters themselves realized). But enough of my analysis. You carry through your thesis very well, although you overstate the matter to a certain extent to my way of thinking. I would like you to acknowledge that very Jewish, very New York humor is nothing new on TV — those were the characters and comedians who populated the early days of television, so there is a tradition there that we’re used to. And it would have been nice to hear about how co-creator Larry David’s show Curb Your Enthusiasm takes the discomfort of these social niceties and makes it even more humiliating and uncomfortable, without the lovable characters and without the laugh track.

By: snookju

snookju — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 04:35:38 +0000

I love this witty analysis. The importance is in the details. This is true in everything. Seinfeld is like a microscope for reality, zooming in on the very specific components of our lives and featuring them up close when the general trend is to back off an try to focus on “the big picture.” It really is great stuff. I am happy with the way you bring the analysis into a personal perspective at the end, too.

Watch out not to slip into past tense when otherwise describing something in the present as in the fourth paragraph (counting the stand-alone sentence).

Don’t think I fail to notice your continuing adherence to the exact WC. If you ever write for a publication, your editors will be very pleased.

By: jsoliver

jsoliver — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 06:58:29 +0000

Oh yeah, Authors note (still getting used to this): Here I was trying to address why Seinfeld managed to be so popular in in the 90s, or rather, why it was the MOST popular sitcom of the 90s. It’s not simply that the show was funny, but the fact that the show reflected our contemporary life more effectively/intelligently/humorously that any other show of the period; perhaps even more so than most other shows ever. I think this is significant because it’s like looking into a mirror: who the hell are we? What the hell are we doing? And why are we doing it? The goals we pursue is a theme addressed often, but the means we used to obtain the ends is less than important in most works. Not Seinfeld.

AND TO ANSWER THOUGHTS ON MANHANDS: I’m in Jerry’s camp; I wouldn’t be able to date someone with such hands. But then, maybe there’s a reason that the nickname “Jewy McJew” has stuck with me since freshman year (not kidding, this is actually true).

By: thesimmons

thesimmons — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 03:32:00 +0000

You did sienfeld…YAY…YAY x2. I like your comments about the “much to do about nothing” aspect of the show. My question is…What is your thoughts on girls with manhands?