Sometimes I feel alone, like I'm stranded on an island like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. I don't mean alone in life. My wife and daughter provide all the company I could want and I have friends besides. No, I mean alone in the sense that I don't like Seinfeld.What's the deal with this show? Why do people find it funny? When it was first run, I gave it a shot as a midseason replacement. I watched the first 13 episodes and talked about it with my co-workers. I didn't laugh once. I tried watching it several times thereafter at the urging of friends who found it hilarious and I got nothing. What am I not seeing in this show? Classic TV moments that people talk about, like the Soup Nazi: "No soup for you!" Masters of their domain? Nothing. Not even a smile. "They're real and they're spectacular." Whatever.
I just don't get it. I have a good sense of humor, so why don't I see what's funny about this show? Now, I like Jerry Seinfeld himself. I think his stand up routine is funny. He was interviewed on Larry King the other day, and he blasted King for not even knowing that his show wasn't cancelled because of ratings. Seinfeld was merciless and funny. But today I thought, okay, let me give it a second chance, and what do I get? Kramer getting banned from buying fruit in a store and Jerry not being able to perform because George had been fixated on impotence.
Somebody rescue me!
3 comments:
Jim, while I thought Seinfeld was an okay show, I didn't LOVE it like so many did. I can take it or leave it really. Some episodes were very good but others were just so-so. So, you're not the only one.
I'll admit I get more smiles than real laughs out of that show, though I think there are some funny sequences in the mid-years. It is a kind of social discomfort humor (like Larry David's show on HBO or Borat) that I don't care for as much.
But I think the thing that really brought it home for me was that last two-part episode where they (spoiler) get convicted for not stopping to help someone who was getting mugged. That and the trial was like some giant meta-joke, pulling away the curtain and saying: look, these people you like, they're actually really, really awful human beings. And they are-- they're selfish, self-destructive, aggrandizing, etc. Now, certainly there's some of that necessary in characterization but when you really look at the whole of it, I would sincerely hate those people in real life. None of them have redeeming features, even the supposed protagonist, Seinfeld himself.
Jim,
You lasted longer than I did. I've only seen one episode all the way through - twice, as it turns out.
I have a good sense of humor, but this show just left me cold.
You aren't alone!
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