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I literally was wondering what happened to you last night lmao. Glad to see my worry was unjustified 😂 I hadn't seen your videos in my recommended for awhile and was blaming the YT algorithm
As someone who is currently working on their first video essay on a serious topic and is over an hour in, you have my great sympathy and respect. That clip hunting and editing process is no joke! (particularly if you're sourcing from more than one show) I really enjoyed the video and it was very well timed as seinfeld had been on my mind weirdly enough. It was also cool to see a long video. I only recently discovered you in like the last year or so and I really enjoy your analysis.
Disheartening to hear. I am subbed and have the Bell Icon and no notifications for this video and just saw it now doing my daily Sub check. Will be sharing to help
My favorite metric of Jerry's "success" throughout the series was the contents of his fridge, it went from practically empty and not even stable enough to support soft cheeses of any kind to being a spot rife with product placement by the end.
Jason Alexander was originally doing an impression of Woody Allen for George. It wasn’t until later seasons (maybe around 3 or 4?) that he realized George was Larry and started playing an exaggerated version of Larry instead. If you go back and re-watch the early seasons, it’s so obvious Jason is doing Woody Allen.
I think it was originally season 2, Jason confronted Larry that nobody would quit their job and go back the next day... Larry told jason he did exactly that, and Jason was like, "ohhhhhhh"
@@TheLizardKing752 you’re right it was that episode. I always forget how early that one aired and always assumed it was season 3 at least. I looked it up and it was season 2 (episode 7, “The Revenge”)
There's a particular gesture that Larry David does when he's thinking of something to say, he pushes his tongue against the back of his front teeth (you see him do it on Curb Your Enthusiasm). Jason Alexander adopted this mannerism whenever George was about to say something diabolical in Seinfeld. It's subtle, but it's there.
this is completely true, however it was still very early on in the overall series when Alexander put this together, given that the show hadn't even created 20 total episodes yet between the first two "seasons". They had such strange episode orders for the industry at the time, I don't think they had a normal 20+ episode network sitcom run until season 3.
Thank you for defending George regarding Susan. The whole thing could have been avoided if she just used a wet sponge. Or as George suggested, buy new glue.
If you're gonna buy new glue why not just buy envelopes that don't need extra glue? Although let's be real, Susan was licking those envelopes up until the moment the Grim Reaper claimed her soul, there's no way she got that far without noticing that all her organs were shutting down
I'm a Black Seinfeld fan, and watched the show as it aired in real time. I generally agree with you about that tonal shift between early and late seasons. However, I really appreciate the arbitrary doling out of punishment and assessment of crime for the final episode. To me, that punch of "Wait. We're being arrested? We're going to jail?" hit as gorgeously absurd. Like, I know people this has happened to. I laughed and cried, because it was real.
@@ninjalectualxwhat they mean is that they know people who have been arrested for arbitrary laws, and/or who have been shocked and unprepared for their own arrests, not that they were literally arrested under the same exact satirical laws.
@@trevorlambert4226 "it's whites all the way down" about researching the writer's room. actual line from the video this comment is on regarding the video
The best thing about this show is they dont make excuses for the abhorrent behavior of the characters, all of them have awful characteristics and when they get their just desserts its hilarious
That seemed to be a bit of a trend with some wgows around that time. MARRIED with Children was a few years earlier and every single character, without exception, was an awful person, and they always paid for it, with the only exceptions typically being when they deal with someone even worse. And even then, sometimes they still lose. I'm glad Always Sunny carries on this tradition of "horrible people being horrible and then getting their comeuppance" as a core concept.
This is why I like the finale, it's like the real world finally catches up to them and the show acknowledges that these are not good people. Most importantly, they *still* don't learn their lesson 😂
Funny thing is there were memorable moments wherein they dropped the selfish awfulness and displayed affection for each other outside of defense from the awfulness of other people| I remember an episode that mostly took place at some establishment to do with cars perhaps a car wash and they lose Al's wheels(like his actual vehicle)and he laments the loss of something in his car more-so than the vehicle itself, they get it back and he pulls a copy of "BIG'UNS" out the trunk which Peggy claimed it was the whole time then he reveals that it was just hiding a family photo| There was also the episode a woman tries to buy Al from Peggy so she buys Al and is in bed about to do it but Al keeps stalling until Peggy comes back and gives the money back because neither of em could go through with it| There are many more but they were actually few and far between|
NGL clicked on this thinking typical Renegade Cut of the past few years. That's what I was in the mood for. Forgot this channel started on movie critiques. After two hysterical unhinged rants about fictional characters I have to do the algorithmically right thing, comment and say bravo! This was great! The parking spot etiquette has me in tears.
Every sitcom becomes a parody of itself by the end -- Kramer was "doing Kramer" and George was "being George"... the same thing happened to "Friends" at the end when Joey was just a caricature of "Joey" and same with the rest of the cast
I wouldn't say EVERY sitcom. For example, Malcolm in the Middle seemed to do the opposite. Their characterizations were different from what we saw in the earlier seasons. Malcolm seemed to become dumber. Dewey turned into a musical genius. Reese showed that he wasn't as dumb as he was portrayed in earlier seasons. I've actually seen some people complain that Malcolm seemed to lose the plot, since it was supposed to be focused on a genius and his crazy family; however, the show began focusing more and more on the family as a whole.
@@user-vi4xy1jw7e malcolm in the middle was very inconsistent in its writing, tho for example, sometimes the family has enough money to spend on your usual sitcom shenanigans, and then they point out that they're poor because of bad money management, but then other episodes point out that they're poor despite doing their best to save as much as they can. and don't get me started on their backstory that changed almost every time they went back on it like it's the simpsons the characters suffered from the same too. malcolm starts as a gifted genius that is even too smart for the advanced class, but then he goes from being a genius to just kinda smart, especially during the later seasons where he doesn't even seem to be considered a genius anymore. reese's intelligence also goes from being almost braindead to being just as intelligent as malcolm if he puts his mind to it. dewey is a character that was always crafty and clever, but by the end of the show he's basically smarter than malcolm lois and hal are also inconsistent. sometimes lois is portrayed as a monstrous, irrational mother, but then other episodes portray her as strict because the kids are just that awful, and hal is similar, going from regular dad to whatever bryan cranston crazy stunt he came up with. francis had an arc but then regressed to his teenage-self, going back and forth from lois being an awful parent to francis being an awful son point is that malcolm wasn't a victim of flanderization because the characters went back and forth depending on the episode
I was born in 89, grew up in the 90s and my parents freaking loved Seinfeld and it's some of the first memories I have of watching TV. I think alit of my opinions about members of the LGBT+ community came from Seinfeld, ie: "Not that anything is wrong with that." I was bullied a lot in school and called slurs in a daily basis and people would tell me I'm gay. I'm not, and it really bothered me when I was younger, but my parents would always remind me of the quote from the show that even if I was there was nothing wrong with it. I don't know if it was a net positive for the queer community but it definitely helped me navigate it.
I get that. I was a teenager at the time and homophobia was pretty standard. That quote helped a lot of people gauge the safety of their environment even though it did not communicate complete acceptance.
@@CandidaRosa889You can literally say that about any comment on a RUclips video. It's related to the video, so not sure why you're bothered so much by it.
Used to work late at mail distribution center...would get home, eat pasta, drink a beer and watch Seinfeld on the antenna. It grew on me...and I've grown to love it.
@@jeffnicholas6342 Whatever bad thing you have to say about the vile weed Newman, just remember what the fact, that the mail _never_ stops can do to any man, it can make him go postal.
7:39 oh wow. Okay so I grew up Barely Middle Class with my father always busting ass to try and keep up with his Very Rich elder brother, so parents who have high expectations to the point of abuse leading to a maladaptive coping mechanism in the child is something I relate to something hardcore. I learned to lie, too. To tell stories that people would accept because its what they expected. And then add on an Intensely Religious Mom who insists the greatest sin one can commit is dishonesty, and here I am in my mid thirties still working on my shattered self confidence and internalized shame. Damn
My parents would never spank us more than three times in a row, and the only crime that would get us three was lying. Silly billies taught me to tell them exactly what they want to hear so that I could avoid punishments, not to be truthful because the main problem was that telling the truth didn't mean we would avoid punishment, it just meant they'd hit us really hard twice. Whereas a proper lie might avoid all punishment. They really could not comprehend that I would just lie despite the looming punishment, well I did the math.
Btw, a conductor is basically what ensures that the orchestra is playing in the same way. When orchestras were smaller back in the baroque and classical periods, a conductor wasn't necessary because musicians could just hear one another and adjust the sound so they're playing roughly equally. With a romantic sized orchestra, guaranteeing that your entire string sections doesn't sounds like a nail scratch on a chalkboard without a conductor is nearly impossible.
That was a great vid. I'm about your age and I watched Seinfeld as a youth as well. Even at the time, I remember feeling the thoughts you express near the end, about how preposterously cartoony the show was starting to become. Seinfeld: A show about the humor in ordinary, everyday situations! Like dealing with bubble boys, or producing your own sitcom!
One thing I liked about Seinfeld is the characters are horrible in mostly inane ways. It’s not like always sunny where the characters have committed multiple violent felonies and are downright sociopathic.
I second this. Love Sunny in Philadelphia, but I have trouble relating to those characters because I’d never consider doing even a fraction of what they do in that show, whereas Seinfeld characters are horrible in that kind of “I’d do that if I had no shame” kind of way.
To me, Seinfeld's charm comes from how the characters' various neuroses compel them to perform some slightly deranged act that always seems to rope them into more insane circumstances. The characters in It's Always Sunny are so cartoonishly deranged that they basically don't live on the same planet as the rest of society (which is hilarious in its own right), whereas Seinfeld's central comedic conceit revolves more around seemingly normal people unaware of their own capacity for depravity.
That’s why it cuts deeper and is in a sense more cutting edge… and why the finale was so jarring. Love Sunny, but it’s characters reflect the show has to exaggerate the characters to absurd levels of evil and degeneracy and distance the viewer from them. Seinfeld says ‘The everyday person is, in many ways, actually horrible.’
To be fair about the perfume, Coco Chanel said the when some young woman asked her where to apply the perfume, she responded with "Wherever one wants to be kissed."
Say what you will about the shenanigans of the actors themselves, but Michael Richards' as Kramer is an unparalleled performance. He has this brilliant way of making ANY little tick or line hysterical... it's in the nuanced little details! Should be studied alongside Chaplin, Jim Carrey, Rowan Atkinson, Rik Mayall just in terms of purely physical "cartoon character" performances.
I think animated movies and TV took from his performance, probably even Richards took from animation itself. As some have compared him to Tigger (Winnie the Pooh), with with happy-go attitude causing unintentional mayhem, yet he seems t show no care, other that to get a quit "hello" from someone....
The awareness of time difference blows me away when I remember there was an episode of DHARMA & GREG that references the last episode of Seinfeld. That's how old Seinfeld is.
Yes, and notice how realistic for that line to be given to a black character. I think LD here is subtly reminding us of how blacks are always looking for something for free. He somehow knew they’d eventually force Walgreen’s to close hundreds of stores.
I'm sure someone's already done an essay on it, but both The Simpsons and Seinfeld had their more sincere elements of their beginning seasons stripped away for absurd humour in the seasons that followed, almost concurrently with one another.
with regards to the conductor joke, something about the casual way he says "what the hell is this guy doin?" just kills me every time. I don't wanna think about that joke, I just want to hear seinfeld say that line over and over again.
Yeah, same can be said for the Simpsons, every Seth McFarland show, Beavis and Butt-Head, South Park, Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid Series, and even SpongeBob to some extent.
Seinfeld fan here, I love hearing that you prefer the early episodes. One of my favorite episodes is The Stranded. Admittedly not a great one but I love the simplicity of it revolving around a party in Long Island. Steadily paced with a with new locations, the early seasons always feel good to revisit.
I've kept trying to find out if the dingo line is a reference to something... Either way the look on Elaine's face after was priceless. My fav would have to be the gum though.
@@TheLizardKing752"A dingo ate my baby!" is a cry popularly attributed to Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, as part of the 1980 death of Azaria Chamberlain case, at Uluru in the Northern Territory, Australia. The Chamberlain family had been camping near the rock when their nine-week-old daughter was taken from their tent. Prosecuting authorities rejected her story about a dingo as far-fetched, charging her with murder and securing convictions against her and, also, against her then-husband Michael Chamberlain as an accessory after the fact. After years of challenge in the courts, both parents were absolved of the crime, and a coroner found Azaria's death was, in fact, the result of being eaten by a dingo.[1] The phrase has been used as a joke in popular culture due to its absurd nature.
There is a point many people miss when talking about seinfeld. It´s not that they are being "politically incorrect". There are just plainly bad people. That´s stablished many times in the show, and confirmed with the finale. Thats why it ages well. The characters dont become "unpalatable" to modern sensibilities, they always were. They were bad people back then, and they remain being bad people now.
I understand the show's structural insensitivity and ethnocentrism, but I actually think that the main characters' apparently accidental political incorrectness based on misunderstandings is actually politically correct in a subtle way, in that the character's are implicitly criticized for being insincerely progressive; the initially innocent misunderstanding ends up revealing that the character's really only care about being perceived as progressive or about avoiding being seen as politically incorrect. I think this is actually a valid criticism of two faced do nothing liberals and slactivists today.
Honest to God, that was in the first draft, but some things would make this video too gross. I wanted to make something that was serious but fun, for once.
The actress was 21 at the time and certainly looked older than 16, so maybe it's not that terrible. They could have left her age out of the dialogue, and the scene and story would have worked just as well. I think the primary issue was that she was Russell's daughter and he was ogling her. They didn't need to make her a minor.
I always have to chuckle to myself when Chasing Amy is brought up in discussions of bi-erasure because while it's absolutely guilty of it it's still the movie that helped me come to terms with being bisexual at all. It's just funny to me.
Posting this Seinfeld fact here cuz no one will ever read it: when I was a kid I was in a wilderness program with the son of Jonathan Wolff, the creator of the Seinfeld theme (and other songs.) Apparently the Seinfeld theme alone was enough to let him basically retire completely on royalties after the show turned into the hit it was. Also he was apparently not a great dad, but that's mostly unrelated.
How have you and/or Jonathan turned out so far? I ask bc I was sent to a therapeutic boarding school, where most of the girls had gone to wilderness right before attending. I'm always curious to hear how folks 'turn out'
I almost didn't watch because Seinfeld has always hit different for me than most. And I think you hit on why. I too liked the show better when the characters seemed unusual, but like people you could meet.
I gotta disagree on the scene where Jerry asks about the Chinese restaurant. It's clear from the way the scene plays out that 1) Jerry didn't know the man's race as he'd only seen him from behind when he asked and 2) Jerry's right, a mailman WOULD likely have extensive knowledge of the area they work. The mailman's overreaction is possibly due to past experiences with racism, so you can't fully blame him for getting upset, but Jerry does try to explain himself. Not knowing the mailman's past experience makes it hard to fully say it was his fault, but it's certainly not on Jerry at all. That doesn't excuse his earlier offensive jokes, of course.
I think the point is more that they wrote it so they could tell the joke and have the situation be such that it's not Jerrie's "fault" as you point out.
I propose that if its bad to dislike someone because you find their religious or cultural practices abhorrent, then by the exact same reasoning, its unacceptable and bad to not be accepting and tolerant of a National Socialist and their culture and beliefs. You can't pick out what you like and shun what you do not, because that is exactly what you are claiming to be against in the first place.
One thing that made this show stand out for me at the time was that where every other American sitcom would have these forced, soap-opera drama moments, even the death of a main character's fiancee was played for nothing but laughs. It felt like a breath of fresh air back then which is easy to forget with so much 'edgy' stuff out there nowadays.
Yes! Even _Married... With Children_ had those "feel good" moments, though they were far and few between. Seinfeld's motto was "no hugging, no learning".
Ironic, how most sitcoms that came out in the late 80s, like Saved By the Bell or Full House didn't get my attention, simply because the creators tried to so hard make something happen, yet NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS in them. So to know that's the concept of Seinfeld, being "a show about nothing", yet more things happen in that show, makes George's statement in "The Pitch", have some truth behind it: George: Nothing happens! Russell: Well, why am I watching it? George: Because it's on TV.
Interesting note about bisexuality in the 90s: My So-Called Life’s pilot was written in late 1992/early 1993: “Patty: I find Rickie a little confusing. Angela: Okay, so maybe he's bi. Who cares? His cousin can still drive. [leaves up the stairs] Patty: What? He's what? Do you hear these terms she's throwing around? "Bi" ? Danielle: It means bisexual. Graham: He's bisexual?”
Well, no...the last episode, I need to weigh in. The scene was written so that everyone in the gang, could be tried together for the same crime. Therefore, every one of those characters that appeared in previous episodes could be trotted out for one last cameo performance. They are memorable, and have significant impact to the show's timeline. Whether it's accurate in its depiction is insignificant for the integrity of continuity.
was just realizing i hadn't seen a renegade cut video in a bit! seinfeld is a comfort show for me, with all of it's (many) warts and i am so excited to dive into this one.
I could listen to you re-litigate every social interaction and conflict in Seinfeld. I think thats where part of the appeal come from, talking to other people about the show and who you think is in the right or wrong
It's been a second since the last old fashioned media analysis from Leon and I appreciate it. The usual cultural/social critique is excellent stuff, but taking a break once in a while to indulge in some fun, inconsequential interrogation of media does the soul some good I think.
Great video essay. Loving it. ^^ Side comment: "Married With Children" (also a 90s sitcom) had the same issue of "first few seasons grounded in reality, and becoming more surreal / unrealistic over the course of time". I think this shift might apply to many sitcoms.
I’m a Seinfeld fan and was since high school. A lot of the homophobia and bi issues seemed very common of the time. I knew a lot of guys who reacted like George and Jerry. To be fair I was scared of people seeing me as girly at the time but for different reasons (see profile picture 😊).
"The most villainous sitcom in tv history" is how one critic put it, Lol. It's so true. And it never once delves into sentiment which was refreshing for an American comedy. The only other sitcom I can compare it to in that sense is Fawlty Towers.
I love how in depth you pick apart each character. You take it all so seriously and literally to some extent and that makes this review entertaining in it's own right.
As a child of the 90s, you know what "not that there's anything wrong with that" taught me? What a straight young viewer's takeaway was from that episode? Big surprise, it's that there *wasn't* anything wrong with *that*! The comedy of the episode came from their paranoia and insecurity, not their core casual homophobia; the lesson learned by kid-me, as often is by children, was the most repeated line. "...there's [nothing] wrong with that!"
My husband and I sit and watch TV together and analyze it in real time. To have you notice and comment on mostly the same things was nice. And the thing about looking at certain things in Jerry's apartment was like, "OMG THANK YOU," we can't stop trying to read the videos, and see what we've got for cereal.
George thinking his boss looked like Sugar Ray Leonard wasn’t racist, but it definitely was to make friends with the first black person he encountered in order to prove he wasn’t racist. But I’m mixed, dad black and mom white, and we all thought it was funny.
I think making friends with someone to "prove" you are not racist is the issue and not the comparison per se on the other hand I think that might have been the joke. So then if it is implied to be wrong is that fine? idk it can be hard to parse these things out.
Lately I'm fascinated with Kramer, he's the most interesting of the bunch... not for his antics or his goofines, but for his anachronism. Jerry, Elaine and George are pretty much your averange 90's guys: individualistic, self driven, cynical, the kind of people you had to be to pay the rent in 90`s Manhattan. But Cosmo seems to have a completely different mentality: he has a way smaller sense of personal boundaries, he's a taker but only as much as he's a giver. He can be ambitiuos, but not in a competitive way (always looking to be the "first one" rather than the "best one"). He likes to engage with the community and preaches some social values here and there. He's proud but also gratefull of his (often ridiculous) "everyman luxuries". His lack of cynicism is mistaken as naivety when stand against the others, but only because he's THAT far from the genX yuppie. Kramer acts more like someone raised in the great depression and stuck somewhere in the 60s, back when NY was still housing a proper working class. He's skilled and very driven (although he has to have some sort of adhd that prevents him to stick his as5 in an office chair), and he wants to be usefull for the community, but financial capitalism has no use for people like him. Yet he owns an apartment in upper west side, that's the weirdest thing about him
One thing I like more about early Seinfeld is the pacing. Conversations are allowed to go on and on and episodes are comprised of 3-4 scenes. As the series went on, the scene lists gets larger and larger, and the scenes themselves a lot shorter. I like the show up to about season 5, but after a certain point it becomes a cartoon packed with gags, nicknames, and pratfalls. All the nuance, psychology and character study is lost in favor of watercooler-designed moments. Curb Your Enthusiasm, which has a few good later seasons, followed a similar trajectory from mockumentary "realism" (and genuine cringe comedy) to a kind of absurdist cartoon. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it drains the novelty as everything gets faster and more caricatured.
I still enjoy watching the show every now and then, but it’s not the same after seeing that pic of Jerry Seinfeld posing with a bunch of IOF thugs. Too bad we can’t replace him with his character.
Jerry also openly groomed a 17 year old at 38 years old in the 90s. He's openly been a piece of shit for a long time now This show was a group venture, I choose to focus on someone like Jason Alexander when thinking about it. I view The Smiths in a similar way: Morrissey fucking sucks, but Jonny Marr seems like a genuinely good guy, and why should I let some of his best work be tainted by someone out of his control? We can't choose to not be affected by art made by people we later found out were garbage, so this is how I rationalize it to myself.
@@dumpsta-divrr365 Jason Alexander is also a bit of an a-hole and a hypocrite. He complained about _anti-semitism_ and threatened to quit when they did the episode where a person who performed barbaric genital mutilation on an infant was portrayed as an incompetent baffoon but then ridiculed the Puerto-Ricans who were offended by seeing their flag burned and stomped on. Just imagine if that was the Israeli flag...
Seinfeld tone and atmosphere changes drastically after Larry David takes a back seat to the writing. He hated doing the show in the later seasons and quit I think in the 6th or 7th. That's when all the outlandish sitcom things start to happen. Episodes went from trying to get a reservation at a restaurant or fighting over a parking space to whatever the hell The Chicken Roaster was.
Re: Political Incorrectness, I'd actually love to see a comparison of the politics of the 90s vs. the politics of the early 2000s. I've found a lot of media from the early-to-mid 2000s to be frankly a lot more odious and cringeworthy than much of the un-PC stuff from the 90s, but that could very well be rooted in my own biases.
seinfeld’s writing met with its performances managed to make a lot of reads come off with this kind of quirky, charming quality that reflects how real people will say something funny without really deliberately meaning to. all of those awkward reads cited are good examples, and my general favorite being frank’s “as i rained blows upon him i realized, there had to be another way!” in the festivus episode
I don't know. It started strong, but went downhill when I realized a majority of it would just be pointing out how the show's sensibilities don't align with modern sensibilities and all that. There's a lot I feel was genuinely over analytical and a bit self indulgent. I'm a gay man and can say that if a straight man is being labeled as something he's not and struggles to break from that stigma, that shouldn't be classified as homophobia. For the sake of keeping this short, there's just a lot that can be refuted just through my life experience alone. But regardless of that, I expected a more unbiased look at Seinfeld and a little too much of yourself came creeping out of the cracks that I didn't need. But refreshing myself on your other content made it all clear. Maybe a 6/10.
This video was not long enough! I’d love listening to you go over ever season-every episode, if not strictly for your commentary then for how you look at the little details and nuances of particular incidents throughout the show’s length
A lot of this really puts into context Jerry Seinfeld's more recent "people are too sensitive these days" talking points as a public figure within the last couple of years, and really illustrates the wilful ignorance and/or deceptiveness of those who claimed that his perspective on the matter was really coming from "this wholesome enlightened moderate that conservatives *and* liberals like"
I appeciated the finale only as an older adult, but by god when i watched it on its premiere as a kid it really riled me as it wasn't sastifying and almost depressing too.
There’s an episode in the first season where Jerry is having woman sleep over at his apartment. His dilemma is whether the woman will sleep in the bed with him or if that would be too presumptuous. Kramer tells Jerry not to give the woman any other option besides his bed. That’s rapey.
One thing I've noticed in later seasons, is that the camera op (left side of staging) missed their focus marks. A lot of the shots are mismeasured (as I imagine this was filmed, and they used measuring tape back then for focus) and are absolutely on the cereal boxes. Back in the day, on SD TV, this would've looked fine. Now though...
The biggest thing that bothered me with the series finale was like you addressed the robbery and innocent bystanders. What is reasonable thing to do in that situation? Definitely not intervene an armed robbery and in worse case get everyone killed. How about call for help, sure, they could have done that. Making fun of the victim is also bad. But how about what Kramer did, film the event and thusly providing very good evidence for the prosecution and not to mention giving the cops very good identifying reference of the car thief. The videotape was even brought up in court as a negative thing due to the mocking. Nobody pointed out that the thief can be easily identified from the tape.
I recently did a rewatch of “Seinfeld” myself (even as I’ve spent the last five years rewatching all of “Star Trek”) and I also made a mental note of all the “Trek” actors who turned up on the show (as well as the “Breaking Bad” actors and actors from “The Shield”). Bravo for pointing out Tuvix! Deep cut!
I found your thoughts behind the first few seasons interesting (the camerawork was a good insight). Oddly enough your mention of the Superman figure in the background reminded me of "Roseanne," another show that began in the 80s and ruled the 90s. On that show there was a Godzilla action figure that was proudly and prominently displayed in the living room. Granted I suppose you could argue that that made a little more sense because "Roseanne" actually featured a family with children, but I wouldn't have been surprised if there was a Godzilla figurine in a single person's home. And as time goes by people do gain stuff (and get rid of stuff), so someone adding a Superman figurine personally wouldn't surprise me (Jerry Seinfeld is also a big fan of Superman in real life).
I love this show, it was my absolute favorite as a kid and adult who is also in their 40s. The characters, other than most of Kramer's actions, were amoral, manipulate, scumbags by the writers admission. The 3 are more of an anti-hero of the sitcoms in the era. Ultimately failing any moral test they cynically made for them selfs. I love this show.
As to your last point, they most likely changed the show in season 3 & 4 to reach what was the holy grail of that time; Syndication. Getting to season 5 or 6 is where you reached that point and the amount of money to be made by syndication at the time was orders of magnitude more than shows that did not. So if they needed to make those changes to get there could be argued, but the incentive is clear.
Great points about the early seasons. I love the whole series, including zany episodes like the Merv Griffin set one, but the down-to-earth quality and Jerry's greater vulnerability and relatability at the start - yeah, I'd like to have seen that developed. His later endless stream of gorgeous dates and girlfriends was possibly the worst and most conventional thing on this otherwise fantastically idiosyncratic show.
The, "I'm sorry, this is very important to me" segment/statement/defensive observation had me busting out laughing so hard. I totally agree with you, and I totally get where you're coming from on this.
It's not George's culpability with regard to Susan's death that makes him a bad person. It's the barely restrained glee with which he embraces the event.
I think Curb went thru the same arc. Started out simple and different (not the first ever improv comedy sitcom but well done and well cast) then became more scripted and sitcomy and Larry became less relatable. As someone who feels like socially inept and misunderstood most of the time I gravitate towards shows like Curb and I Think You Should Leave because it's from the perspective of someone like me for once. Someone who means well but can't bridge the gap between others and whose actions and words often get misconstued and taken the opposite even. But then Larry became just a plain asshole with no empathy towards the later seasons and the show became more about "check out this WhaCkY scenario we came up with ". Like... the improvisation qnd free flowing nature of the show made it the OG "about nothing" show imo more than Seinfeld. And then the later seasons just said naw let's make fun of this marginalized group or person. Curb still depicted minorities as an "other" and pretty 2D and stereotypical. And I won't say much about the creepy number of times Larry interacts inappropriately with little girls or just weird ass plots. But people seem to give him a pass. Even after the crypto shilling for the fraudulent company...
The change of aesthetic of the show, in my mind, mirrors how things changed over the 1990s. At the beginning, it was still fairly earnest, more colorful and more blue collar like the 1980s; by the end, with the ripening of neoliberalism, it became wealthier looking, more plastic-like, and become more established. You can only keep your counter-culture edge for so long before it gets commodified. The '90s liked to think of itself as very anti-corporate, anti-selliing-out, in contrast to the money hungry '80s. In reality, the '90s were in some ways more '80s than the '80s like that. The '80s was just honest about it. It's a side of the decade I don't like, but so far I can still compartmentalize it from positive and nostalgic parts of the decade. :)
I lived in New York during this time period, the show was very close to what life was about in NY at that time before all the Carrie Bradshaw want-to-be all moved in and changed the vibe of the city
My husband really dislikes the show Seinfeld but adores It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. When I try to explain to him that they are essentially the same show he says the characters in Seinfeld are just more annoying and have no redeeming qualities. The characters in It's Always Sunny at least know they're dirt bags and don't apologize for their bad behavior but the Seinfeld gang thinks they are better then they actually are. I couldn't argue that point
You can't argue that point and you don't have to, the fact that the Seinfeld characters have no redeeming qualities and don't acknowledge that they're a-holes makes it better and funnier.
I always thought the outline of later episodes became very transparent and started to involve a lot of ridiculous coincidences and rube goldberg-esque chains of events. Jerry's foot falls asleep so he accidentally starts a fire which can't be put out because Kramer crashed the firetruck which lead a man to be trapped in an atm vestibule (without Jill Goodacre) in the same block as Elaine's boss who was having a meal with George who now has to give out his atm pin in public. After a while you notice the pattern of one crazy thing leading to another and the logic really starts to stretch.
Seinfield: are we getting too sensitive? Some time later... Larry King: You gave it up, you didn't get canceled. Seinfield: tf you said?! Beach, do you know who I am?!
The whole tangent about Kramer's sexual appetite seems a bit odd, I don't really think he's any more noncommital than Jerry or George, who practically have new girlfriends every episode.
This video took months to make. Acquiring all episodes, re-watching all episodes, taking notes, research, books, articles, much longer writing, much longer recording, much longer editing. I took a huge risk here. I would greatly appreciate it if you would Like, Share and Subscribe. Check out my Patreon. Tell your friends.
Fantastic video, love the show but take on board the points here. A video essay in every sense of the phrase, top stuff.
I literally was wondering what happened to you last night lmao. Glad to see my worry was unjustified 😂 I hadn't seen your videos in my recommended for awhile and was blaming the YT algorithm
As someone who is currently working on their first video essay on a serious topic and is over an hour in, you have my great sympathy and respect. That clip hunting and editing process is no joke! (particularly if you're sourcing from more than one show)
I really enjoyed the video and it was very well timed as seinfeld had been on my mind weirdly enough.
It was also cool to see a long video. I only recently discovered you in like the last year or so and I really enjoy your analysis.
You say "someone needs to fix the Villains wiki" but... _you_ can fix it. It's a wiki. Go fix it!
Disheartening to hear. I am subbed and have the Bell Icon and no notifications for this video and just saw it now doing my daily Sub check. Will be sharing to help
My favorite metric of Jerry's "success" throughout the series was the contents of his fridge, it went from practically empty and not even stable enough to support soft cheeses of any kind to being a spot rife with product placement by the end.
I'd say the soft cheese bit was because it notoriously makes a mess in the fridge.
"Snapple?"
Jason Alexander was originally doing an impression of Woody Allen for George. It wasn’t until later seasons (maybe around 3 or 4?) that he realized George was Larry and started playing an exaggerated version of Larry instead. If you go back and re-watch the early seasons, it’s so obvious Jason is doing Woody Allen.
I think it was originally season 2, Jason confronted Larry that nobody would quit their job and go back the next day... Larry told jason he did exactly that, and Jason was like, "ohhhhhhh"
@@TheLizardKing752 you’re right it was that episode. I always forget how early that one aired and always assumed it was season 3 at least. I looked it up and it was season 2 (episode 7, “The Revenge”)
Yup!
There's a particular gesture that Larry David does when he's thinking of something to say, he pushes his tongue against the back of his front teeth (you see him do it on Curb Your Enthusiasm). Jason Alexander adopted this mannerism whenever George was about to say something diabolical in Seinfeld. It's subtle, but it's there.
this is completely true, however it was still very early on in the overall series when Alexander put this together, given that the show hadn't even created 20 total episodes yet between the first two "seasons". They had such strange episode orders for the industry at the time, I don't think they had a normal 20+ episode network sitcom run until season 3.
Thank you for defending George regarding Susan. The whole thing could have been avoided if she just used a wet sponge. Or as George suggested, buy new glue.
If you're gonna buy new glue why not just buy envelopes that don't need extra glue? Although let's be real, Susan was licking those envelopes up until the moment the Grim Reaper claimed her soul, there's no way she got that far without noticing that all her organs were shutting down
guess she wasn't sponge-worthy
Ok, finally someone defends George of killing his fiance.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
This part cracked me up
Well, it harkens to blaming consumers instead of the corporations that are poisoning us.
Better Call Leon
"George is getting upset!" were his last words to her@diamond_dogs
I'm a Black Seinfeld fan, and watched the show as it aired in real time. I generally agree with you about that tonal shift between early and late seasons. However, I really appreciate the arbitrary doling out of punishment and assessment of crime for the final episode. To me, that punch of "Wait. We're being arrested? We're going to jail?" hit as gorgeously absurd. Like, I know people this has happened to. I laughed and cried, because it was real.
Sorry, but “I’m a Black Seinfeld fan” is funny to me lol Yep I agree “Black Seinfeld” was so much better lol jk
No, you don't know anybody this happened to because these laws do not exist anywhere in the US. Legal Eagle did a video on this exactly.
@@ninjalectualxwhat they mean is that they know people who have been arrested for arbitrary laws, and/or who have been shocked and unprepared for their own arrests, not that they were literally arrested under the same exact satirical laws.
As a white fan of Seinfeld, Jackie Chiles is my favorite character!
Its kinda funny that Married with Children had one of the most diverse writing staffs for the time.
Really? Wild
What a bizarre non-sequitur.
"diverse"
Weren't the original creators a white and black dude?
I mean, looking back at the show, that explains a lot, really.
@@trevorlambert4226 "it's whites all the way down" about researching the writer's room.
actual line from the video this comment is on regarding the video
The best thing about this show is they dont make excuses for the abhorrent behavior of the characters, all of them have awful characteristics and when they get their just desserts its hilarious
That seemed to be a bit of a trend with some wgows around that time. MARRIED with Children was a few years earlier and every single character, without exception, was an awful person, and they always paid for it, with the only exceptions typically being when they deal with someone even worse. And even then, sometimes they still lose.
I'm glad Always Sunny carries on this tradition of "horrible people being horrible and then getting their comeuppance" as a core concept.
This is why I like the finale, it's like the real world finally catches up to them and the show acknowledges that these are not good people. Most importantly, they *still* don't learn their lesson 😂
@@JackgarPrime The only time the Bundy family wins is when they let go of their selfishness for each other.
Like Sunny!
Funny thing is there were memorable moments wherein they dropped the selfish awfulness and displayed affection for each other outside of defense from the awfulness of other people|
I remember an episode that mostly took place at some establishment to do with cars perhaps a car wash and they lose Al's wheels(like his actual vehicle)and he laments the loss of something in his car more-so than the vehicle itself, they get it back and he pulls a copy of "BIG'UNS" out the trunk which Peggy claimed it was the whole time then he reveals that it was just hiding a family photo|
There was also the episode a woman tries to buy Al from Peggy so she buys Al and is in bed about to do it but Al keeps stalling until Peggy comes back and gives the money back because neither of em could go through with it|
There are many more but they were actually few and far between|
NGL clicked on this thinking typical Renegade Cut of the past few years. That's what I was in the mood for. Forgot this channel started on movie critiques. After two hysterical unhinged rants about fictional characters I have to do the algorithmically right thing, comment and say bravo! This was great! The parking spot etiquette has me in tears.
Yes! The bit about how that subject was important to him was deadpan comedy genius.
You would think the parking etiquette was common sense at this point.
Mike Moffitt is a big phony
Renegade woke up and said “I’m gonna be a psychiatrist, lawyer, and a critic all in one” 😂
Thank you for a light hearted video!
You have the funny guy the straight man the female friend and THE RACIST
Every sitcom becomes a parody of itself by the end -- Kramer was "doing Kramer" and George was "being George"... the same thing happened to "Friends" at the end when Joey was just a caricature of "Joey" and same with the rest of the cast
I thought Joey's attempt to learn French added a layer of depth and complexity to the character...
Flanderisation baby haha
Your show either gets canceled two seasons in or stays on the air long enough to become a caricature of itself.
I wouldn't say EVERY sitcom. For example, Malcolm in the Middle seemed to do the opposite. Their characterizations were different from what we saw in the earlier seasons. Malcolm seemed to become dumber. Dewey turned into a musical genius. Reese showed that he wasn't as dumb as he was portrayed in earlier seasons.
I've actually seen some people complain that Malcolm seemed to lose the plot, since it was supposed to be focused on a genius and his crazy family; however, the show began focusing more and more on the family as a whole.
@@user-vi4xy1jw7e malcolm in the middle was very inconsistent in its writing, tho
for example, sometimes the family has enough money to spend on your usual sitcom shenanigans, and then they point out that they're poor because of bad money management, but then other episodes point out that they're poor despite doing their best to save as much as they can. and don't get me started on their backstory that changed almost every time they went back on it like it's the simpsons
the characters suffered from the same too. malcolm starts as a gifted genius that is even too smart for the advanced class, but then he goes from being a genius to just kinda smart, especially during the later seasons where he doesn't even seem to be considered a genius anymore. reese's intelligence also goes from being almost braindead to being just as intelligent as malcolm if he puts his mind to it. dewey is a character that was always crafty and clever, but by the end of the show he's basically smarter than malcolm
lois and hal are also inconsistent. sometimes lois is portrayed as a monstrous, irrational mother, but then other episodes portray her as strict because the kids are just that awful, and hal is similar, going from regular dad to whatever bryan cranston crazy stunt he came up with. francis had an arc but then regressed to his teenage-self, going back and forth from lois being an awful parent to francis being an awful son
point is that malcolm wasn't a victim of flanderization because the characters went back and forth depending on the episode
I was born in 89, grew up in the 90s and my parents freaking loved Seinfeld and it's some of the first memories I have of watching TV. I think alit of my opinions about members of the LGBT+ community came from Seinfeld, ie: "Not that anything is wrong with that."
I was bullied a lot in school and called slurs in a daily basis and people would tell me I'm gay. I'm not, and it really bothered me when I was younger, but my parents would always remind me of the quote from the show that even if I was there was nothing wrong with it. I don't know if it was a net positive for the queer community but it definitely helped me navigate it.
Wondering who asked tho
@@CandidaRosa889 who shit in your raisin bran lol
I did and I'm asking you to shut up if you aren't gonna contribute something interesting
I get that. I was a teenager at the time and homophobia was pretty standard. That quote helped a lot of people gauge the safety of their environment even though it did not communicate complete acceptance.
@@CandidaRosa889You can literally say that about any comment on a RUclips video. It's related to the video, so not sure why you're bothered so much by it.
Used to work late at mail distribution center...would get home, eat pasta, drink a beer and watch Seinfeld on the antenna. It grew on me...and I've grown to love it.
Curious to know about your thoughts on Newman
@@jeffnicholas6342 Whatever bad thing you have to say about the vile weed Newman, just remember what the fact, that the mail _never_ stops can do to any man, it can make him go postal.
Did you ever crack the 50% barrier in that mail room (i.e., over 50% of recipients appropriately received their mail)?
@HolyCanoley Nobody can crack the 50% barrier, it's impossible. Like the 3 minute mile.
7:39 oh wow.
Okay so I grew up Barely Middle Class with my father always busting ass to try and keep up with his Very Rich elder brother, so parents who have high expectations to the point of abuse leading to a maladaptive coping mechanism in the child is something I relate to something hardcore.
I learned to lie, too. To tell stories that people would accept because its what they expected.
And then add on an Intensely Religious Mom who insists the greatest sin one can commit is dishonesty, and here I am in my mid thirties still working on my shattered self confidence and internalized shame.
Damn
We're all some aspects of george I feel
My parents would never spank us more than three times in a row, and the only crime that would get us three was lying. Silly billies taught me to tell them exactly what they want to hear so that I could avoid punishments, not to be truthful because the main problem was that telling the truth didn't mean we would avoid punishment, it just meant they'd hit us really hard twice. Whereas a proper lie might avoid all punishment. They really could not comprehend that I would just lie despite the looming punishment, well I did the math.
Btw, a conductor is basically what ensures that the orchestra is playing in the same way. When orchestras were smaller back in the baroque and classical periods, a conductor wasn't necessary because musicians could just hear one another and adjust the sound so they're playing roughly equally. With a romantic sized orchestra, guaranteeing that your entire string sections doesn't sounds like a nail scratch on a chalkboard without a conductor is nearly impossible.
That was a great vid.
I'm about your age and I watched Seinfeld as a youth as well. Even at the time, I remember feeling the thoughts you express near the end, about how preposterously cartoony the show was starting to become.
Seinfeld: A show about the humor in ordinary, everyday situations! Like dealing with bubble boys, or producing your own sitcom!
Hidden JJ comment.
why's nobody giving JJ any likes?
One thing I liked about Seinfeld is the characters are horrible in mostly inane ways. It’s not like always sunny where the characters have committed multiple violent felonies and are downright sociopathic.
Always Sunny characters are way more fun
I second this. Love Sunny in Philadelphia, but I have trouble relating to those characters because I’d never consider doing even a fraction of what they do in that show, whereas Seinfeld characters are horrible in that kind of “I’d do that if I had no shame” kind of way.
To me, Seinfeld's charm comes from how the characters' various neuroses compel them to perform some slightly deranged act that always seems to rope them into more insane circumstances. The characters in It's Always Sunny are so cartoonishly deranged that they basically don't live on the same planet as the rest of society (which is hilarious in its own right), whereas Seinfeld's central comedic conceit revolves more around seemingly normal people unaware of their own capacity for depravity.
That’s why it cuts deeper and is in a sense more cutting edge… and why the finale was so jarring. Love Sunny, but it’s characters reflect the show has to exaggerate the characters to absurd levels of evil and degeneracy and distance the viewer from them. Seinfeld says ‘The everyday person is, in many ways, actually horrible.’
They've always been a bizarre version of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and Dorothy. Who each one is changes each episode.
I love this!
To be fair about the perfume, Coco Chanel said the when some young woman asked her where to apply the perfume, she responded with "Wherever one wants to be kissed."
To be fair, Coco Chanel also was an informant for the Nazis
Yeah but she was a nazi so fuck that noise
Do the spots mentioned by the instructions vs "whenever one wants to be kissed" match up though? Lol
Coco Chanel didn't invent perfume. Her own perfume recipe isn't even by her, it was stolen from a Jewish family she turned into the Nazis.
Yeah, because kissing the insides of people's wrists is totally a thing. Also, wouldn't it taste bad or something lol
Say what you will about the shenanigans of the actors themselves, but Michael Richards' as Kramer is an unparalleled performance. He has this brilliant way of making ANY little tick or line hysterical... it's in the nuanced little details! Should be studied alongside Chaplin, Jim Carrey, Rowan Atkinson, Rik Mayall just in terms of purely physical "cartoon character" performances.
I think animated movies and TV took from his performance, probably even Richards took from animation itself. As some have compared him to Tigger (Winnie the Pooh), with with happy-go attitude causing unintentional mayhem, yet he seems t show no care, other that to get a quit "hello" from someone....
The awareness of time difference blows me away when I remember there was an episode of DHARMA & GREG that references the last episode of Seinfeld. That's how old Seinfeld is.
“Free Candy!” is my favorite line from that show, period.
Yes, and notice how realistic for that line to be given to a black character. I think LD here is subtly reminding us of how blacks are always looking for something for free. He somehow knew they’d eventually force Walgreen’s to close hundreds of stores.
I'm sure someone's already done an essay on it, but both The Simpsons and Seinfeld had their more sincere elements of their beginning seasons stripped away for absurd humour in the seasons that followed, almost concurrently with one another.
And I welcomed it
Yeah except, the Simpsons lost the spark, while Seinfeld remained clever and really funny even though it was clearly much more contrived.
Well, it does help that Seinfeld actually ended. Nine seasons is plenty for a sitcom and the creators knew it was time.
with regards to the conductor joke, something about the casual way he says "what the hell is this guy doin?" just kills me every time. I don't wanna think about that joke, I just want to hear seinfeld say that line over and over again.
The ultimate sign of Kraemer's kindness is that he's genuinely friends with Newman.
So what really got Susan was the real villain: Capitalism!
Oh friend, it gets us all in the end. (hey that rhymed!)
😂😂😂😂
If we just lived in a real country like Venezuela, none of this Capitalist BS would be oppressing all of society!
@@dipperdandyBut it didn't scan, alas.
"We are living in a SOCIETY!"
“Are these good people?” Well, it depends on what you mean by‘good’.
It also depends on what he means by "people" (people or fictional characters?)
Yeah, same can be said for the Simpsons, every Seth McFarland show, Beavis and Butt-Head, South Park, Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid Series, and even SpongeBob to some extent.
I always thought the thing about George and Susan's death was not that George killed her but that he was sorta happy she died.
It was more restrained jubilation
Poor Lily
Not to mention Kramer's less than caring attitude to even know who she is.....
Lesson learned: never lick envelopes to moisten the glue of envelopes. Use a wet sponge instead.
I take the inverse route instead
@@verepainelistens1459You lick the sponge to moisten it, then use it to moisten the glue of envelopes?
@@user-vi4xy1jw7e lick the envelope to wet the sponge..😂
Seinfeld fan here, I love hearing that you prefer the early episodes. One of my favorite episodes is The Stranded. Admittedly not a great one but I love the simplicity of it revolving around a party in Long Island. Steadily paced with a with new locations, the early seasons always feel good to revisit.
I've kept trying to find out if the dingo line is a reference to something... Either way the look on Elaine's face after was priceless.
My fav would have to be the gum though.
@@TheLizardKing752"A dingo ate my baby!" is a cry popularly attributed to Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, as part of the 1980 death of Azaria Chamberlain case, at Uluru in the Northern Territory, Australia. The Chamberlain family had been camping near the rock when their nine-week-old daughter was taken from their tent. Prosecuting authorities rejected her story about a dingo as far-fetched, charging her with murder and securing convictions against her and, also, against her then-husband Michael Chamberlain as an accessory after the fact. After years of challenge in the courts, both parents were absolved of the crime, and a coroner found Azaria's death was, in fact, the result of being eaten by a dingo.[1] The phrase has been used as a joke in popular culture due to its absurd nature.
thanks, i didn;' know that was the exact origin.@@user-vi4xy1jw7e
There was a 1988 film made about the incident starring Meryl Streep and Sam Neil called "A Cry in the Dark"....
"Where have you been?! I've been beating myself senseless over here, this guy's going off on the peanut!" LOL it's one of my favorites too.
There is a point many people miss when talking about seinfeld. It´s not that they are being "politically incorrect". There are just plainly bad people. That´s stablished many times in the show, and confirmed with the finale. Thats why it ages well. The characters dont become "unpalatable" to modern sensibilities, they always were. They were bad people back then, and they remain being bad people now.
I understand the show's structural insensitivity and ethnocentrism, but I actually think that the main characters' apparently accidental political incorrectness based on misunderstandings is actually politically correct in a subtle way, in that the character's are implicitly criticized for being insincerely progressive; the initially innocent misunderstanding ends up revealing that the character's really only care about being perceived as progressive or about avoiding being seen as politically incorrect. I think this is actually a valid criticism of two faced do nothing liberals and slactivists today.
You forgot George checking out Denise Richards, her character was the daughter of the head of NBC and 16 years old.
Honest to God, that was in the first draft, but some things would make this video too gross. I wanted to make something that was serious but fun, for once.
Thank you for bringing this up!
The actress was 21 at the time and certainly looked older than 16, so maybe it's not that terrible. They could have left her age out of the dialogue, and the scene and story would have worked just as well. I think the primary issue was that she was Russell's daughter and he was ogling her. They didn't need to make her a minor.
Based on Jerry Seinfeld's real life experience dating a 17-year-old at 38?
This episode just aired RIGHT NOW.
I always have to chuckle to myself when Chasing Amy is brought up in discussions of bi-erasure because while it's absolutely guilty of it it's still the movie that helped me come to terms with being bisexual at all.
It's just funny to me.
Always happy to see an upload. Keep up the good work, quality stuff as always
Posting this Seinfeld fact here cuz no one will ever read it: when I was a kid I was in a wilderness program with the son of Jonathan Wolff, the creator of the Seinfeld theme (and other songs.) Apparently the Seinfeld theme alone was enough to let him basically retire completely on royalties after the show turned into the hit it was. Also he was apparently not a great dad, but that's mostly unrelated.
How have you and/or Jonathan turned out so far?
I ask bc I was sent to a therapeutic boarding school, where most of the girls had gone to wilderness right before attending. I'm always curious to hear how folks 'turn out'
If I recall correctly the pop culture detective touches on the Seinfeld dentist/abuse scene in his video Male Assault played for laughs
I almost didn't watch because Seinfeld has always hit different for me than most. And I think you hit on why. I too liked the show better when the characters seemed unusual, but like people you could meet.
I gotta disagree on the scene where Jerry asks about the Chinese restaurant. It's clear from the way the scene plays out that 1) Jerry didn't know the man's race as he'd only seen him from behind when he asked and 2) Jerry's right, a mailman WOULD likely have extensive knowledge of the area they work. The mailman's overreaction is possibly due to past experiences with racism, so you can't fully blame him for getting upset, but Jerry does try to explain himself. Not knowing the mailman's past experience makes it hard to fully say it was his fault, but it's certainly not on Jerry at all. That doesn't excuse his earlier offensive jokes, of course.
I think the point is more that they wrote it so they could tell the joke and have the situation be such that it's not Jerrie's "fault" as you point out.
@@OmniMonitor Its a good joke, people are just crybabies
I propose that if its bad to dislike someone because you find their religious or cultural practices abhorrent, then by the exact same reasoning, its unacceptable and bad to not be accepting and tolerant of a National Socialist and their culture and beliefs. You can't pick out what you like and shun what you do not, because that is exactly what you are claiming to be against in the first place.
The George's Spot Saga is the most intense moment ever seen on this channel
One thing that made this show stand out for me at the time was that where every other American sitcom would have these forced, soap-opera drama moments, even the death of a main character's fiancee was played for nothing but laughs. It felt like a breath of fresh air back then which is easy to forget with so much 'edgy' stuff out there nowadays.
Yes! Even _Married... With Children_ had those "feel good" moments, though they were far and few between. Seinfeld's motto was "no hugging, no learning".
Ironic, how most sitcoms that came out in the late 80s, like Saved By the Bell or Full House didn't get my attention, simply because the creators tried to so hard make something happen, yet NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS in them.
So to know that's the concept of Seinfeld, being "a show about nothing", yet more things happen in that show, makes George's statement in "The Pitch", have some truth behind it:
George: Nothing happens!
Russell: Well, why am I watching it?
George: Because it's on TV.
[Count dooku voice] I've been looking forward to this
Interesting note about bisexuality in the 90s: My So-Called Life’s pilot was written in late 1992/early 1993:
“Patty: I find Rickie a little confusing.
Angela: Okay, so maybe he's bi. Who cares? His cousin can still drive.
[leaves up the stairs]
Patty: What? He's what? Do you hear these terms she's throwing around? "Bi" ?
Danielle: It means bisexual.
Graham: He's bisexual?”
I will watch this despite really not liking Seinfeld as a show because if Renegade Cut has something to say I want to hear it
Same. I also like his voice so it was a nice commute
Well, no...the last episode, I need to weigh in. The scene was written so that everyone in the gang, could be tried together for the same crime.
Therefore, every one of those characters that appeared in previous episodes could be trotted out for one last cameo performance.
They are memorable, and have significant impact to the show's timeline. Whether it's accurate in its depiction is insignificant for the integrity of continuity.
was just realizing i hadn't seen a renegade cut video in a bit! seinfeld is a comfort show for me, with all of it's (many) warts and i am so excited to dive into this one.
The bit about parking is freaking incredible
I could listen to you re-litigate every social interaction and conflict in Seinfeld. I think thats where part of the appeal come from, talking to other people about the show and who you think is in the right or wrong
It's been a second since the last old fashioned media analysis from Leon and I appreciate it.
The usual cultural/social critique is excellent stuff, but taking a break once in a while to indulge in some fun, inconsequential interrogation of media does the soul some good I think.
Great video essay. Loving it. ^^
Side comment: "Married With Children" (also a 90s sitcom) had the same issue of "first few seasons grounded in reality, and becoming more surreal / unrealistic over the course of time". I think this shift might apply to many sitcoms.
I’m a Seinfeld fan and was since high school. A lot of the homophobia and bi issues seemed very common of the time. I knew a lot of guys who reacted like George and Jerry. To be fair I was scared of people seeing me as girly at the time but for different reasons (see profile picture 😊).
“What’s the deal with airline food “
My husband loved those sponges. He was always buying them.
He was sponge worthy?
"The most villainous sitcom in tv history" is how one critic put it, Lol. It's so true. And it never once delves into sentiment which was refreshing for an American comedy. The only other sitcom I can compare it to in that sense is Fawlty Towers.
What about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?
I love how in depth you pick apart each character. You take it all so seriously and literally to some extent and that makes this review entertaining in it's own right.
You put so much work into this. Thank you! I had no idea that was Tuvix!
As a child of the 90s, you know what "not that there's anything wrong with that" taught me? What a straight young viewer's takeaway was from that episode? Big surprise, it's that there *wasn't* anything wrong with *that*! The comedy of the episode came from their paranoia and insecurity, not their core casual homophobia; the lesson learned by kid-me, as often is by children, was the most repeated line. "...there's [nothing] wrong with that!"
What's the deal? He liked dating an underage girl.
My husband and I sit and watch TV together and analyze it in real time. To have you notice and comment on mostly the same things was nice. And the thing about looking at certain things in Jerry's apartment was like, "OMG THANK YOU," we can't stop trying to read the videos, and see what we've got for cereal.
George thinking his boss looked like Sugar Ray Leonard wasn’t racist, but it definitely was to make friends with the first black person he encountered in order to prove he wasn’t racist. But I’m mixed, dad black and mom white, and we all thought it was funny.
Same
I think making friends with someone to "prove" you are not racist is the issue and not the comparison per se on the other hand I think that might have been the joke. So then if it is implied to be wrong is that fine? idk it can be hard to parse these things out.
@@OmniMonitor The whole point is its funny cause hes being rascist to prove hes not rascist,
So much of Michael Richards' schtick is borrowed from Christopher Lloyd's character Reverend Jim on "Taxi."
Lately I'm fascinated with Kramer, he's the most interesting of the bunch... not for his antics or his goofines, but for his anachronism. Jerry, Elaine and George are pretty much your averange 90's guys: individualistic, self driven, cynical, the kind of people you had to be to pay the rent in 90`s Manhattan. But Cosmo seems to have a completely different mentality: he has a way smaller sense of personal boundaries, he's a taker but only as much as he's a giver. He can be ambitiuos, but not in a competitive way (always looking to be the "first one" rather than the "best one"). He likes to engage with the community and preaches some social values here and there. He's proud but also gratefull of his (often ridiculous) "everyman luxuries". His lack of cynicism is mistaken as naivety when stand against the others, but only because he's THAT far from the genX yuppie. Kramer acts more like someone raised in the great depression and stuck somewhere in the 60s, back when NY was still housing a proper working class. He's skilled and very driven (although he has to have some sort of adhd that prevents him to stick his as5 in an office chair), and he wants to be usefull for the community, but financial capitalism has no use for people like him. Yet he owns an apartment in upper west side, that's the weirdest thing about him
One thing I like more about early Seinfeld is the pacing. Conversations are allowed to go on and on and episodes are comprised of 3-4 scenes. As the series went on, the scene lists gets larger and larger, and the scenes themselves a lot shorter. I like the show up to about season 5, but after a certain point it becomes a cartoon packed with gags, nicknames, and pratfalls. All the nuance, psychology and character study is lost in favor of watercooler-designed moments.
Curb Your Enthusiasm, which has a few good later seasons, followed a similar trajectory from mockumentary "realism" (and genuine cringe comedy) to a kind of absurdist cartoon. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it drains the novelty as everything gets faster and more caricatured.
I still enjoy watching the show every now and then, but it’s not the same after seeing that pic of Jerry Seinfeld posing with a bunch of IOF thugs. Too bad we can’t replace him with his character.
Jerry also openly groomed a 17 year old at 38 years old in the 90s. He's openly been a piece of shit for a long time now
This show was a group venture, I choose to focus on someone like Jason Alexander when thinking about it. I view The Smiths in a similar way: Morrissey fucking sucks, but Jonny Marr seems like a genuinely good guy, and why should I let some of his best work be tainted by someone out of his control?
We can't choose to not be affected by art made by people we later found out were garbage, so this is how I rationalize it to myself.
International Orienteering Federation?
@@dumpsta-divrr365 Jason Alexander is also a bit of an a-hole and a hypocrite. He complained about _anti-semitism_ and threatened to quit when they did the episode where a person who performed barbaric genital mutilation on an infant was portrayed as an incompetent baffoon but then ridiculed the Puerto-Ricans who were offended by seeing their flag burned and stomped on. Just imagine if that was the Israeli flag...
@@dumpsta-divrr365 Age of consent in the state of New York is 17. "Grooming" of someone of age is not a thing.
@@airyanawaejah2323 I think they mean "Israeli Occupation Forces"?
Seinfeld tone and atmosphere changes drastically after Larry David takes a back seat to the writing.
He hated doing the show in the later seasons and quit I think in the 6th or 7th.
That's when all the outlandish sitcom things start to happen.
Episodes went from trying to get a reservation at a restaurant or fighting over a parking space to whatever the hell The Chicken Roaster was.
The Flanderization of so many great sitcoms 😔 see also, the term's namesake- The Simpsons.
The Office also comes to mind.
Re: Political Incorrectness, I'd actually love to see a comparison of the politics of the 90s vs. the politics of the early 2000s. I've found a lot of media from the early-to-mid 2000s to be frankly a lot more odious and cringeworthy than much of the un-PC stuff from the 90s, but that could very well be rooted in my own biases.
seinfeld’s writing met with its performances managed to make a lot of reads come off with this kind of quirky, charming quality that reflects how real people will say something funny without really deliberately meaning to. all of those awkward reads cited are good examples, and my general favorite being frank’s “as i rained blows upon him i realized, there had to be another way!” in the festivus episode
I don't know. It started strong, but went downhill when I realized a majority of it would just be pointing out how the show's sensibilities don't align with modern sensibilities and all that. There's a lot I feel was genuinely over analytical and a bit self indulgent. I'm a gay man and can say that if a straight man is being labeled as something he's not and struggles to break from that stigma, that shouldn't be classified as homophobia. For the sake of keeping this short, there's just a lot that can be refuted just through my life experience alone. But regardless of that, I expected a more unbiased look at Seinfeld and a little too much of yourself came creeping out of the cracks that I didn't need. But refreshing myself on your other content made it all clear. Maybe a 6/10.
This video was not long enough! I’d love listening to you go over ever season-every episode, if not strictly for your commentary then for how you look at the little details and nuances of particular incidents throughout the show’s length
Nice shout out to Matt!
Love creators supporting each other.
Alternate title: Anarchist explains why George Costanza is not guilty of negligent homicide and other character studies
A lot of this really puts into context Jerry Seinfeld's more recent "people are too sensitive these days" talking points as a public figure within the last couple of years, and really illustrates the wilful ignorance and/or deceptiveness of those who claimed that his perspective on the matter was really coming from "this wholesome enlightened moderate that conservatives *and* liberals like"
He’s not wrong, people gain validation and status by righteous indignation even if they don’t actually care
The later stupidity was what made me love it.the finale was a justification of what I loved about it. Can’t understand the hate the finale gets.
It's just not funny. It may have been on-point with all the meta commentary, but it has very few laughs.
I appeciated the finale only as an older adult, but by god when i watched it on its premiere as a kid it really riled me as it wasn't sastifying and almost depressing too.
There’s an episode in the first season where Jerry is having woman sleep over at his apartment. His dilemma is whether the woman will sleep in the bed with him or if that would be too presumptuous. Kramer tells Jerry not to give the woman any other option besides his bed. That’s rapey.
At the time, it was implied that women sleep in the bed and men take the couch. The option she gets is whether Jerry joins her or sleeps on the couch.
You completely misunderstood the joke.
You are correct. Kramer scheming with Jerry, to put this woman in a compromising situation is abhorrent.
Although..."if she's into it".
Still laughing at the phrase "tompeepery"
One thing I've noticed in later seasons, is that the camera op (left side of staging) missed their focus marks. A lot of the shots are mismeasured (as I imagine this was filmed, and they used measuring tape back then for focus) and are absolutely on the cereal boxes. Back in the day, on SD TV, this would've looked fine. Now though...
The biggest thing that bothered me with the series finale was like you addressed the robbery and innocent bystanders. What is reasonable thing to do in that situation? Definitely not intervene an armed robbery and in worse case get everyone killed. How about call for help, sure, they could have done that. Making fun of the victim is also bad. But how about what Kramer did, film the event and thusly providing very good evidence for the prosecution and not to mention giving the cops very good identifying reference of the car thief. The videotape was even brought up in court as a negative thing due to the mocking. Nobody pointed out that the thief can be easily identified from the tape.
I recently did a rewatch of “Seinfeld” myself (even as I’ve spent the last five years rewatching all of “Star Trek”) and I also made a mental note of all the “Trek” actors who turned up on the show (as well as the “Breaking Bad” actors and actors from “The Shield”). Bravo for pointing out Tuvix! Deep cut!
Parallel parking is serious business
Man your mic channel sounds perfect. It's so refreshing to hear. I wonder what mic and compressor you're using? Really nice combo.
I found your thoughts behind the first few seasons interesting (the camerawork was a good insight). Oddly enough your mention of the Superman figure in the background reminded me of "Roseanne," another show that began in the 80s and ruled the 90s. On that show there was a Godzilla action figure that was proudly and prominently displayed in the living room. Granted I suppose you could argue that that made a little more sense because "Roseanne" actually featured a family with children, but I wouldn't have been surprised if there was a Godzilla figurine in a single person's home. And as time goes by people do gain stuff (and get rid of stuff), so someone adding a Superman figurine personally wouldn't surprise me (Jerry Seinfeld is also a big fan of Superman in real life).
the conductor joke always irritated me as someone who grew up around a symphony orchestra. thank you for addressing that "joke" XD
I love this show, it was my absolute favorite as a kid and adult who is also in their 40s.
The characters, other than most of Kramer's actions, were amoral, manipulate, scumbags by the writers admission. The 3 are more of an anti-hero of the sitcoms in the era. Ultimately failing any moral test they cynically made for them selfs. I love this show.
As to your last point, they most likely changed the show in season 3 & 4 to reach what was the holy grail of that time; Syndication. Getting to season 5 or 6 is where you reached that point and the amount of money to be made by syndication at the time was orders of magnitude more than shows that did not. So if they needed to make those changes to get there could be argued, but the incentive is clear.
I love Seinfeld, although part of that is the fact that it's an autistic special interest for me.
we have come a long way and I think we degraded pretty much into boring scolds....
Great points about the early seasons. I love the whole series, including zany episodes like the Merv Griffin set one, but the down-to-earth quality and Jerry's greater vulnerability and relatability at the start - yeah, I'd like to have seen that developed. His later endless stream of gorgeous dates and girlfriends was possibly the worst and most conventional thing on this otherwise fantastically idiosyncratic show.
The, "I'm sorry, this is very important to me" segment/statement/defensive observation had me busting out laughing so hard. I totally agree with you, and I totally get where you're coming from on this.
Best show of all time
It's not George's culpability with regard to Susan's death that makes him a bad person. It's the barely restrained glee with which he embraces the event.
I think Curb went thru the same arc. Started out simple and different (not the first ever improv comedy sitcom but well done and well cast) then became more scripted and sitcomy and Larry became less relatable. As someone who feels like socially inept and misunderstood most of the time I gravitate towards shows like Curb and I Think You Should Leave because it's from the perspective of someone like me for once. Someone who means well but can't bridge the gap between others and whose actions and words often get misconstued and taken the opposite even. But then Larry became just a plain asshole with no empathy towards the later seasons and the show became more about "check out this WhaCkY scenario we came up with ". Like... the improvisation qnd free flowing nature of the show made it the OG "about nothing" show imo more than Seinfeld. And then the later seasons just said naw let's make fun of this marginalized group or person. Curb still depicted minorities as an "other" and pretty 2D and stereotypical. And I won't say much about the creepy number of times Larry interacts inappropriately with little girls or just weird ass plots. But people seem to give him a pass. Even after the crypto shilling for the fraudulent company...
The change of aesthetic of the show, in my mind, mirrors how things changed over the 1990s. At the beginning, it was still fairly earnest, more colorful and more blue collar like the 1980s; by the end, with the ripening of neoliberalism, it became wealthier looking, more plastic-like, and become more established. You can only keep your counter-culture edge for so long before it gets commodified. The '90s liked to think of itself as very anti-corporate, anti-selliing-out, in contrast to the money hungry '80s. In reality, the '90s were in some ways more '80s than the '80s like that. The '80s was just honest about it. It's a side of the decade I don't like, but so far I can still compartmentalize it from positive and nostalgic parts of the decade. :)
BABE WAKE UP NEW RENEGADE CUT
I lived in New York during this time period, the show was very close to what life was about in NY at that time before all the Carrie Bradshaw want-to-be all moved in and changed the vibe of the city
My husband really dislikes the show Seinfeld but adores It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. When I try to explain to him that they are essentially the same show he says the characters in Seinfeld are just more annoying and have no redeeming qualities. The characters in It's Always Sunny at least know they're dirt bags and don't apologize for their bad behavior but the Seinfeld gang thinks they are better then they actually are. I couldn't argue that point
You can't argue that point and you don't have to, the fact that the Seinfeld characters have no redeeming qualities and don't acknowledge that they're a-holes makes it better and funnier.
I always thought the outline of later episodes became very transparent and started to involve a lot of ridiculous coincidences and rube goldberg-esque chains of events. Jerry's foot falls asleep so he accidentally starts a fire which can't be put out because Kramer crashed the firetruck which lead a man to be trapped in an atm vestibule (without Jill Goodacre) in the same block as Elaine's boss who was having a meal with George who now has to give out his atm pin in public. After a while you notice the pattern of one crazy thing leading to another and the logic really starts to stretch.
I do honestly believe that the jokes in the first 3 seasons were real, and they're spectacular.
Seinfield: are we getting too sensitive?
Some time later...
Larry King: You gave it up, you didn't get canceled.
Seinfield: tf you said?! Beach, do you know who I am?!
I've never watched a seinfeld nor do I know what it means to be one, but the george killed his wife with envelopes bit was like a bat to the head
The whole tangent about Kramer's sexual appetite seems a bit odd, I don't really think he's any more noncommital than Jerry or George, who practically have new girlfriends every episode.