First of all, yeah, come at me. “Seinfeld” is only kinda-sorta funny, at best. Seinfeld himself is really not funny at all. His act is perpetually stuck between the oldschool, early 1950s-style, cigar-waving “hyuk-hyuk, get a load of all my jokes about women drivers” comedians and the post-Lenny Bruce era, where everything just boils down to telling boring “slice of life” stories with mildly clever exaggerations.

Seinfeld manages to pick and choose all the worst elements of both those eras and smush them together into a tremendously boring, un-funny standup act.

Annnnd that’s what gets translated to the show. Boring, egotistical, overly-New-York-focused, pretentious nonsense.

Like I said, come at me about that. I know people disagree. I truly do not care what you want to say to me, about it. You’re simply wrong. If you like his comedy or his show, you just have bad taste. I can’t fix that. I can’t change your mind. You can’t change mine, either. But I’m objectively correct that he and his comedy material both suck.

But the whole “show about nothing” thing is what really boils my ass. You can argue that the show wasn’t “about nothing,” in the first place. And that’s, like, whatever. There are valid arguments, there. In fact, I’d like to accept those arguments, then proceed under the assumption that the “show about nothing” concept really is a “show about nothing, and therefore about everything.”

This is the important point: the thing I disagree with is this wretched and insulting notion that “Seinfeld” was somehow a PIONEERING television show, in this context of being about nothing and/or everything.

That’s my problem. The claim that “Seinfeld” did any of that shit first. The implication is that all prior television, especially all prior comedies, were somehow locked into a “this is a show about a particular topic” mentality. And, like, “nobody had the GENIUS and the GUTS to make a freewheeling show about just, like, whatever topics came to the minds of the genius writers, and their groundbreaking stream-of-consciousness comedy process.”

That’s fucking horseshit. Horseshit of the highest fucking caliber.

I suppose these turd-brained fucksticks believe that “I Love Lucy” was about a Cuban guy who had a job as a bandleader and his wife, who sometimes tried to get into showbusiness. And “The Honeymooners” would be about a guy who has a job as a bus driver. And “Taxi” was a show about cab drivers, driving their cabs.

Of course, that’s not what those shows were ACTUALLY ABOUT. They were basically shows about nothing, just as much as “Seinfeld” was. They were often about relatable problems in domestic life, they were sometimes about people trying zany get-rich-quick schemes, they were sometimes about the fears and perils and hopes that surround pregnancy and childbirth, they were often about the uncertainty and passion and sacrifice that people put themselves through, for their budding careers, or their workaday jobs. And they were about a million other things that all fit the “show about nothing” mold BETTER than “Seinfeld” ever did.

I say they did it better, because they weren’t exclusively about sad, angry, borderline-psychopathic reprobates, who seem to have no goals or aspirations, beyond smirking and talking shit about people behind their backs, swilling coffee, and occasionally trying to get laid. They were shitty people, with shitty attitudes. I know that’s part of the joke…but it wears thin very quickly, and my point is that other shows did a similar “it’s a show about nothing…but really everything” theme, but their casts of characters WEREN’T entirely populated by malignant, fundamentally worthless narcissists.

Basically, I implore people to stop worshipping that fucking show, as if it was some kind of groundbreaking, high art. There were way better classic comedy shows than that piece of shit, from its own era and the TV eras before it.

Oh, and before you point out that I accused Seinfeld of being overly New York focused, but also used three other shows set in New York as counterexamples, I realized that just now.

And I don’t give a shit. I can keep going. “Green Acres” wasn’t really about farming. “The Bob Newhart Show” wasn’t really about psychiatry, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” wasn’t really about TV production, and “WKRP in Cincinnati” wasn’t really about radio production.

The shows about nothing and everything are THE MAJORITY of all the shows. Certainly, all the good ones. It’s harder for me to think of reversed examples, where the show is just what it was supposed to be “about.”

Like, yeah, “Flipper” really was about a fucking dolphin, and “The Flying Nun” really was about a flying fucking nun. And those shows fucking sucked.

I think I can consider my point thoroughly made.

Now, all you assholes can start typing abuse at me, for daring to dislike your idol. I won’t be reading that shit. Not sorry.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’m just glad it made stars out of Julia Louis Dreyfus and Jason Alexander. Two immensely talented people who made the most out of their paper thin characters on the show.

    • Chill Dude 69@lemmynsfw.comOP
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      3 months ago

      Oof. Still gonna have to disagree. Mostly in Jason Alexander’s case.

      The ONLY good thing he’s ever done was that one guest shot, on that one episode of “Star Trek: Voyager.” Everything else has been a complete face-plant failure, for the completely understandable reason that it was of poor quality.

      I mean, look at what he’s doing right now. Just last night, I saw him in an ad for some godforsaken online poker app. I actually saw the ad twice, once as a YouTube preroll and once as an actual TV spot, during a hockey game. Either way, it was pretty pathetic, and he clearly does not know how to manage his money.

      I’ve heard that “Veep” is a pretty good show, though, and Julia Louis Dreyfus remains an integral part of the “Christmas Vacation” movie.

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        He’s done a lot of great broadway/stage work. He was one of the original cast members in Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along.” He can sing, dance, and act.

        But I agree he often slums it in commercials and I don’t know why. I guess he’s gotta pay the rent.

        • Chill Dude 69@lemmynsfw.comOP
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          3 months ago

          I genuinely didn’t know that. I am basically allergic to musical theater, so it’s just way outside my whole universe. I’m perfectly willing to allow that he’s a treasure on the stage.

          But yeah, he must have a major drug habit or an expensive-ass gaggle of mistresses, or some shit like that, the way he just washes up in bottom-shelf commercials. I’m glad to know he IS doing other stuff, because those poker ads were actually starting to bum me out. I mean, I don’t have anything against him, personally.

  • Wwwbdd@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’m not going to get into the whole rant, you think what you want, this is the place for that. But it wasn’t pitched as “a show about nothing”, that was an arc in the show but it’s not at all what the actual theme of the show is

    In a Reddit AMA, Seinfeld revealed how he and David really pitched the sitcom to NBC. The actor noted, “The pitch for the show, the real pitch, when Larry and I went to NBC in 1988, was we want to show how a comedian gets his material. The show about nothing was just a joke in an episode many years later.” That’s exactly what the show is, and for the first seven seasons, every episode sees Jerry performing stand-up comedy, making jokes based on exactly what that particular episode is about

    https://screenrant.com/seinfeld-show-about-nothing-jerry-larry-david-pitch/

    So don’t worry so much about the show being about nothing. It’s a sit-com.

    • Chill Dude 69@lemmynsfw.comOP
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      3 months ago

      Those may be the facts, and I’m glad to see a very concise summary of them, from you. But honestly, in order for those facts to be REALLY relevant to my rant, you’d have to tell all the people who believe the show WAS “a show about nothing” and think that’s AWESOME.

      It’s those people (who believe the myth but applaud its premise) that prompted me to make this post, in the first place.

      • Wwwbdd@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        you’d have to tell all the people who believe the show WAS “a show about nothing” and think that’s AWESOME.

        Who are these people? Show me. You’ve got an image in your mind of some blithering idiot who drools over the show strictly because “it’s a show about nothing” and that makes you mad. Can’t really argue with a strawman like that, but if you ever come across them rest assured they’re wrong in their premise and feel good about yourself

        People like Seinfeld because it’s a light sitcom that can make a majority of them laugh at the situations it’s characters get into. Nothing more.

        • Chill Dude 69@lemmynsfw.comOP
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          3 months ago

          I’ll just have to basically concede to this particular whole comment. I can’t point you to any specific time or instance when I’ve heard people extolling the virtues of “Seinfeld” as being a genius progenitor of the “show about nothing” concept. Not because I’m making the whole thing up as a strawman, but because it’s not really things I can cite. It’s bits of small talk, over the years, in contexts where I didn’t want to argue about it. Reddit comments from years ago, that I’d never be able to find. Stuff people said in chat, in MMO games that no longer exist. That sort of thing.

          But yeah, in that vein, I also concede that it’s petty enough of me to want to yell into the ether, in the unknowable direction of whoever and wherever those people are. Fine.

          On the other hand, this is a place specifically for saying unpopular things. Maybe I take it too far in the direction of “also, saying it in a provocative manner, to vent my existential frustrations,” but I think that’s as good a way of wasting time as anything else.

          And on the OTHER other hand, the whole conversation has sparked some really interesting and valid discussion, as well.

          • Wwwbdd@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I fully hear you and I liked talking about it. Your rant was the perfect spot for me to get out that same aggression and counter-rant.

            And it’s important to put these unpopular opinions out there and fight it out. Sometimes I google “does anyone else hate this popular shit?” and it’s annoying when I can’t find other people with the same takes.

  • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    You really invested time into this Seinfeld thing. I just started watching it for my first time this year. It’s amusing. That’s all.

  • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    I feel like you guys dunk on Seinfeld too much. I’ve even rewatched it because I enjoyed it so much. Though it came to me as a surprise when someone on lemmy pointed out that Jerry is a pedophile.

  • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    I respect the unpopular opinion, but disrespect the wrong / inconsistent stuff for a lot of it…

    For example with the “show about nothing”, its an in universe joke about a TV show George thought up

  • S_204@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Opinions are like assholes. Everyone’s got one, even the stupid people.

    • pantyhosewimp@lemmynsfw.com
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      3 months ago

      Doesn’t Dennis Leary have a bit about this phrase? “Assholes” being plural & “one” being singular? The phrase bothered him for some reason

  • weariedfae@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Yeah, I’m not reading that wall of text but I agree. It’s an unpopular opinion but I’ve never laughed once at anything on Seinfeld. I’ve seen episodes here and there because I definitely tried watching it. Just… meh.

  • vin@lemmynsfw.com
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    3 months ago

    I agree that it is generally overrated. However, I have not seen the other shows and have never heard of most of them. I think the same would be true for most people outside USA and UK. Maybe that’s why it was a pioneer? Not that it invented it, but made it big?

    • Chill Dude 69@lemmynsfw.comOP
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      3 months ago

      Now, that’s an interesting line of inquiry. Since the show did self-reference that whole thing, with the “show about nothing,” that is what made superfans begin crediting it with inventing the concept, even though it didn’t…but I never really thought about how many people had probably never even thought about any of this, prior to “Seinfeld” bringing it up, in their minds.

      I think I did make an error. Note, first of all, that I did know about the “it’s a show about nothing” concept being in the show itself. I’m not mistaken about my premise, because of that. I’m deliberately reiterating this point, because so many people in these comments seem to think I got that wrong, or didn’t know about it.

      Anyway, I know the show had that arc. But it was intended to be self-referential, and people who really love the show will point to that whole thing and say “GENIUS! THIS IS A SHOW ABOUT NOTHING, AND IT EVEN HAS A SHOW ABOUT NOTHING INSIDE OF IT!”

      But the thing is, I think I did still make an error. I made the assumption that those people were doing that shit in bad faith. At the very least, it’s unfair of me to make that assumption. Seeing that meta-humor in “Seinfeld” may have provoked them to start thinking about the meta-concepts of media and writing and human culture, for the very first time.

      Just because I was already familiar with those concepts the first time I saw any of “Seinfeld” doesn’t mean everyone was. I have no evidence to suggest that people were being willfully ignorant, and instead I may be bashing on people who are having completely honest reactions to a concept they’d really never thought about.

      That shouldn’t be something I rant and shake my fist about.

  • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Upvoted for actually unpopular opinion.

    But also YOU’RE COMPLETELY RIGHT.

    (username does not check out though)

  • Bad_Engineering@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    While I agree that Seinfeld is generally unfunny and definitely overrated, Op is such a gaping asshole about it, I kinda want to rethink my opinion because of them.

  • Mastengwe@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    What an absolute bullshit thing to post here- you’re not displaying an unpopular opinion, you’re just ranting like an asshole about something you don’t like by insulting people who like it.

    And saying “come at me…” seriously dude?

    This shit should be removed by mods for trolling.

  • TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    You’re just objectively wrong throughout. Not liking it, sure. You do you boo.

    It was never a show about nothing. It was a 90s sitcom. It had an A plot and a B plot. Had arching character stories that ran season to season that were directly related to how shows didn’t drop all at once but once a week for a period of time then NOTHING as a cliff hanger for a year. So a drastic change or a big season finale actually meant something because there was most of the year someone would talk about it.

    As to you just not liking it, I can see that. Especially if you’re younger. When I was younger I hated it. Absolutely not funny. When you are their age, all that crap that happens to them, happens to you. Obviously they are the worst versions of people possible which is the point. And yes that too is pioneering, because you were always supposed to support the characters. Give it a decade, and rewatch. You may chuckle. Or not. Doesn’t matter.

    Seinfeld himself I don’t find funny. And he’s a terrible actor (self described). Jason Alexander is a god. Dreyfus is intolerable. I can’t stand anything she’s in, except Seinfeld where I hate her but watch her. But even with that, it’s a good standard 90s comedic sitcom. Formulaic and somewhat unpredictable the first time. Obscenely quotable today.