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.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Dude typed a whole essay about how he doesn’t like a TV show from like 20-30 years ago…

      I didn’t read any of it, but I’m sure none of it is groundbreaking. Like, some kids think literally everyone loved the stuff we call classics today.

      Not liking Seinfeld isn’t anymore original or rare than not liking marvel movies, except for Earnest Goes to Camp there’s no piece of media everyone loves.

      • dhhyfddehhfyy4673@fedia.io
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        7 months ago

        I gave it a go, but had to bow out when I got to the My personal taste in entertainment is objectively correct bit lol

        • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Yeah, I think he missed this is unpopular opinions. Not to mention that comedy is inherently subjective.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I’d bet the OP is fairly young. To many younger people Seinfeld seems terrible, largely because everything since copied so many aspects of things it pioneered on general television and refined them. So Seinfeld seems like just a collection of poor imitations rather than the beginning for all of those being made better.

        • folkrav@lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

          I thought about it, but on the other hand, I’ve yet to hear someone under a handful of decades old mention Lenny Bruce

        • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          What did it do? I’m not that young but didn’t watch it much as it wasn’t big in the UK.

          • Praxinoscope@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            I think it’s credited as one of, if not the first, show to flip the sitcom formula on it’s head in terms of protagonists. Before, shows were about good people having to deal with conflicts and coming out on top. Seinfeld was about bad people creating conflicts and then failing to resolve them. This is particularly evident in the finale when the show ends with them all in jail instead of each character getting their own happy ending.

    • Chill Dude 69@lemmynsfw.comOP
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      7 months ago

      I feel a little better, after venting about Seinfeld for twelve minutes.

      …what else is this subverse supposed to be for? It’s the goddamned “Unpopular Opinion” place. Ranting about your strongly-held opinions is what you’re supposed to do, here.

      And if I was overly nice about it, people wouldn’t feel free to disagree. So if I get my aggression and frustration out by taking a verbal shit on Jerry Seinfeld’s body of work, I benefit. And then other people benefit by coming along and verbally assaulting me, for doing that.

      It’s like fucking Fight Club, except nobody gets any fucking concussions, and nobody gives a fuck if you talk about it.