The Tao of Seinfeld

~tffb

There's two camps of those who grew up watching TV in the 1990s - those who thought FRIENDS was *the* show of that decade, and those who thought Seinfeld was *the* show of that decade. Yes. To each their own. My money is on Seinfeld. Also, people tend to have a love/hate relationship with Seinfeld - people either saw an episode or two and hated it, never watched it again, or saw it, loved it, saw every episode. I fall into the latter here, too.

But, seeing a clip of Jerry Seinfeld on The Howard Stern Show just now, and seeing two rivaling egos in that interview (Howard Stern, one of the biggest/worst egos) and Seinfeld (perhaps equally so in terms of size, but not of ill character), and I think to myself "Seinfeld (the show) was likely one of the best shows FOR the world". Not just *in* the world, but FOR the world.

Granted, a show about nothing. Channel: changed. Right? But Seinfeld and the characters on the show magnified how petty, dumb, arrogant, ignorant, and small humans can be. Made them into little "pathetic" people of "nothing", but, still made the characters seem "clique'y". As if to say, "See? Their little belief of superiority of XYZ elements of society make them FEEL big in their group, yet in reality they are small ("sad"?) folks." If one took an approach of "presumed irony" to the show, one might come away thinking the show "about nothing" was really just mocking the human condition. Not in a Nietzsche sense, but the human condition of; yea, people think/are small(minded) sometimes - but magnifying a form of humor in it (for those inclined TO find humor in "things that are serious, but also not so serious - hence the entire point") just points to (by proxy) the GOOD in human character, as if to say "we see this. We know what's wrong here. We know WHY this show is funny. And we know WHY these people are small. Good on us - for seeing it (and finding humor in it). Long live everything. Even if that's nothing."

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~inquiry wrote (thread):

I didn't pay much attention to either until reruns. And since then I've enjoyed shows I've considered so much better that I hardly think about Friends/Seinfeld anymore.

At least, not until SSL-breaking online text compadres break 'em out for public discussion.... ;-)

FWIW, I've often considered the George Costanza character an extremely accurate depiction of ego.