Posted on 12/03/2004 6:38:40 PM PST by qam1
I look around me everyday and I see beautiful women. It could be very tempting to go out and date them. Going out every weekend to the clubs and picking up an assortment of chicks like so many kinds of chocolates in a Valentine's Day gift. But I will not!
It has taken me years, but I am finally getting over the lasting effects of "Seinfeld."
Yes, "Seinfeld." What is considered the greatest show/sitcom of all time has also been the biggest plague/curse on my life.
Students currently attending the University are part of the "Seinfeld" generation. Society has branded us "Generation X," and that might be so, but within the all encompassing "Generation X" lies a subset of post-pubescent adultlings.
Growing up, we "Seinfeldites" would come to learn of the adult world through the dark shadow that is "Seinfeld."
There are two role models for men in "Seinfeld" -- Jerry and George.
If you could have your pick, Jerry is the obvious choice.
He has lots of money, travels all the time; his crazy friends get into all kinds of amusing trouble, and he meets women faster than a shirtless Colin Farrell at a sorority house holding DVD box sets of Friends and the most recent "embattled woman fights for her rights" Julia Roberts movie.
All I am saying is that he was getting laid, constantly. He was getting the fine booty that all men crave.
This left an indelible impression on a young man. This, I assumed, was the fate of all halfway decent looking men.
Life would be like an RPG in which you find the best women you can at the time, until someone better comes along. Then you level up. The goal of the game is to get the level up as much as possible while using the least amount of continues.
However, Jerry was not the only character that has influenced our nation's youth. George Costanza or "Can't Stanz Ya" depending on your pronunciation, has left the best minds of our time with serious mental diseases and complexes.
No matter how slick you think you are, enough Costanza in your life will cause you to doubt yourself and all you believe in. George was obviously the most despicable and interesting character on the show.
He would lie his way into sex, jobs, marriage, out of marriage, fake disability, race old people in 9-volt scooters, take naps under his desk, have sex with cleaning ladies in his office and was the cheapest bastard on the face of the earth.
As awful a person as he might seem on the surface, there is a little George Costanza in all of us.
And the more you watch him, the larger that little Costanza inside you grows, until there is nothing left but a 35-year-old bald man with no job, no prospects and no reason to get up in the morning -- except to read the daily news.
Just think what kind of a result just these characters have on the psyche of children. And these are only two of many sexual deviants and immoral miscreants "Seinfeld" would propagate!
What does a boy learn by watching Elaine or Kramer?
From Elaine you learn that most women have little sense of humor and are only funny when extremely pissed off.
And from Kramer you learn that you can get by in life, with no job and no money just by mooching off the guy across the hall.
Having spent years getting over the mental strain and irregular development caused me by this show, I have filed a class action lawsuit with Jerry Seinfeld and the creators of "Seinfeld."
The suit is being brought now, in part due to the fact that the DVDs were recently released, and I fear that I will have a re-lapse and years of therapy will have been for naught.
Students can get in on this suit by going to www."Seinfeld"_ruined_my_life.com
AND only 9 seconds apart, too! weird...
Duh! This is what the finale was all about. They ARE unlikeable shallow characters. That's what makes it funny.
I certainly could relate to them more than I ever could to the fictional drunkards on CHEEAHS.
Neither did I. I got stuck watching the last 15 minutes of "Survivor" once at the home of some friends and thought it was about the stupidest thing I'd ever seen.
I always did enjoy Seinfeld as did several of my friends and I'm not from New York. I visit there about once a year, though and have an appreciation for NYC, so that may play into it.
Actually I caught Jerry Seinfeld regularly on Letterman and Carson during college. I even caught a live show from Jerry at Catch A Rising Star.
I was interested when his summer replacement show aired but it didn't last.
Generation X DID grow up with Seinfeld, we just didn't necessarily "look up" to it. I accepted it and Twin Peaks but rejected 30 Somthing and Cheers.
The whole running gag is that Jerry and George date all of these beautiful women every week and then the next episode they are with someone else. Not necessarily a "step up", just following the protocol that no character is "better off" at the end than in any other week.
How many times in the Donald Duck comics (Carl Barks') did Donald and his nephews find some awesome treasure? Uncle Scrooge got it in the end (financing their trip, etc.) because all that wealth was never noticed among his riches.
Even if a single character ends up ON TOP, something always turns where if offsets the gain (or conversely their loss is regained).
Dang I guess we did... Was it really on that long ago! LOL I guess I'm getting old! I never really watched it when it was on prime time. The re-runs are hysterical though. Didn't get into Twin Peaks either. My friends and I were into General Hospital and L.A. Law! Oh yeah and SNL when it was still funny! (o;
When I lived in Boston, it was the only time I saw people yelling from apartment window to apartment window.
I have to admit to losing track of Twin Peaks in the later seasons (although I may have them on tape).
Best memory was going to a friend's to watch them. We tried to go to his neighbor's to watch, she was a second generation Swedish stewardess (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!). She and a girl friend were drunk on wine writing poetry for a college class. I shant go farther (and there really isn't more to discuss, in polite company or otherwise), but THAT is a shared experience watching television.
We were met at the door but sent down the hall, somewhat rejected for awhile. I do know that we were let in the apartment at some point, and I do recall that they answered the door one wrapped in a towel and the other in an upside down leather coat.
This is so little "event" tv on these days (Sopranos I guess, but I never watched it).
maybe the selfish behavior expressed by the characters is just Larry writing from experience?
That's an excellent way to put it. I've tried to figure it out exactly; it's very clear that if, in real life, if I knew anyone like any of the characters I'd probably not be friends with them, they're despicable, but on the other hand being a human I have a little bit of all the characters in me.
I never figured out why that was funny, but I did think it was.
I would also observe that it was often a great satire of politically correctness. I remember especially "not that there's anything wrong with that" episode when it was clear that the characters did indeed know there was something wrong with that.
Well Jerry is married now with a couple daughters.
For awhile his character was dating Elaine.
The whole "tv writers" season was somewhat of a dud because it put too much continuity into the plotline.
Then again, it wasn't until I listened to a lot of mp3s of old radio that I realized how long some of the storylines ran (6 episodes+) on Burns & Allen.
Kramer ran in the AIDS walk but refused to wear the red ribbon. When pressured to wear it, he called them a RIBBON BULLY. They still kicked his ass for resisting the group think.
Haha, yeah, I'd forgotten the ribbon bully bit. Lots of PC satire there, not as blunt as, say, South Park, but I was always surprised, especially given that Larry David is such a flaming liberal.
I was, upon first glance, prepared to say that both of you were wrong. I always thought her surname was Nogoodnik. But before posting, I did a little research (unusual for me, neh?) and found that 'Fatale' is indeed the correct answer.
It's interesting to me because I have never heard her last name to be Fatale. I would have sworn it was Nogoodnik. This is what I had heard with my own ears on many occasions while watching 'Moose and Squirrel'.
Sooo...kudos to you both. Hank, you were indeed the first to ring in so...you have the board, please select a category. =;^D
The Mrs. and I just rented the third season DVD. What a hoot. They're even better without commercials.
"I've got hand baby!"
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