Seinfeld
and Comedy
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
“Life is a comedy to those who
think, a tragedy to those who
feel.”
--Horace Walpole, 18th Century
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Original definition of
“comedy”: a story
that ends happily.
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Comedy Theory
Notoriously incomplete and
lacking in definitive answers.
Plessner’s thesis in Laughing
and Crying.
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Helmuth
Plessner, author
of Laughing and
Crying
Henri Bergson
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Comedy Theory
Three basic camps
•Superiority--laughter reinforces social power.
•Incongruity--humor the result of the “clash of incompatible
discourses.”
•Relief--the comic as a vent for repression.
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Comic Modes:
 Satire
 Parody
 Slapstick
 Caricature
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Key Questions:
•Do we laugh at or with?
•Is comedy innately subversive?
•Is comedy congenitally
offensive/politically incorrect?
•What is the connection between
the body and the comic?
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Comedy on TV
 Sitcoms
 Dramedy
 Sketch Comedy
 Stand-Up
 Animation/Adult Animation
 Satire
 Comedy in other genres: talk shows,
fake news, drama, advertising, etc.
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
The Sitcom
A comedic television genre
(originating in radio), ordinarily 30
minutes in length, in which a
group of characters, related by
family, a workplace, or as friends,
exhibiting little or no development
as individuals, encounters and
seeks to resolve on a weekly basis
a situation (or situations) in which
they find themselves embroiled.
Sitcoms on American television are
often accompanied by laugh
tracks.
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Sitcom Traits
Exportable and seemingly
universal in appeal;
Tolerant of commercial
interruptions;
Dependent on gags, slapstick, and
jokes;
Episodic but customarily without
memory;
Often the site of controversy
The Laugh Track
The result, in part, of the production practice
of taping before a live audience.
Use of older laughter on American shows.
“Make me funnier here”--in Woody Allen’s
Annie Hall.
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
The Sitcom
Workplace (think The Office)
Family (think The Simpsons, Modern Family)
Friend Families (think Seinfeld, Friends, How
I Met Your Mother)
Unruly Woman (think Roseanne)
Gay and Lesbian (think Will & Grace)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Great Sitcoms
Since the
1970s
The Mary Tyler
Moore Show
(NBC,1970-1977)
Great Sitcoms
Since the
1970s
All in the Family
(CBS, 1971-1983)
Great Sitcoms
Since the
1970s
Cheers (NBC, 1982-1993)
The Bill Cosby Show
(NBC, 1984-1992)
Great Sitcoms
Since the
1970s
Great Sitcoms
Since the
1970s
The Simpsons (Fox, 1989- )
Great Sitcoms
Since the
1970s
Frasier (NBC, 1993-2004)
Great Sitcoms
Since the
1970s
Friends (NBC, 1994-2004)
Great Sitcoms
Since the
1970s
Everybody Loves
Raymond (CBS,
1996-2005)
Will & Grace (NBC,
1998-2006)
Great Sitcoms
Since the
1970s
Great Sitcoms Since the
1970s
The Office (BBC2, 2001-2003)
The Office (NBC, 2005- )
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of
Literature—Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of
Literature—Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of
Literature—Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
The sitcom is one of
the most popular and
yet least studied
television genres. Like
the late/great Rodney
Dangerfield, it “can’t
get no respect.”
Studying TV
Comedy
Seinfeld
(NBC, 1989-1998)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
TV Guide’s Top Television Shows of All
Time
1. Seinfeld (NBC)
2. I Love Lucy (CBS)
3. The Honeymooners (CBS)
4. All in the Family (CBS)
5. The Sopranos (HBO)
6. 60 Minutes (CBS)
7. Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
8. The Simpsons (Fox)
9. The Andy Griffith Show (CBS)
10. Saturday Night Live (NBC)
11. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS)
12. The Tonight Show Starring Johnny
Carson (NBC)
13. The Dick Van Dyke Show (CBS)
14. Hill Street Blues (NBC)
15. The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS)
16. The Carol Burnett Show (CBS)
17. Today (NBC)
18. Cheers (NBC)
19. thirtysomething (ABC)
20. (NBC)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Seinfeld and the Sitcom
 Originally rejected by NBC chief
Brandon Tartikoff as “too New
York, too Jewish”
 A show about nothing
 Sought to always override
normal sitcom conventions
 Governed by the motto: “no
hugging, no learning”
 Dealt with previously taboo
television subjects
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Gaming the Refs
Larry David
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
“Seinfeld was not really about how
evil humanity is, though it's about
that to some extent. The show is
really about the joy of charting, in
exquisite, unrelenting, almost
celebratory detail, the infinitely
variegated human interactions that,
closely watched, will ultimately tell
the story of the disintegration of our
species.”
--Bill Wyman, Salon.com
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
“What relief to encounter comedy which
does not mistake itself for anything else.
Its characters are free to start from zero
each time, free to indulge the marvelous
shallowness which is the privilege of the
creatures of farce. Nothing counts here,
nothing has consequences: as one of the
show’s writers (Larry Charles in
Entertainment Weekly) has observed, the
crucial guideline is that the characters do
not learn from experience and never
move beyond what they intrinsically and
eternally are.”
--Geoffrey O’Brien, “The Republic of
Seinfeld”
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
The Creators: Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Kramer, Elaine, George, Jerry
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Kramer, George, Elaine, and Jerry
George, Jerry, Kramer, Elaine
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Jerry Seinfeld
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
George Costanza
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Elaine Benes
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Cosmo Kramer
(“Hipster Doofus”)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Unforgettable Minor Characters
The Soup Nazi
Unforgettable Minor Characters
•Kenny Bania
•Babu Bhatt
•Lt. Bookman
•The Bubble Boy
•Jackie Chiles
•Estelle Costanza
•Frank Costanza
•Crazy Joe Davola
•Jack Klompus
•The Maestro
•Sue Ellen Mischke
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
•Newman
•J. Peterman
•Mr. Pitt
•Poppi
•David Putty
•The Soup Nazi
•Stan the Caddy
•Uncle Leo
•Dr. Tim Whatley
Some Seinfeldisms
•Anti-Dentite
•Baldist
•Bizarro
•BBO
•Bombable
•Break-up by Association
•Bro
•Bump Into
•Call Waiting Face-Off
•Cell-Phone Walk and Talk
•Changing Teams
•Close Talker
•Consolation Guy
•Dating Decathlon
•Degifting
•Double Dipper
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Some Seinfeldisms
•Excuse Rolodex
•Festivus
•Hand
•High Talker
•Home Bed Advantage
•“Hoochie Mama:”
•I love you Return
•“It’s Not You, It’s Me”
•Kiss Hello
•Long Talker
•Low Talker
•Make-Up Sex
•Mansierre
•Master of My Domain
•Mimbo
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Some Seinfeldisms
•Nonvite
•Pop-In
•Regifting
•Sentence Finisher
•“Serenity Now”
•Schmoopy
•Shiksappeal
•Shrinkage Factor
•Shusher/Shushee
•Spongeworthy
•Spare a Square
•Tap, The
•Undateable
•Unshushables
•Unvitation
•Yada, Yada, Yada
•“You’re so Good Looking”
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
A Seinfeldism (by Betty Lee, from
Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain)
B.O.: abbr., Body Odor. As a compound word, B.O.
refers to the unpleasant odor emitted by a human body.
The components can be referred to as separate entities,
however - as the Body and the Odor, thus allowing for
examination of the odor outside of its bodily context, for
example: “when somebody has B.O., the "O" usually
stays with the "B". Once the "B" leaves, the "O" goes
with it.” (The Smelly Car)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
A Seinfeldism (by Betty Lee, from
Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain)
Break-up by Association: the assumed
dissociation of mutual friends brought forth by
the end of a romantic relationship. Thus, if lover
A initiates a break-up with lover B, the friends of
lover A are automatically subject to a break-up
of their friendship with lover B. (The Deal)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
A Seinfeldism (by Betty Lee, from
Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain)
Bro: An undergarment designed to support the
weight of adipose tissue in the male breast, a
symptom of obesity or gerontological processes.
Also known as Mansierre. (The Doorman)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
A Seinfeldism (by Betty Lee, from
Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain)
Double Dipper: An inconsiderate slob. An incogitant
unsanitarian. One who contaminates a shared supply of
chip-dip, via the following process: (1) the chip is dipped
into the chip-dip. (2) the dipped portion of the chip is
consumed; (3) the remaining portion is, possibly,
polluted by the saliva and other oral slimes of the chipdipper; (4) The now-contaminated portion of the chip is
then redipped, causing a transference of contaminants
into the chip-dip. (The Implant)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
A Seinfeldism (by Betty Lee, from
Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain)
“It’s Not You, It’s Me” Routine: A generic script
for ending a romantic relationship, which is
intended to be as minimally offensive as
possible. (The Lip Reader)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
A Seinfeldism (by Betty Lee, from
Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain)
Shrinkage Factor: The phenomenon by which
the size of the male genitalia decreases upon
prolonged exposure to cold water. An inaccurate
appraisal of the affected organ results, when the
observer is a female who is unaware of the
shrinkage factor. (The Hamptons)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
A Seinfeldism (by Betty Lee, from
Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain)
Spongeworthy: A male of a sexual caliber that
merits the use of a contraceptive device
(sponge), that is of a rare and limited supply.
(The Sponge)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
A Seinfeldism (by Betty Lee, from
Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain)
Yada, Yada, Yada: equivalent to, “and so on,”
“etc., etc.,” “blah, blah, blah,” but used in a
molested context, in which the abbreviated
meaning cannot be clearly implied. For
example: “I apologize for being late. I was in an
accident, almost died, yada, yada, yada.” The
listener is left, usually, with a sense of confusion,
curiosity, and dissatisfaction. (The Yada Yada)
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
“No Exit: The
Seinfeld Finale
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
Seinfeld Afterlife
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
“But I don’t want to
be a pirate!”: The
Puffy Shirt
Seinfeld Afterlife
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
The Puffy Shirt in the Smithsonian
ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—
Drama [Lavery]
The Fab Four
reunited in Season
Seven of Curb Your
Enthusiasm.
Seinfeld Afterlife