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Seinfeld And the Sitcom

Seinfeld And the Sitcom. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture. “Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.” --Horace Walpole, 18th Century. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture.

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Seinfeld And the Sitcom

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  1. Seinfeld And the Sitcom ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  2. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  3. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  4. “Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.” --Horace Walpole, 18th Century ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  5. Original definition of “comedy”: a story that ends happily. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  6. 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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  7. 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. 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 ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  8. 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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  9. 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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  10. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s The Mary Tyler Moore Show (NBC,1970-1977)

  11. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s All in the Family (CBS, 1971-1983)

  12. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s Cheers (NBC, 1982-1993)

  13. The Bill Cosby Show (NBC, 1984-1992) Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s

  14. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s The Simpsons (Fox, 1989- )

  15. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s Frasier (NBC, 1993-2004)

  16. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s Friends (NBC, 1994-2004)

  17. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS, 1996-2005)

  18. Will & Grace (NBC, 1998-2006) Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s

  19. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s The Office (BBC2, 2001-2003) The Office (NBC, 2005- )

  20. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  21. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  22. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  23. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  24. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  25. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture 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

  26. Seinfeld (NBC, 1989-1998) ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  27. 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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  28. 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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  29. Gaming the Refs Larry David ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  30. “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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  31. “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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  32. The Creators: Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  33. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  34. Kramer, Elaine, George, Jerry ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  35. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture Kramer, George, Elaine, and Jerry

  36. George, Jerry, Kramer, Elaine ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  37. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture Jerry Seinfeld

  38. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture George Costanza

  39. Elaine Benes ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  40. Cosmo Kramer (“Hipster Doofus”) ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  41. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture Unforgettable Minor Characters The Soup Nazi

  42. 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 • Newman • J. Peterman • Mr. Pitt • Poppi • David Putty • The Soup Nazi • Stan the Caddy • Uncle Leo • Dr. Tim Whatley ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  43. ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  44. 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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  45. 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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  46. 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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  47. 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 chip-dipper; (4) The now-contaminated portion of the chip is then redipped, causing a transference of contaminants into the chip-dip. (The Implant) ENGL 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  48. 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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

  49. 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 3815: Survey of Popular Culture

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