Didn't millennials watch it growing up? Someone's not getting their generational terms right
Generational labels tend to divide by arbitrary boundaries more than actually give you insightful information about something exclusive to the group.
Sounds like someone’s born on a cusp. Or right in the middle.
lol, yes
To boomers and idiots, millennials just means “younger than me”
Same goes for younger generations. Everyone old is a boomer.
The years for Millennials go up to 94-96, Seinfeld finished in 98. I doubt many that young would have seen it. I was born in 86 and I barely watched Seinfeld re-runs.
I was born in 84 and have seen every episode multiple times. Except the clip shows, because once you figure out that's what's happening you know better next time around and skip them.
The years for Millennials go up to 94-96
?? What do you think millennials were doing after 1996? Did they just phase out of existence?
I was born in 86 and I barely watched Seinfeld re-runs.
People had Seinfeld on in my college dorm during the mid-00s. It was one of the most syndicated shows of its era. If you remember 9/11, you remember Seinfeld.
Ummmm, the whole point of the show was that the people were horrible.
The show ended with them jailed after they made fun of a guy who was getting mugged.
The gang on It's Always Sunny is worse but they are obviously not people we're supposed to empathise with. It's quite a bit less obvious on Seinfeld.
Always Sunny was taking the idea of Seinfeld and dialing it up to 11.
I might be overthinking it but feel like Seinfeld was more a show about normal people who sometimes do shitty things - just like real life. I can't think of anything truly horrible any of them did on the show, just a bunch of "social" wrongdoing. Telling a secret, sleeping at work, the perfect comeback, etc. It's famously a show about "nothing"
Then IASIP is about a bunch of assholes riling each other up to be horrible for their own benefit.
I think Seinfeld is the more "important" in the grand scheme of television for it's groundbreaking approach but in a vacuum, IAS is the better show.
Jerry purposely drugging his girlfriend so he could play with her toys was pretty shitty AND horrible.
George and Elaine are pretty psychopathic in the show. Jerry occasionally gets to be the good guy, but isn't much be better than them. It's way beyond social faux paus.
Millennial here. I tried to watch Seinfeld back in the day, and I thought it was kind of meh. But there was one character I really hated on the show. He had a whiny pathetic voice, was always complaining about something or another, and was just an awful actor, unlike the rest of the cast. I thought, if they just removed that one guy, the show would be great and I'd enjoy it so much more.
I found out later, that guy was Seinfeld. So... I never really got into the show.
THANK YOU! I can't stand that guy. His voice kills me and I never found him funny. Nothing against him personally, he might be a great person, but I can't understand how people can stand the content he makes.
Seinfeld is definitely the weakest character and the show is the most memorable from everyone else
That is about the best burn on Seinfeld I've ever read. Bravo!
Yeah also a millennial and it's just... not that funny? I get that plenty of shows haven't aged perfectly, so it's not that. Friends has plenty of moments that haven't aged well (lots of gay jokes about Chandler come to mind), but the comedy still holds up really well. Seinfeld... Not so much.
Millennials are like 40 years old now. Does this article writer think Millennial just means "kid"?
Millennials are like 40 years old now.
PS. I'm not actually 40 but I'm getting there before I even realise it.
I just turned 40. It's fine. Same joints ache as when I turned 30, less heartburn (because I've figured out my triggers).
It’s worded like we’re all still in our early 20s.
It’s just hot clickbait garbage for boomers
I'm a millennial and watched the Seinfeld finale live...
It's weird that "this group of people don't like that show that you like" is supposed to create some sort of negative reaction. My enjoyment of a thing does not depend on a certain number of other people liking it.
I must be numb to "outrage is the best way to engage people" that everyone uses these days.
To be fair, Outrage Marketing does work, but it usually isn't this obvious.
Like when Disney announced that the Snow White remake would have Seven Multicolored Normal Sized Human People? And later it turned out the final movie will indeed have dwarves?
That was just done to get bigots talking about the flick. Wouldn't be surprised to learn Aerial being black in the newer Mermaid movie was the same thing. I mean it worked, people were too busy defending Disney from criticism for this move that they didn't notice the movie is, like most Live Action Remakes of Non-Live Action media, shit.
Hey Disney, bring back your 2D Animation, have them do another Lion King, then dub it over with the audio for the Mufasa film. I guarantee I'll actually consider watching the damn thing if you do that. (These Live Action remakes have got to be a Money Laundering scheme or something)
Hey Disney, bring back your 2D Animation
Disney used to churn out plenty of entertaining live action shows without issue.
The problem isn't with the medium, it's with the company. They've fired too many writers, put too much stock in CGI, and devolved too much of the editing process to the marketing department.
But the idea that the folks who brought you Tron, The Mighty Ducks, and Pirates of the Caribbean can't make good live action cinema is crazy.
I fucking hate Gossip Girl.
I'm also a 40yo man... so... that tracks.
The original or the reboot?
For the first time? We grew up with this show.
Ya know how growing up, our parents called every system a "Nintendo", even if it was clearly a Playstation or a Sega Genesis?
Yeah that's what boomers do with age groups. Anyone younger than them is a "Millenial Zoomer on Youtube's TikTok app"
Ya know how growing up, our parents called every system a “Nintendo”, even if it was clearly a Playstation or a Sega Genesis?
My parents called everything an Atari
We were the ones watching it when it was first airing. I don't think there was anyone in my highschool that wasn't watching it.
If you're a boomer, the older half of Gen X are also boomers and everyone younger is a millennial.
Are we talking about "Seinfeld", the slightly overrated comedy TV series, or "Seinfeld", the horrible human being?
Yes
Meh, Jerry Seinfeld has been pushing the "I'm too offensive for young people" and "I've been cancelled" nonsense for a while now. He's just old and not funny anymore. Turns out telling the same jokes for 30 years doesn't get a lot of laughs. What is the deal with millennials anyway!
It’s not offensive, it’s just not that funny.
97% of Seinfeld's entertainment value is the bass line.
But if you make an observation and draw it out for a long time, that automatically makes it funny, right?
BA DOUH BUH shikka shikka BAH-DA (et al)
That's what's offensive
I'm an Xer and I didn't like Seinfeld, but that's mostly because I don't like embarrassment comedy. It's the same reason I don't like Will Ferrel and Ben Stiller, but to each their own. I don't begrudge anyone else finding it funny, it's just not my vibe.
I'm not saying you have to like Seinfeld or anything, but I wouldn't consider it embarrassment comedy. It's more about the gang being a bunch of sociopaths, like an early version of IASIP.
I agree on the embarrassment humor. Cringey stuff is worse than the most hellacious and gory horror to me most of the time.
Sienfeld never really hit me that way, though. It just seemed stupid and contrived in a very "look how edgy and relevant I am" sort of way.
What‽ I grew up on it and I'm as young as we get. No it's his current stand up that's in poor taste and one night of Kramer's stand-up that's actually offensive
I got a few laughs with Kramer's stand-up. Not at the racist non-jokes themselves, but when those lines were remixed with out-of-context scenes from Seinfeld.
George: "He's black? I thought he looked Irish... What's his last name?"
Kramer: yells the N-word
George: calmly...That's not Irish
☝️; this.
Yeah as another one of the youngest millennial (or the oldest gen Z depending on which year you classify the generational turn-over) I've never really understood the whole millennials are offended trope.
I grew up watching south park, family guy, ATHF, honestly pretty much everything on adult swim or comedy Central. There isn't much that offends me except glorifying ultra wealth, and that isn't offensive, it pisses me off personally.
All of my friends are the same way, honestly they are mostly more offensive than me even.
There has been exactly 1 millennial I know of that has shit takes like this and he's 2-3 years older than me. That's it 1 even though college, of course these articles aren't written to be accurate, it's just rage bait.
I'm definitely not gen z (30), but yeah. I do definitely think there are lines in comedy as do many of my friends, but I grew up on some really tasteless shit. As a teenager I liked a lot of it, but as an adult I've come to want nothing to do with comedy that's offensive to be offensive unless there's a point. I still love Always Sunny, but south park stopped amusing me when I became an adult.
I honestly think a lot of it comes down to millennials seeing jokes explicitly at the expense of people just living their lives as offensive or in poor taste.
But also I think the concept of offensive has basically become so culturally loaded as to be difficult to use for anything other than mocking those whose sensibilities or sense of humor differ from yours.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the immorality of Kramer's racist stand-up was exaggerated. It was absolutely offensive and 100% not acceptable. There was nothing funny about it, and there was no possible current setting in which that would be okay. Especially when the audience member became upset, Kramer needed to drop the show immediately and apologize. However, it is obvious he did not mean it as real. I believe he was trying to shock the crowd by being offensive and picked the wrong thing to be offensive about. From what I can tell, the n-word and racism to Kramer are so absurd, that the bit was to make fun of racists by taking on the role of someone that would believe in it to show how stupid it is. It was a caricature. Unfortunately, our society is still racist and the victims haven't healed yet because it's still ongoing, so it didn't land right at all. His white privilege made him tone deaf, so it was less about him being purposely racist and more about showing how racism is still alive. It also gave racists a possible pass at being overly racist if he were allowed to get away with it. I think in the future, society will either not care about it as much or find it makes sense because they will agree with the spirit in their time.
Again, i am not excusing his standup or saying it was okay. It was not okay. But, I also think it's not what people make it out to be. In fact, he owned it and apologized for it a lot. He was clearly regretful and wanted to point out how much it hurt him as well. This made him a perfect target for mob justice using shame as a weapon because he believed he deserved it and would not fight back. It ended his career, and he's been in hiding ever since. He was one of the first celebrities to be canceled by social media. The only time I remember him coming back out was on an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and he looked like a broken person. The backlash was so intense, that even South Park made a show about it called With Apologies to Jesse Jackson (S11E1).
I understand I might be misunderstanding the situation, so I do not mean to profess my opinion as fact and am open to other interpretations.
That right there is some clickbait. I'm millennial and I was watching the show when it was on and loved it.
Yeah, not sure how old they think millennials are or when they thought Seinfeld aired
I wasted many homework nights watching this until 2am, same goes for friends and frasier.
But tbh i'm easily amused as long as it isn't short form brainrot.
Would you leave us the fuck alone, we're old now!
Almost every time an article like this is posted, the contents are the result of one or two comments out of thousands, or a Reddit post that didn't gain much traction outside of "eh, sure, I guess?"
Tangentially related, IMO there should be an "author review" site, where if someone posts a stupid article like this, it is referenced in a database against their name and their frame of reference for the content is called out. Rank "journalists" against this, and eventually the people starting out in the industry posting AI-generated shite that doesn't hold up will start to err on the side of caution.
You've just re-invented journalistic standards and peer review.
It is how the news cycle is supposed to work. One journalist says something, others verify or disprove it publicly.
The problem is that there is now no difference between journalism and content or between news channels and platforms.
Most journalists are just doing Op-Ed now anyways.
I found it funny but curb your enthusiasm is much better
Curb Your Enthusiasm convinced me Seinfeld was like 95% Jerry riding Larry David's coattails. Jerry is so rarely funny to supposedly be "the guy."
Apart from being a pedophile, there's something about him that doesn't seem all that funny.
They said "not that there's anything wrong with that" about gay people in the 90s. WAY better than most of the shit at the time.
You do realize that's just a cover phrase people say when they think there is something wrong with that, but don't want the people they are talking to thinking that they think there is something wrong with that, right?
Yeah, but that was still progress for the time. Public acknowledgment that you SHOULDNT be openly mocking gay people was something. A lot of people forget that in the 80s and 90s, gay people faced the raging bigotry directed at trans people these days. Not that they don't still face bigotry, but it's not like it was. In most places. Not yet at least. God it's depressing to see progress backsliding.
I watched the first episode and found it dull and boring. Is it representative for the whole show?
The past decade of tv has spoiled people with quality TV shows.
Back in the old days of tv, we didn't have story arcs. First seasons of shows were still rough. Networks often gave shows a lot longer of a lifeline to prove themselves. For example: Parks and Rec didn't hit their stride into mid-Season 2.
For 90s shows, I recommend finding a Top 10 episodes list and seeing if you enjoy it.
This, there's a LOT of shows before streaming services where I just beg people to skip the first season.
Always Sunny is definitely one that suffers from a lot of Early Installment Weirdness, it's clear they had no idea what the hell they wanted the show to be at the start... Also Danny DeVito improves anything he touches.
Funny story, Season 1 was so bad the network said they would cancel them unless they could get an A-List Actor to guest star in an episode for a ratings' boost, which went so well that said guest star wound up being a permanent mainstay.
Some episodes are legendarily funny, but a lot are very forgettable. It’s more of a cultural bellwether.
Seinfeld was one of those shows that talked about certain issues that weren’t broached on network tv. I think the masturbation episode was the first time it was even alluded to on any mainstream tv.
But at the end of the day it’s a sitcom with laugh tracks, so it doesn’t age super well.
Elaine was part of the masturbation episode and lost, which further speaks to the progressiveness of the show because a woman was portrayed as having sexuality that was outside of acceptable limits at the time (for love only, preferably in marriage). They also presented being gay as acceptable, which was quite progressive at the time where people were calling each other "gay" and the f-word as a terrible insult.
Not really, the pilot is the weakest episode I can think of. Not that it turns into an action thriller or anything, but the plotlines and characters certainly get zanier and (arguably) funnier.
No. Some of them aren't good, and some of them are hilarious. Some of them are a little offensive based on today's standards. But the show overall is pretty great. There are a lot of references used by older people that you'll start understanding if you watch the show. Popular TV shows used to be social glue, everyone watched them, so themes from the shows worked their way into our social vocabularies.
Bla bla blaIt's sort of like it's always sunny, but with less to no storyline. There are some funny episodes, but there are also a lot of episodes. Seinfeld was a big celebrity at the time and that carried it more often than not.
You'd be correct, the first episode is indeed very dull and boring. I'd recommend to start from Season 4.
Id say The best 10 episodes are some of the greatest prime time comedy ever made. Theres probably another 20 or 30 episodes with jokes, arcs or bits that are also comedy gold with a fair bit of filler. But theres 172 episodes...
But I also defend Big Bang Theory as "6 seasons of a good and funny show, dragged out over 12" so maybe I'm just easily amused.
I'm working my way through now, in season 4. Later seasons get better, but there's a lot more bad than good imo. I'm not sure I've seen an episode that's consistently funny, just the occasional good joke.
It's not a formula I find enjoyable, always sunny follows the same pattern.
You aren't alone. Not liking the show has its own tvtropes page
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny
Must be the youngest millennials then, this was airing live when I was a kid and apparently I’m a millennial.
it's the laugh track that's offensive.
It's a live studio audience in this case. Not that it makes it any less annoying.
Edit: a word
Not saying it's not funny, but there is definitely stuff in the show that wouldn't fly today. For example there is an episode where George didn't know black people ate salad.
I don't like Seinfeld, but isn't George supposed to be an utter dunce?
Like, as a Zoomer, people not being able to tell the difference between portraying bigotry and endorsing it IS an actual problem I see.
I am reminded of Sokka's character in the new version of the Avatar (show) compared to the original animated one. In the original animated one, he portrays sexism and very much feels the consequences of it, and grows as a character when overcoming it (through warranted humiliation). The new show never included any of this and so his character lacks all of this. It's like the writers think they're endorsing his sexism if they ever included such a thing.
I heard on a podcast today that Larry David based the George character on himself. (The podcast is called Good Bad Billionaire, where a couple of people judge various billionaires on their ethics etc. TIL Jerry Seinfeld is a billionaire.)
and a lot of questionable consent sex situations if I remember correctly
This was just the 80s-2000s in general.
There's a lot of really uncomfortable stuff portrayed for laughs during that era.
For example there is an episode where George didn't know black people ate salad.
We're still getting asked questions like this and honestly, should be highlighted:
Pure facepalm Questions I've overheard or was involved in:
- Can black people use the same shampoo as white people
- If Muslim women wore the hijab in the shower
- Is the southeast asian vagina 90 degrees
most of my millennial peers were all in on Friends and thought Seinfeld was pretty much only for old people. it had its cultural moment but it was popular because pretty much everyone older than 30 in the 90s loved the show.
Basically people who are around 50/60 now were the ones who truly enjoyed Seinfeld.
I grew up watching Cheers with my dad and had no problem transitioning to Seinfeld when I got older.
It's got a certain East Coast dry sense of humor. Friends is more generically goofy.
I like older shows and I enjoy it. It's definitely from it's time, the humor hasn't aged, but idk where they get the triggered millennials from
Oh Joey, Cue laugh track and 🤮
Ross isn't even a real doctor.
Even when it aired, it was walking the line of generally offensive. That line didn't have to move far to tip the show out of favour on average. Seinfeld himself addressed it, initially being upset that his brand of comedy was falling out of favour, but eventually coming to terms with the fact that he himself was out of touch and would benefit from adapting.
Has he? Last I heard he was still complaining that "yOu CoUlDnT dO sEiNfElD tOdAy BeCaUsE wOkE" with Rob McElhenney begging to differ.
Hopefully that link isn't broken or bad. But yeah, he basically said he was wrong and out of touch. And that he could stand to make an effort to get with the times.
His style of comedy has always been about finding where the current edge is and seeing how far you can cross it and still be funny. But the drawback is that the edge moves. So you have to keep seeing where it is, and what you said 10 years ago probably isn't funny anymore. It's normal to get frustrated when something you put effort and work into is no longer seen as a good thing even though it was liked well enough at the time. But he really should have expected that result. And I think he knew that when he made it, but had since got caught up in the false validation that can come from being out of touch.
If they(we) think Seinfeld is offensive, what do they think of IASIP?
Well, IASIP is also actually funny, which helps.
I do wonder if whatever is "After GenZ/Gen Alpha" in the 2050s will look at IASIP and see it as disgusting unfunny and terribly offensive, as now their humor is beyond the surreal absurdness of skibidi toilet.
I feel like a lot of you assume I'm younger. I'm closer to 50 then I like to admit. I'm just not from the US, maybe that is part of why it didn't click with me.
And I'm older than you and in the US-- I agree with you that Seinfeld was a waste of scotch tape also. There was nothing about it that ever resonated with me. And for the life of me, I can't see how anyone else could be so fascinated by the premise of that TV show.
It's not even worth the effort to be "offended" by it.
This whole "young people find everything offensive" narrative is ridiculous, and always has been. It's very beneficial to those who want to shift the Overton window, though.
Millenial here, I always just thought it was shit!
Isn't that the whole fucking point of the show though? The main characters are terrible selfish assholes?
It's not really any different than the characters on It's Always Sunny.
I mean I watched it years ago? I didn't clock it as offensive just not really as funny as my parents found it.
I did a re-watch in the last couple years. Most of it was fine, even if it would not be a big hit these days. Jerry dates the Asian women? Yea that would get called out most likely. Elaine dates a guy she thinks is black? Pretty sure that still flies. Elaine is scarred she's dating a murderer? Probs a special two part episode these days. Shocks me how ahead of the curve they were with the Elaine gets gaped episode.
Oh yeah, that’s a gape
I guess I'm going to have to rewatch now.
I didn't realize people didn't like Seinfeld. It's a great show.
The show is OK. Parts of it didn't age that well (i.e. I got older and recognized there's a handful of racist narratives and depictions baked into it). But Jerry Seinfeld himself, holy cow is he a piece of shit in real life.
Racist narratives? Seinfeld has some episodes based on racism. The generally fall into two forms: making fun of racists and having one or more of the cast get accused of racism and hilariously try to prove they’re not.
If anything they’re making fun of the way the label of racist is impossible to get rid of once you’ve been tagged with it. It’s like being committed to a mental hospital and then trying to prove that you’re fine so they should just let you out.
I would be meh on it if my older brother didn't watch it every single night, rerun after rerun, when we were growing up. It got really old.
I had friends who loved it. All of the show I've seen was when I was at one of their houses. I can sum the whole thing up as MEH!
Millennial here, Seinfeld is the bomb.
To be fair I am pretty offended that this show is trying and failing to make me laugh, but I say that about a lot of sitcoms.
Actually I think the only sitcoms I find funny are Red Dwarf and It's Always Sunny... Which in terms of suggestive or non-politically correct content are quite up there. And I'm not even talking about the shit that didn't age well like Lister having a freak-out over the idea that his parallel universe self is gay or proclaiming some dude with acne has "More blackheads than a fried chicken establishment." (To be fair these both happen in one of the more poorly received seasons)
Hey remember? When Craig Charles was the announcer for the UK version of Takeshi's Castle and referred to the contestants as "Kamikaze cousins" and "Happy clappy Jappy chappies".... Haha...that did NOT age well... oh ho ho... to be fair, England had a lot of anti-asian sentiment going on in the 80's for some reason... Still, that's a lot that didn't age well.
But for real, love Red Dwarf, one of those shows I rewatch in full twice a year. I wish I could make myself forget the whole series so I can watch it again, it's THAT good.
Nobody even knows that show in my country.
it wasn't really made for export. it wasn't even made for people outside of the east coast megaopulous and la. that's still a ton of people.
Damn, wonder how they're going to feel about Home Improvement and Married With Children.
Nevermind All In The Family or The Jeffersons.
Married with Children is still hilarious. It's dated but since I lived through that time, it doesn't feel super dated, if that makes sense.
They were doing Incel jokes before it was cool, certainly.
I think sitcoms have improved. There's a handful of genuinely funny old shows, but the laugh tracks concealed pure garbage.
I dunno I grew up with terrible sitcoms and them being kind of bad is sorta part of the appeal to me.
Someone should tell them to definitely stay away from Curb Your Enthusiasm (created and starring the co-creator of Seinfeld). It's like a rated-R version of Seinfeld that has absolutely no boundaries. LOL
Maybe an episode about an minor pursuing Elaine written by someone who's ok with dating a minor when he was 35 should be raising questions. Or when they had an episode pushing Tort reform when they made fun of the woman who was burnt by scolding hot McDonalds coffee.
Seinfield, both the character and person, is just a selfish, unsympathetic person and we're suppose to view the world though. I'm glad he's being called out for his shallow snark. This has been a long time coming.
The whole show was people being shallow characters. That was the point.
In fairness on the coffee thing, few people have heard the whole story, even now. I think most people today still believe the story was "woman sues because coffee was hot and she got a little burned, and the jury went nuts" and don't know or care about the actual details.
Growing up with Seinfied and it's fans, it's asshole power fantasy written by rich assholes. All the biggest fans that I know from back then are big Trump supporters now. If that was the writer's intention, the watchers didn't get it. Jerry Seinfied going anti-woke is so incredibly on brand, I wonder why it surprised anyone.
Never got into that show despite a lot of the episodes making it into pop culture. I still encounter people that offer some level of surprise that I didn’t watch it.
Kinda amazing that nobody in this whole thread did any research on why seinfeld is offensive... Just reacting to a meme from fox news.
For example... https://www.cbr.com/seinfeld-puerto-rican-day-controversy/
that s an interesting point. I love offensive humor though. anyone know where I can watch this?
edit: lol. nothing offensive there
that was so not offensive it hurt.
Seinfeld should be the baseline for commonsense humour
It's not a lie, if you believe it
Even at the young age of middle school watching that show, I knew George was a shitty person. Yet, I still felt sympathy for him because of his parents. Regardless, my favorite character was Frank Costanza. He was so over the top and emotional. The dude had PTSD from soldiers in Korea not liking his food in the field mess hall 😂
LOL. I found it offensive when it first aired. LTTP millenials.
Link to the Past?
I thought the same, but an internet search says it means "late to the party".
ok i think i might be gen x now.
I mean, it is offensive. Everyone knows it (I hope).
The actor of Kramer was even caught throwing racist insults in public so you know.
An actor saying the N word and the show being offensive are not anyhow related.
The show is certainly reflective of its time. If someone is offended by it, I won’t tell them that they’re wrong, but I don’t see it as offensive.
"Reflective of its time" so of a time where being offensive and discriminatory was seen as fine or even cool. The show is more offensive than the first Star Trek that was decades earlier. Being offensive has nothing to do with the time period, if people were fine with it, it doesn't mean that it is fine and not offensive.
And this show was mostly made of jokes targeting a minority or showing horrible behaviours as funny. Seems like enough to call it offensive.
People like you, is why people think leftist are lunatics 😞
Only fascists think that ;)
