Seinfeld thread 966966844758

[sevendaughters]

Never quite been a fan of the 'Jerry is bad'. Can't name a single scene he brings down. The heart of the show is him and George knocking ideas back and forth and they're actually compelling, it doesn't work if it's just George being 'big', it needs a foil.

[Oosp]

Never quite been a fan of the 'Jerry is bad'. Can't name a single scene he brings down. The heart of the show is him and George knocking ideas back and forth and they're actually compelling, it doesn't work if it's just George being 'big', it needs a foil.

I agree. Needs some concrete examples, rather than a general feeling that he's crap, he sticks out, he can't compete onscreen. Nah, I'm not sure I buy it. Sure, he's not the funniest actor in the show, but look at the talent he surrounded himself with. And the guy can hold his own with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, for fuck's sake.

Plenty of other reasons to knock Jerry!

[madhair60]

it was like when that lunatic mollusk was pretending Jeff was never funny in Curb, when someone has been a bad'un you have to pretend they were never even talented so that people will think you are a good person

[thr0b]

Jerry is not a good actor. He is very funny in his show though. But let us not pretend that he is anything more than mediocre as an actor.

[QDRPHNC]

But if he's very funny in a comedy, doesn't that make him a good actor?

I never really got the whole thing about him being bad. All the cast members have their duff moments throughout the series, but Jerry has never stood out to me as being significantly worse than any the rest of them — although that is most likely because he's the straight man for the most part and doesn't have to do as much big acting as the rest of them.

He has a great sense of timing, and can accomplish a lot just with that. Just the other day I watched the episode where he and George are dissecting a date that went bad:

George: We were having a nice conversation...
Jerry: Uh-huh...
George: I mentioned how I liked horse manure.
...
...
Jerry: You did.

[Endicott]

Agreed. And if Jerry Seinfeld was a better actor would that make the show any funnier? Probably not, because he does fine.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Nice ad-lib by him at the end of this scene

[Jerzy Bondov]

In that clip about the manure I love how George goes "then she's just a liar isn't she?!"

[QDRPHNC]

To me, this one brief scene encapsulates the difference between Seinfeld and the sitcoms that came before it.

In a lesser sitcom, Jerry's laughter would have been played as thoughtless rather than malicious, and the punchline would have been him rearing back in fear at her glare (a man afraid of a woman, what will they think of next!)

Here, despite Elaine ostensibly being one of his closest friends, Jerry enjoys rubbing her face in her public humiliation, barely registers her disgust with him, then sticks the knife in even deeper.

Great stuff.

[neveragain]

But if he's very funny in a comedy, doesn't that make him a good actor?

Therein lies the difference between "doing comedy" and "acting". A lot of actors can do both, but Jerry is definitely only proficient in the former. As everyone keeps saying, it doesn't make the show any worse.

I would offer John Thompson as another example of this. Love him doing comedy but his "straight acting" (Cold Feet for example) always feels a little forced.

[Two Headed Sex Beast]

Agreed. And if Jerry Seinfeld was a better actor would that make the show any funnier? Probably not, because he does fine.

I can't imagine the Bookman rant (for example) could be improved at all by Jerry being a better actor... half of the joy of it is watching him trying not to break in the face of Bookman's incredible flow

[QDRPHNC]

Therein lies the difference between "doing comedy" and "acting". A lot of actors can do both, but Jerry is definitely only proficient in the former. As everyone keeps saying, it doesn't make the show any worse.

Edit: I see what you're getting at, but I disagree. I think that if your job is to act in a sitcom and be funny in a sitcom, and you succeed completely, it's fair to say (in that context at least) that you are a good proficient actor.

The list of sitcom stars who are worse performers than Jerry Seinfeld would be very long indeed.

[madhair60]

is it weird that i like Jerry Seinfeld and part of that is because of his absolute unflinching commitment to rampant unapologetic egotism? I suppose I quite like that in a performer. I also think he's funny, and interesting with it.

[thr0b]

I wonder if the scene with George and Jerry ogling inappropriate breasts still gets broadcast on telly? It's in the streaming edits, but given Seinfeld is famously cut to ribbons in syndication, I wonder if it survived. Simply because 1) it's very, very inappropriate but the consequences are 2) quite important to the rest of the season.

[LordMorgan]

I should clarify. I do like Jerry in seinfeld . And his performance is more than fine.
However, in a couple of scenes , it's just his actual acting can be a bit off. And it takes me out of things a bit.
Sometimes I think, could you not have tried shooting that line again.

It's probably a more me than him thing too

[Gurke and Hare]

It's interesting for something this good how unquotable it is. Normally by now, a "let's talk about this old show" thread here would have had a lot of posts that were just people's favourite lines, but not so much here - a few clips instead. That could almost suggest that the joy of the show is in the performances rather than the writing, but I certainly don't think that's true.

[thr0b]

It's interesting for something this good how unquotable it is. Normally by now, a "let's talk about this old show" thread here would have had a lot of posts that were just people's favourite lines, but not so much here - a few clips instead. That could almost suggest that the joy of the show is in the performances rather than the writing, but I certainly don't think that's true.

NO SOUP FOR YOU
And you want to be my latex salesman
But I don't wanna be a pirate!
I'm on no sleep - no sleep!
The sea was angry that day.
I'm out.

[Two Headed Sex Beast]

If anything it's too quotable, every episode has gold (gold, Jerry!). Which is why discussion can't be reduced to a quote fest, it's so much more. Writing, performances, character, a perfect formula.

There's a semi-regular Seinfeld pub quiz where I live and no matter how hard the questions, the top teams get close to 100% every time. Shoutout to team "Sagman, Bennett, Robbins, Oppenheim and Taft"

[Twilkes]

The conversations are better than the lines. There's probably a Jewish thread in there contributing to that. Like, what the fuck was all the conversation about the pen about? There were NO LINES in those conversations, but the whole thing was hysterical.

"Of course I wanted it! I love sponge cake!"

^ not gonna see that on a t-shirt

[sevendaughters]

A more actorly presence in the central role would likely not work because the show is somewhat perspectivised as the fiction surrounding a central subject so he can be somewhat 'flat' and the rest be somewhat exaggerated (unlike, say, Cheers, which is as a neutral observer in a public space). Jerry gives the most appropriate performance possible, and that performance is good. Would I cast him in anything else? Probably not.

[dontrunyoullfall]

Who is this?

[Twilkes]

Someone cast him in a sitcom ten years before his own show - his physicality reminds me of how he was on Johnny Carson's show, which was maybe 1979? He got a lot less wibbly-wobbly as he got older.

[Dr Rock]

It's interesting for something this good how unquotable it is. Normally by now, a "let's talk about this old show" thread here would have had a lot of posts that were just people's favourite lines, but not so much here

I've been struggling to hold back...



YOU'RE KILLING INDEPENDENT GEORGE!

bah

[Gulftastic]

I double billed The Contest and The Outing last night and Jerry's acting isn't an issue in either. They're still amazing.

[Endicott]

Who is this?

You're supposed to start with 'Knock knock'.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Hmm? oh I spilled some food on it

[gilbertharding]

No, I mentioned the bisque.

[Kelvin]

is it weird that i like Jerry Seinfeld and part of that is because of his absolute unflinching commitment to rampant unapologetic egotism? I suppose I quite like that in a performer. I also think he's funny, and interesting with it.

I said similar earlier in the thread. I really like Jerry Seinfeld in interviews, because a) he's very funny when being a cunt, and b) he comes across as having a unique and interesting perspective on topics, which feels at odds with his largely mundane observational stand up. He often comes across more like Larry David's character in Curb than the hacky and indifferent version of himself in Seinfeld. 

I'm another person that will defend his performances in the show, as well. Sure there's no subtlety, or emotional weight. But he's always funny. And I enjoy how often you see him starting to break.

[HMS Beanspiller]

It's all pipes!

[sevendaughters]

There are a couple of episodes that developed lines that were meant to be great zingers/kiss offs that rang a bit false ie. "I've got hand" / "and you're gonna need it" and "they're real and they're SPECTACULAR", I guess the phrases that broke out aren't things I'm crazy about (though I use 'it's in the vault' a lot), for me it was always at its best when it was basically them just talking and replaying something.