I’ve seen every episode of Friends and loved how it was made and set in the ’90s. Of course, my parents made fun of me for watching Friends, saying it was a far less superior ’90s show than Seinfeld.
Seinfeld stars Jerry Seinfeld, who plays himself as a stand-up comedian living in New York City getting into trouble with his three best friends. I never understood the hype of Seinfeld as a kid, because I didn’t get any of the references. As a twenty-one year old college women, I now understand the references. I watched every episode of Seinfeld and loved all 180 episodes of it.
I now understand my parents’ inside jokes
This whole time, I never knew that my parents have been making inside jokes about Seinfeld. They have been referencing Seinfeld to me since I have been alive, and I wasn’t even aware. It wasn’t until certain memorable quotes that popped up in the show, that I had the epiphany.
In one episode of Seinfeld, Elaine is in need of some extra toilet paper when her stall ran out, so she asks the person in the stall next to her to “spare a square.” Whenever we need more toilet paper in our house my mom would always ask to “spare a square.” Here I was thinking my mom is so funny and creative. Wrong. She has just been stealing lines from Seinfeld and playing them off to me as if they’re her own witty lines. Anytime I have not wanted to go to the dentist my dad would call me an “anti-dentite.” An “anti-dentite” is what the character Kramer referred to Jerry as because he was against his dentist. I thought my father was a creative genius only to later find out he was just quoting a television series.
I have so much respect for Julia Louis-Dreyfus
For some reason, there is a stigma out there that women aren’t funny. So many famous female comedians have broken that stereotype, but it must have been hard for Julia Louis-Dreyfus to be the only lead female actress in a show with three major male roles. Julia Louis-Dreyfus played Elaine, the assertive, intelligent, funny and relatable character. She openly discussed sex with the other male characters and commented on her own crazy sex life.
One episode that was really profound, was one about a now outdated, female contraceptive sponge. Just having a female character talk about contraceptives is a pretty big deal. But since in the episode the sponges were being taken off the shelves, Elaine had to carefully deem which men were “sponge worthy” to be with. Not only was the character of Elaine progressive but Louis-Dreyfus’s silly personality shined through. Especially from her crazy dancing skills.
Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld are geniuses
Every episode somehow finds little annoyances in everyday life and plays them out into one episode. One thing Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld did well were creating flawed yet likable characters. They relate to the shallowness that is in all of us.
Jerry, Elaine, and George, always found something really picky with the men or women they dated. For example, Jerry dated a women whose arms were too manly, a soft-talker who you could barely hear and women with breasts that looked too fake. Even though these sound like things that maybe other people may look past, they played on the joke that this is a funny conflict because the characters are too shallow and critical.
The show was beautifully written. Every episode had a unique conflict and showed you more about these shallow and funny characters. The show ran for nine fun, creative, and intelligent years. I wonder if there will ever be a show as popular or as well written as this one. Maybe 2018 will bring one our way.