Mario’s Musings (Anniversary Edition): Seinfeld

Thirty years of nothing.

Seinfeld: the show about the life of a standup comedian and his three friends in New York City. Yada yada yada and that’s the article. Thanks for reading…

…Okay that was a joke. It wasn’t a funny joke but I can’t resist one when the time calls for it. But seriously, the amounts of pop culture references that have stemmed from Seinfeld are too many to count. The insane plotlines of “The Revenge”, “The Contest”, “The Smelly Car”, “The Chinese Restaurant”, and of course “The Strike” (which introduced the world to Festivus), are some of the most memorable episodes in the history of comedy. Seinfeld is one of the rare shows where you can’t claim, “the Simpsons did it first”. While most of the series is episodic, there are some rare serialized seasons, such as the fourth season where NBC offers a pilot to Jerry, and George decides to tag along to become his script writer, and the seventh season where George gets engaged to Susan. 

But the series are meaningless without the people who lived them, like Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and of course George. Jerry is the minor celeb comedian who is a compulsive neat freak. Elaine is Jerry’s ex who he remained friends with, whose dancing and string of boyfriends throughout the show is a constant cause of ridicule for her, especially David Puddy. Kramer is Jerry’s eccentric neighbor who never works and constantly sponges (not THAT kind of sponge) off Jerry in between his own wacky adventures. George is Jerry’s best friend, cheapskate, and master of lies and manipulation who would have had a normal life if not for fact that Frank and Estelle Costanza were his psychotic parents (SERENITY NOW!).

You can’t talk about Seinfeld without talking about it’s effect on pop culture. Who among us doesn’t use some variation of “yada yada yada” to quickly get to the point? We all know someone who gets grossed out when someone double dips a chip into salsa. We all know someone who gets too close when talking to us, or talks too low that we can’t understand them. Who hasn’t ended a relationship with the “it’s not you, it’s me” speech? I’m pretty sure there are places that just sell muffin tops now. My own grandmother would constantly re-gift books I bought for her, not maliciously of course, she just wanted me to read them as well. And of course, Festivus, the fake holiday invented by Frank Costanza that swept the world in 1998 and still gets mentioned on social media today. And for the last time, it’s Moors, not Moops. 

I apologize if this article isn’t up to my usual standards; I had a hard time getting this one into words for some reason. And if you don’t like it, well, the Jerk Store called, and they’re running out of you!