Seinfeld Liberals

The American Thinker ^ | 6/26/05 | Ed Lasky

[Kitten Festival]

Seinfeld was a television marvel. Perhaps the most successful situation comedy series of all time, it ran from 1989 to 1998, and has become an omnipresent aspect of our lives as it continually runs in syndication and lives on in best-selling DVD box sets, making fortunes in the hundred millions for both of its co-creators.

But there is yet another facet of Seinfeld at which we can marvel: the cast of characters on the show weirdly foreshadowed the rise to prominence of a large component of the dominant urban liberal wing of the Democratic Party. With a nod to Brian Anderson’s South Park Conservatives and a quick glance backward at yesterday’s Matt Bai New York Times Magazine article King of the Hill Democrats, let us join the craze for television series politics, and call them Seinfeld Liberals.

Their emergence has not been beneficial for our nation.

Hollywood has long provided role models and templates for Americans – just as books and stories always have (Washington and the Cherry tree, Abe Lincoln studying by candle, the always-inventive Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison, the heroic obstinacy of U.S. Grant and George Patton).

In recent decades, a certain cynicism about the character of Americans seems to have taken hold, at least in the filmed and televised entertainment we see.

[SoothingDave]

I just always thought the show was just ok. I did not find it that humorous. However, their is one liberal show I will watch and laugh at. It comes on HBO. Its called Curb your Enthusiasm. Its pretty funny.

Larry David is the co-creator of Seinfeld. Curb Your Enthusiasm is Seinfeld, only more so. Just like Larry is George, only more so.

SD

[Sprite518]

Larry cracks me up all the time. He does say dumb things, and you just have to laugh at him.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

"Seinfeld" was the funniest sit-com ever produced. A marvel of casting, humor and brilliant writing.

Jerry Seinfeld seems fairly conservative.

Larry David, OTOH, is a flaming liberal whose wife, Laurie David, sits on the ultra-liberal, ultra-connected Natural Resources Defense Council, along with the likes of Laurence Rockefeller and Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Does anyone know the background of Laurie David? Before she married Larry David, she was a talent booker for David Letterman which is a job generally given to well-heeled, high-born off-spring.

[Bossy Gillis]

LOL, I cannot remember, I am watching it daily on SoapNet at 3 pm and really getting into it. Can you believe that show came on the air in 78? It's like watching it anew, the fashions are fabulous, I loved the 80's. Couple years ago, I was in Dallas and made sure I went to Southfork!!!

[Kirkwood]

ROTFL!

[Chi-townChief]

"Could it be that the Seinfeld liberal is simply someone who is totally selfish and self-absorbed - like the characters on the show?"

I think that's exactly what the author is getting at.

[nutmeg]

read later bump

[NotSoFreeStater]

I remember Seinfeld stumping for Hillary Clinton for Senate. Not too surprising, most New York Jews are pretty liberal. I still loved the show, mainly because it was funny and there was no message being shoved down my throat.

[Yaelle]

While it is true that the Seinfeld characters were infinitely selfish, obsessively critical people, in good humor the character MUST have evident motivation in order to create the situation for the laugh. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld both are most likely selfish and critical people, and they love laughs that belittle or mock. Having their characters remain faily shallow while pretending not to be did set up so many of the priceless situations in each episode.

Liberal or not, they created some of the most hilarious scenes known to comedy.

You need a self-absorbed character to even think of bringing Junior Mints to the upper OR gallery to watch a delicate stomach surgery. And you need a character extremely self-absorbed not to even mention it to the doctors when he accidentally drops a junior mint right into the patient's gaping cavity.

I know Jews that were offended when Jerry and his girlfriend "made out" in Schindler's List, or by the gossipy rabbi, and I did feel a twinge there, but it was funny. It was FUNNY that Newman busted Jerry kissing in the Holocaust film and raced to tell his PARENTS. It was funny that a rabbi hears a woman's intimate worries, and then broadcasts them on his cable access show, using the actual names. The show is definitely very culturally Jewish and yet very anti-religious, nearly anti-Semitic, but I still find it hilarious and so do most of the Jews I know.

Jerry set out to make classics like "Who's on First," and he succeeded. The dialogue scenes between him and George in the coffee shop are priceless (one of the better ones was about George eating an eclair out of the trash).

Maybe liberal, but also hysterical.

[SoothingDave]

You need a self-absorbed character to even think of bringing Junior Mints to the upper OR gallery to watch a delicate stomach surgery. And you need a character extremely self-absorbed not to even mention it to the doctors when he accidentally drops a junior mint right into the patient's gaping cavity.

Elaine the the Bubble Boy's father crying in the booth in the coffee shop. Elaine reaches for a napkin to dry her tears. She gives one to Jerry ... who wipes his mouth.

Comedy gold.

SD

[Chi-townChief]

Yeah, that was a classic!!! The scenes between George and the Latvian Orthodox priest were great too:

"You truly must be filled with the spirit of the Lord."

"Oh, I'm full of it, Father."

[SoothingDave]

The scenes between George and the Latvian Orthodox priest were great too:

What aspect of our faith do you find most compelling?

The hats.

SD

[ThinkDifferent]

"Are you sure you want to open with that?"

"But she's a cute Nazi"

[don-o]

Posting before I even read:

The last episode pretty much nailed the whole series. Empty, selfish, vain people who finally got what they had coming. Jail.

I think it is a great show. Even the stuff I consider a bit "over the top" is tame compared to what I hear is standard fare. But, when I see one of those coming, we use the "off" switch.

[SoothingDave]

there are so many great ones!

I love the one where Jerry's girlfriend du jour is trying to get him to tap into his emotions and he's trying to fake anger in the coffee shop.

"I asked for skim milk and they gave me cream."

"I think there's some one percent over there."

"One percent! They can kiss one percent of my ass!"

*********************

Another favorite is when Tim Whatley ends up with Jerry's Super Bowl tickets and invites Newman along. This Jerry/George exchange is great:

G: Who goes to the Super Bowl with their mailman?

J: Who goes anywhere with Newman?

SD

[SoothingDave]

The last episode pretty much nailed the whole series. Empty, selfish, vain people who finally got what they had coming. Jail.

It's better than that. Their punishment is being locked up with each other, having the same pointless conversations over and over. The show ends as it began, with George and Jerry discussing the importance of having that second button on your shirt at just the right level.

SD

[A_perfect_lady]

Well, the cat lived and you have Cosmo Kramer to thank.

Yes, I know they fed the cat under the door. But the whole situation prompted a little vignette by Kramer in which a guy he knew left a cat to die in an apartment. He tells them about it early in the episode.

Look, I know they weren't trying to give the message that you should leave cats to die in abandoned apartments. But they told that little story like it was funny and I just didn't find it amusing. I guess I just don't have that kind of a sense of humor.