Microblog Memes

Seinfeld is very exceptional in that it was a show which featured unapologetically bad people, and glorified them, very effectively.

You can be extremely cynical in your scripting while still holding up characters who have some sort of moral center and are trying to do the right thing. Old-season Simpsons did this very well. The characters are not bad. They are not nice and they have genuine failings, and the situations they find themselves in are not sugarcoated. But, it's still a show about trying to maintain your humanity, in a pretty realistic portrayal of the grim reality we all find ourselves in. The original "Arrested Development" is similar although a little more upper-class and light hearted.

Maybe I am a corny motherfucker but I do think that it's important to try to keep your eye on doing the right thing instead of the wrong thing, because it's real shit that every human being runs into and it's definitely not easy. Art does influence the ways people behave and the way they perceive the world. Seinfeld is a show about absolute horrible sociopaths, who ruin relationships and other people's lives over and over again because of their commitment to selfishness, and if you only look superficially, how relatable and fun and entertaining they can be to spend time with, and how easy it is to overlook what abominably bad people they are as long as it all seems fun.

Somewhere there is a video talking about how Jerry Seinfeld is actually one of the darkest comedians working. I don't even know where I could start to find it, but the guy talks about watching a Seinfeld bit about throwing trash in the movie theater before he leaves for someone else to clean up, and how the guy watching got this chilling feeling he never got from much more serious topics: Like it's not an act, he genuinely just feels nothing below surface level, and doesn't give a fuck what happens.