Considering how big of a deal it was to get Seinfeld onto the platform, it's interesting to see it hasn't broken the top 10 lists on any week. Maybe long tail viewing habits tell a different story.
I can see how someone might find that kind of material sexist, especially if they've only encountered a few episodes where it seems like he's basically saying women are worse than men.
Personally, I don't have a problem with it because over lots and lots of episodes, whether he's punching down at men or women balances out. I'm not sure if the writers made a conscious choice to make it that way after maybe some initial criticism as I never followed the show when it was on air originally.
I think a lot of big name comics think they're "owed" the laughs, and some people think that their personal taste is the only comedy. It's all subjective, but if you get the laugh, that's the only thing that matters in comedy.
Not true. Ricky Gervais makes the case that making animal jokes (e.g. where you tell a funny story, but the characters are animals having people-like problems) is too easy and so doesn't count as much.
(Actually, I'm not sure he said this on Comedians in Cars, or in a different show)
Maybe comedians are people too and have varied points of view on comedy gasp
It is so incredibly disrespectful of your fellow human to assume that "uncomfortable = illegitimate" by default, which is absolutely what your comment does.
Seinfeld absolutely has a lot of pretty blatantly sexist humor that would, sure, not be acceptable on TV today, but was also shitty, then. We just didn't do a particularly job of caring about it.
> Being uncomfortable isn't acceptable in 2021.
Says who? Watch Squid Game. Watch Parasite. Watch... I dunno, Big Mouth. These are just random things that come to mind, but they're huge, mainstream pieces of media that are actively challenging to watch and use that uncomfortable feeling to an end, without punching down.
If those are the examples you have to offer you make my point stronger. Where is the 2021 crying game?
Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones made people uncomfortable in 2021. Have you seen it, most popular comedy standup special on netflix? Do you consider it as shitty of Seinfeld?
There's a difference between feeling uncomfortable because someone is being misogynistic & feeling uncomfortable because of the realisation that--regardless of specifics of personal situation--anyone in that demographic benefits from systems of oppression.
You're reading this in part because not everyone in your life told you that you should seek an interest outside of technology & entrepreneurship to which you would be "better suited".
Disclaimer: Have stood on a stage with a microphone and made a paying audience laugh.
Are you saying that nobody who is not a straight, not trans, white, male considers being uncomfortable to be unacceptable?
What data are you using to support this claim?
Particularly an episode where Jerry inadvertently makes several racist remarks in front of a Native American character while the laugh track is going nuts just left me speechless.
You have to measure it with the standards of that time, but this kind of obliviousness to any kind of ethnic character is just off-putting now.
I only saw periodic episodes as a kid (had no TV), but watching it now, the physical comedy really stands out to me- a genre I've never been into, but Kramer, Elaine and George are great at it.
To your point about the show, watch the clip yourself [0] and see how you feel. To me, this plays in pretty bad taste.
I understand that this episode was made 28 years ago and was probably fairly on par with attitudes at the time, but just like our attitudes to race have changed so has my attitude to comedy. Watching this today I react with cringe rather than laughing anywhere near as hard as the laugh track seems to imply I should be.
I'm also not singling out one particular episode, there are other examples of this. Another episode featuring a Pakistani-American character called "Babhu" also plays poorly to me today [1].
If you can watch these clips and think they're still benign then that's ok, we'll just have to agree to disagree, but I don't think you can watch them and still find it incomprehensible why someone might have an issue with them.
[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGwaupBdiSU [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUPH5OhXC1A
My criticism would be that a scene where the main character of a show makes a series of demeaning remarks about someone's race to the point where they are so offended that they leave the apartment isn't funny. The fact that Jerry is trying to get laid and blows his chances is beside the point.
The Winona character is humiliated and the episode gives this no weight at all. The only consequences for Jerry and Kramer's racism is that Jerry doesn't get into a relationship with Winona.
Looking back on this from 2021, it hasn't aged well for me.
One is pro-racism, and the other is anti-racism.
This show portays being racist as something stupid and worthy of ridicule.
Additionally Winona comes off as an oversensitive snowflake when she accuses Jerry of lowkey calling her an "Indian giver." In other words, maybe Jerry's a little racist, and that's wrong and silly, but being sensitive about it is equally wrong and silly, is the message. Fortunately Winona breaks it off and the show can go back to forgetting Native Americans exist as anything but a foil to Jerry's gang.
Furthermore, because real-life Jerry is so "brave" as to skewer character-Jerry's racism, real-life Jerry gets to congratulate himself for being woke.
To sum up, Jerry Seinfeld scores points for himself at the expense of native Americans, is one way to interpret what happened.
Seinfeld himself has conceded that the episode didn't age well, so whether or not you agree with parent poster, it's not like he's really being so "odd" and out-there in his reasoning.
(https://www.huffpost.com/entry/seinfeld-offensive_n_59d8d036...)
I really can't wait until we move past the current cultural zeitgeist. It's insufferable.
I disagree that it does.
Also in the link you've provided Seinfeld only says "You could never do that today". You've interpreted that as him conceding that the episode didn't age well. That's a stretch. (To be fair, the title of the article suggests he's admitting it's offensive but there doesn't seem to be anything to back that up).
On one hand he's guilty of everyday racism (and doesn't even notice it) and on the other he tries to be ridiculously cautious to the point of paternalism (avoiding saying "dinner reservations" to a native American).