Seinfeld Transcripts
seinfeldscripts.com
seinfeldscripts.com
The best example is probably the Marine Biologist episode. You could have never predicted that there would be any connection between golf balls and whales.
Whether that says more about me or the show I do not know
I think this was mostly Larry David's work. Jason Alexander once mentioned in an interview that after David left, this "dovetailing" of story lines kind of stopped, and I tend to agree. David continued it (even more pronounced) in "Curb Your Enthusiasm". Even the golf ball twist was kind of repeated - in extreme form and with a baseball - in "Curb".
Side note: another early TV show that often pulled this off to great effect was "The Honeymooners". I think this is the show that had the most influence on Seinfeld. Ed Norton is basically Kramer, Ralph Kramden is basically George, Alice is Elaine, and Alice's mother is Newman (you can also map "The Honeymooners" characters, and even entire plot lines, to "The Flintstones", but that is another story, and AFAIK Jacky Gleason, the creator of "The Honeymooners", considered suing Hanna-Barbera in the 60ies).
Jerry Seinfeld himself once said that we should wait and see if "Seinfeld" is still funny in 50 years like "The Honeymooners" (that was 20 years ago).
"Fawlty Towers" also did this very well.
Sometimes what a project like a sitcom or a business needs is rather someone or several members who don't fit in. Because otherwise you start to suffer from creative and intellectual incest.
"I’d like to say it worked organically or it worked from going backwards, but it worked and didn’t work in all of those ways. It never really happened the same way twice. A couple of times, I would think that I had it down pat, like in the episode with Teri Hatcher, “The Implant.” I had stories, but I also started off with four or five really great scenes. They had nothing to do with each other, but I knew they would make great scenes, so I started finding a way of mating them together. That episode came out great, so I thought that that was the way I would always do it. It never worked that way again. The process of that was pretty much a struggle every time."
https://www.vulture.com/2014/07/classic-seinfeld-episodes-wr...
On reading The Contest:
"David: As soon as the read-through started, the laughs were huge. Big, satisfying laughs. I would glance at [the executives’] faces and they seemed to be enjoying it. You could sense it was a very special show. Then we all walked back to our office afterwards and I think one or two NBC executives were there and they had nothing. They just said, “Very funny.” And I was shocked.
Littlefield: They read it and it was hilarious. And Rick, as an executive for NBC, knew, “Uh-oh, shit’s going to hit the fan.” The broadcast standards executive who was there, was like, “What the fuck?” And Rick was like, “I didn’t know!”
https://www.vulture.com/2017/10/seinfeld-the-contest-oral-hi...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/911-seinfeld-september-11_n_5...
The script is put together like a Swiss watch. Every line fits perfectly in place. Kudos to the craftsmen involved.
It's a long way from Wikipedia's plot summaries for beloved movies; Eg Die Hard 3, the incredible 10 minutes roller coaster slalom through Manhattan is rendered as "McCain and Zeus travel to the Wall Street subway station". Something like that.
It's absolutely not the original shooting scripts. Multicam sitcom scripts have a very specific style of formatting, and these are just missing details they would contain in terms of scene descriptions, etc.
But this also isn't just a transcript of subtitles or closed captioning. It's full of things like:
> KRAMER: [glues the article back with his own saliva and puts the magazine back on the table] When you're done, let me know.
> % Jerry shows Elaine some movie from the Adult section that's probably % called "The Sperminator", or something...
So fans transcribed these and then tried to fill in the visual details as well?
What a labor of love. I'm curious if there's a specific term or name for this type of transcription-with-visual-details.
p.s. Makes me wonder what the difference is between the scripts and the transcripts...
Generally speaking, many of my students appear to know (vaguely) who the Beatles were, but that seems to be about it.
On a script-related note, I spent a bunch of time back in the day reading through these:
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~kjell-e/tekla/red-dwarf/scripts.h...
Someone growing up now has like five decades to learn from plus the vast vast music released today.
The 90's.
I got all episodes in my phone so I can watch Seinfeld wherever I am even if there's no internet. Good to have when traveling
It’s technically back, but “with a new cast of characters and an original format different from that of Seinfeld” …
George: Oh, Jerry, it's amazing! You won't believe it. This AI claims to have generated a brand new Seinfeld episode, using all the data from the original series. I had to check it out.
Jerry: Well, I gotta say, I'm intrigued. Let's hear it. What's the plot?
George: Alright, here it goes. Kramer gets his hands on a new AI virtual assistant that starts mimicking his personality. Meanwhile, Elaine starts dating a tech-savvy guy who believes algorithms can predict the future.
Jerry: Alright, alright. It's got some potential. Keep going.
George: Well, eventually, the virtual assistant Kramer has starts causing all sorts of trouble. It becomes this annoying, exaggerated version of Kramer, taking his quirks to the extreme.
Jerry: So, basically, Kramer is competing with himself? That sounds like a real stretch, George.
George: I know, Jerry, but just listen. So, the assistant starts booking hair appointments for Kramer's famous wild hairstyles, signing him up for strange hobbies, and even ordering ridiculous items online. It's chaos!
Jerry: I don't know, George. It sounds a bit forced. Like they're just trying to recreate Kramer's wacky antics without any real substance.
George: Well, that's not all. The tech-savvy guy Elaine is dating starts using algorithms to predict everything from the stock market to their relationship. He's constantly consulting his phone, calculating probabilities and making decisions based on data.
Jerry: I don't know about you, George, but I prefer a little spontaneity in my relationships. Sounds like Elaine is dating a walking spreadsheet.
George: Exactly! That's what I said. But the AI script takes it to the extreme. Eventually, the guy starts relying on algorithms for everything, even deciding what to eat and wear.
Jerry: So, he's outsourcing his decision-making to a computer? That's just lazy, George. I thought Elaine had better taste.
George: I agree, Jerry. It's like they're trying to cram every tech trend into one episode. It's too much!
Jerry: It sounds like they're sacrificing the characters' authenticity just to explore these AI and tech themes. That's not what Seinfeld was about. It was about everyday life, not gimmicks.
George: That's what I've been saying, Jerry! This AI-generated script is trying too hard. It's missing the heart and soul of Seinfeld.
Jerry: Well, George, I guess it's safe to say that even AI can't capture the magic of our show. Seinfeld was a product of our comedic chemistry, not algorithms.
George: You're right, Jerry. Nothing can replace the real thing. We created something special, and no AI can replicate that.
Jerry: Exactly. So, let's leave the AI-generated scripts to the robots and stick to what we do best—being funny in our own unique way.
George: Agreed, Jerry. Our humor is organic, not artificially intelligent.
Jerry: That's the spirit, George. Now let's go find some real-life material for our next stand-up gigs. The world is our Seinfeld episode!
George: Absolutely, Jerry. And remember, if we can't find material, we can always make fun of the AI-generated script.
Jerry: Ah, that's a good backup plan. Let's go, George. The comedy world awaits!
>Dugan: That's Sam, the new girl in the counting.
...
>Sam: Everybody told what a catty shrude you are. Your horrible!
Not everything is AI today.
They mean the transcription not the general content. "shrude" ("shrewd"), "in the counting" (probably "in accounting"), and other transcription errors occur in that linked script, as examples. There also appear to be missing words in some lines.
Not everything generated is AI
You'll see that all the time on Youtube. Obviously speech to text was solved good enough 30+ years ago.
But it could be shorthand related - https://www.reddit.com/r/shorthand/top/?t=all pulled from the teletext or community transcribers.
usage is: /vandelay <seinfeld dialog you're looking for>.
it returns an animated gif of the scene & dialog you searched for (if it exists).
details about how it was made here[2] but the TL;dr is that the entire Seinfeld catalog were in MKV, the subs were extracted, then the sub time ranges were looped through and animated gifs were made. then the whole lot made searchable.
it's a great slack app.
code here[3].
[1] https://vandelayindustries.online/
[2] https://medium.com/free-code-camp/unfundable-slack-bots-9369...
[3] https://github.com/bertrandom/vandelayindustries-slack-serve...
(edited for clarity & added github url)
Curb Your Enthusiasm might be the easy answer.
Will need to check out gemstones
- 30 rock
- arrested development
- curb your enthusiasm
and
- jake and amir
- joel haver
- brian david gilbert
all in short clips on youtube
I hope he goes far and builds an audience much bigger than YouTube. Feature films, sitcom, SNL. He deserves it.
Your whole list is pretty great actually, just I'm not familiar with Jake and Amir.
My friends still look at me like a lunatic when I quote Amir’s approach to Twitter: > oh the place I keep all my secrets
The fake "clip show" episode where they misremember a Seinfeld episode happening to them is one of my favorite scene.
It's been a while, but maybe I'll give Frasier another shot, even if only as some quasi-filler. :)
Curb Your Enthusiasm, as others have mentioned. It has an improvised feel to it (intentionally!) which makes it quite unique.
What We Do in the Shadows is more modern but also a brilliant comedy.
The Office is amazing too, though it’s not for everyone and has its downs.
Brooklyn 99 was also pretty consistently hilarious.
New episodes of Community, 30 Rock, The Office, and Parks and Recreation.
And things associated with it all, like The Good Place.
if you loved Seinfeld but never tried CYE you're missing out.
I love them both in different ways, but lots of overlap (because of Larry David), and overall I've had way more LOL moments with CYE.
By the end of a typical episode (esp in the first few seasons) by the time the end credits roll I'm chuckling non-stop right up through the start of the next one, simply by replaying portions of the episode in my mind. Such a treasure of comedy.
The Good Place is a good semi-recent example.
The Seinfeld ensemble were all brilliantly drawn characters, while the actors in Friends were just boring and narcissistic twits.
It’s incredibly layered and packs in more jokes than you can count.
The first few seasons of Community are also great.
Pretty much my favorite thing on the internet. Link unfurling in iMessages and everything. (Or whatever app you're using that has unfurling)
These are actual scripts from the archive of the show.
I mean, some scenes would be more convincing/funny if he looked more serious.
This still strikes me as weird. Has this been discussed somewhere (I would surprised if not, perhaps I should ask GPT4)? Do we know why this happens?
Larry David needs a Seinfeld to rein him in.
Sometimes, genius needs moderation. Always felt Seinfeld was that moderating influence.
My ex could barely watch more than one episode a day because she felt overwhelmed by the Fremdscham. I otoh thrive on that. It also helps that I seriously feel that Larry is actually acting totally reasonable, though clumsy.
The Germans really have some great words for complex ideas.
But I don't know if the show would have been as good without him. His boring normalness and bemused reaction to the chaos unfolding around him. Even his breaking of the fourth wall. Maybe he's a grounding rod that serves to contrast everything else against, maybe he's the character we can see ourselves as.