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Seinfeld and Comedy

Seinfeld and Comedy. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]. “Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.” --Horace Walpole, 18th Century. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]. Original definition of “comedy”: a story that ends happily.

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Seinfeld and Comedy

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  1. Seinfeld and Comedy ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  2. “Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.” --Horace Walpole, 18th Century ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  3. Original definition of “comedy”: a story that ends happily. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  4. Comedy Theory • Notoriously incomplete and lacking in definitive answers. • Plessner’s thesis in Laughing and Crying. Helmuth Plessner, author of Laughing and Crying ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  5. Henri Bergson ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  6. Comedy Theory • Three basic camps • Superiority--laughter reinforces social power. • Incongruity--humor the result of the “clash of incompatible discourses.” • Relief--the comic as a vent for repression. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  7. Comic Modes: • Satire • Parody • Slapstick • Caricature ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  8. Key Questions: • Do we laugh at or with? • Is comedy innately subversive? • Is comedy congenitally offensive/politically incorrect? • What is the connection between the body and the comic? ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  9. Comedy on TV • Sitcoms • Dramedy • Sketch Comedy • Stand-Up • Animation/Adult Animation • Satire • Comedy in other genres: talk shows, fake news, drama, advertising, etc. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  10. The Sitcom A comedic television genre (originating in radio), ordinarily 30 minutes in length, in which a group of characters, related by family, a workplace, or as friends, exhibiting little or no development as individuals, encounters and seeks to resolve on a weekly basis a situation (or situations) in which they find themselves embroiled. Sitcoms on American television are often accompanied by laugh tracks. Sitcom Traits • Exportable and seemingly universal in appeal; • Tolerant of commercial interruptions; • Dependent on gags, slapstick, and jokes; • Episodic but customarily without memory; • Often the site of controversy ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  11. The Laugh Track • The result, in part, of the production practice of taping before a live audience. • Use of older laughter on American shows. • “Make me funnier here”--in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  12. The Sitcom • Workplace (think The Office) • Family (think The Simpsons, Modern Family) • Friend Families (think Seinfeld, Friends, How I Met Your Mother) • Unruly Woman (think Roseanne) • Gay and Lesbian (think Will & Grace) ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  13. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s The Mary Tyler Moore Show (NBC,1970-1977)

  14. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s All in the Family (CBS, 1971-1983)

  15. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s Cheers (NBC, 1982-1993)

  16. The Bill Cosby Show (NBC, 1984-1992) Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s

  17. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s The Simpsons (Fox, 1989- )

  18. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s Frasier (NBC, 1993-2004)

  19. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s Friends (NBC, 1994-2004)

  20. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS, 1996-2005)

  21. Will & Grace (NBC, 1998-2006) Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s

  22. Great Sitcoms Since the 1970s The Office (BBC2, 2001-2003) The Office (NBC, 2005- )

  23. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  24. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  25. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  26. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  27. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  28. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery] The sitcom is one of the most popular and yet least studied television genres. Like the late/great Rodney Dangerfield, it “can’t get no respect.” Studying TV Comedy

  29. Seinfeld (NBC, 1989-1998) ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  30. TV Guide’s Top Television Shows of All Time 1. Seinfeld (NBC)2. I Love Lucy (CBS)3. The Honeymooners (CBS)4. All in the Family (CBS)5. The Sopranos (HBO)6. 60 Minutes (CBS)7. Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)8. The Simpsons (Fox)9. The Andy Griffith Show (CBS)10. Saturday Night Live (NBC)11. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS)12. The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (NBC)13. The Dick Van Dyke Show (CBS)14. Hill Street Blues (NBC)15. The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS)16. The Carol Burnett Show (CBS)17. Today (NBC)18. Cheers (NBC)19. thirtysomething (ABC)20. (NBC) ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  31. Seinfeld and the Sitcom • Originally rejected by NBC chief Brandon Tartikoff as “too New York, too Jewish” • A show about nothing • Sought to always override normal sitcom conventions • Governed by the motto: “no hugging, no learning” • Dealt with previously taboo television subjects ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  32. Gaming the Refs Larry David ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  33. “Seinfeld was not really about how evil humanity is, though it's about that to some extent. The show is really about the joy of charting, in exquisite, unrelenting, almost celebratory detail, the infinitely variegated human interactions that, closely watched, will ultimately tell the story of the disintegration of our species.” --Bill Wyman, Salon.com ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  34. “What relief to encounter comedy which does not mistake itself for anything else. Its characters are free to start from zero each time, free to indulge the marvelous shallowness which is the privilege of the creatures of farce. Nothing counts here, nothing has consequences: as one of the show’s writers (Larry Charles in Entertainment Weekly) has observed, the crucial guideline is that the characters do not learn from experience and never move beyond what they intrinsically and eternally are.” --Geoffrey O’Brien, “The Republic of Seinfeld” ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  35. The Creators: Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  36. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  37. Kramer, Elaine, George, Jerry ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  38. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery] Kramer, George, Elaine, and Jerry

  39. George, Jerry, Kramer, Elaine ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  40. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery] Jerry Seinfeld

  41. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery] George Costanza

  42. Elaine Benes ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  43. Cosmo Kramer (“Hipster Doofus”) ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  44. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery] Unforgettable Minor Characters The Soup Nazi

  45. Unforgettable Minor Characters • Kenny Bania • Babu Bhatt • Lt. Bookman • The Bubble Boy • Jackie Chiles • Estelle Costanza • Frank Costanza • Crazy Joe Davola • Jack Klompus • The Maestro • Sue Ellen Mischke • Newman • J. Peterman • Mr. Pitt • Poppi • David Putty • The Soup Nazi • Stan the Caddy • Uncle Leo • Dr. Tim Whatley ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  46. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery] Some Seinfeldisms • Anti-Dentite • Baldist • Bizarro • BBO • Bombable • Break-up by Association • Bro • Bump Into • Call Waiting Face-Off • Cell-Phone Walk and Talk • Changing Teams • Close Talker • Consolation Guy • Dating Decathlon • Degifting • Double Dipper

  47. ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery] Some Seinfeldisms • Excuse Rolodex • Festivus • Hand • High Talker • Home Bed Advantage • “Hoochie Mama:” • I love you Return • “It’s Not You, It’s Me” • Kiss Hello • Long Talker • Low Talker • Make-Up Sex • Mansierre • Master of My Domain • Mimbo

  48. Some Seinfeldisms ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery] • Nonvite • Pop-In • Regifting • Sentence Finisher • “Serenity Now” • Schmoopy • Shiksappeal • Shrinkage Factor • Shusher/Shushee • Spongeworthy • Spare a Square • Tap, The • Undateable • Unshushables • Unvitation • Yada, Yada, Yada • “You’re so Good Looking”

  49. A Seinfeldism (by Betty Lee, from Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain) B.O.: abbr., Body Odor. As a compound word, B.O. refers to the unpleasant odor emitted by a human body. The components can be referred to as separate entities, however - as the Body and the Odor, thus allowing for examination of the odor outside of its bodily context, for example: “when somebody has B.O., the "O" usually stays with the "B". Once the "B" leaves, the "O" goes with it.” (The Smelly Car) ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

  50. A Seinfeldism (by Betty Lee, from Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain) Break-up by Association: the assumed dissociation of mutual friends brought forth by the end of a romantic relationship. Thus, if lover A initiates a break-up with lover B, the friends of lover A are automatically subject to a break-up of their friendship with lover B. (The Deal) ENGL 2030: Experience of Literature—Drama [Lavery]

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