Seinfeld

About

Seinfeld is a sitcom television show centered around the protagonist Jerry Seinfeld and his group of friends in the Upper West Side in New York City.

History

The show was created by comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David and premiered as The Seinfeld Chronicles on July 5th, 1989. In May 1990, the show was renamed Seinfeld to avoid confusion with the short-lived sitcom The Marshall Chronicles. The show ran for nine seasons until May 14th, 1998, with reruns subsequently released in syndication.

Online Presence

On April 9th, 2003, Urban Dictionary^[9] user TightFade submitted an entry for "seinfeld," which defined it as the "best show ever." On April 22nd, the scripts for all nine seasons of the show were posted on the site Seinfeld Scripts.^[7] On January 23rd, 2006, the Seinfeld Wiki^[5] was created to provide information for characters and episodes in the show. On December 7th, 2007, the Seinfeld Dictionary^[8] blog began posting definitions of terms found in various episodes from the show. On March 17th, 2008, a Facebook^[1] page titled "Seinfeld" was launched, which gathered over 4.9 million likes in the first six years. On February 13th, 2009, the /r/seinfeld^[2] subreddit was created for discussions related to the television sitcom. On March 5th, the Seinfeld Tumblr blog was launched, highlighting screen captures and animated GIFs from the show (shown below).

Between 2009 and 2011, Seinfeld-themed single topic blogs and parody sites continued to emerge on Tumblr, some of the most notable examples being the Economics of Seinfeld,^[4] The Daily Seinfeld,^[6] Seinfeld Lessons^[11] and People in The Audience on Seinfeld,^[12]

The Jerry Seinfeld Program

In May 2010, Arthur Meyer and Dan Klein launched a web series titled The Jerry Seinfeld Program,^[13] which used absurdist humor to parody the formulaic nature of Seinfeld (shown below).

9/11 Spec Script

On August 2nd, 2016, Los Angeles comedian and writer Billy Domineau uploaded an original spec script for an episode of Seinfeld that takes place in the days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to Google Drive.^[15] Titled "Twin Towers," the episode follows Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer as they deal with various ordeals and conundrums in the aftermath of the attacks, which range from relatively mundane, like Jerry's aversion towards the dust that's settled over the city, to unexpectedly dark, such as Kramer's petition to get his box cutters replaced by the United States government after they were stolen by his friend to be used in the hijacking of the two airplanes.

Click Through to Read the Full Script

According to The Comics' Comic interview with Domineau, who has written for The Onion before working on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update segment as a freelance writer, he decided to work on the script after taking his own advice on sketch-writing that he gave to someone.

"I was helping someone write a sketch a few months back and told them theirs needed to be an exercise in bad taste, 'Like imagine if there was a 9/11 episode of Seinfeld…wait a minute."

Related Memes

Parodies

On June 16th, 2009, YouTuber SandyEditor uploaded a trailer for an adult film parody of Seinfeld (shown below, left), which gathered over 578,000 views and 140 comments in the following five years. On April 28th, 2010, YouTuber lorocker posted a recut trailer using scenes from the sitcom to edited to resemble a dramatic film about George Costanza (shown below, right). In the first three years, the video accumulated more than 1.01 million views and 1,300 comments.

On December 29th, YouTuber TRMUS1C uploaded a recut trailer for a thriller film (shown below, left) about the character Cosmo Kramer (played by Michael Richards). On January 1st, 2011, TRMUS1C uploaded another recut trailer titled "Jerry the Great," in which Jerry Seinfeld attempts to take over the world (shown below, right). In the next three years, the video gathered upwards of 700,000 views and 400 comments.

On November 21st, 2012, YouTuber matincomedy uploaded a montage of footage from the HBO television drama series Game of Thrones with a laugh track and theme song from Seinfeld (shown below, left). In the next year, the video garnered upwards of 1.42 million views and 690 comments. On September 11th, 2013, CollegeHumor user TheRivalryKY uploaded footage of a sportscaster slipping in 41 references from the television show during his news segment (shown below, right).

"No Soup For You!"

"No Soup For You" is the catchphrase of the Seinfeld "Soup Nazi" character, which is often on discussion forums online to deny another user's request or demand.

Costanza Reaction Face

Costanza Reaction Face is a reaction image using a still image of the character George Costanza (played by Jason Alexander) holding a baseball bat from the Seinfeld episode "The Abstinence" (shown below).

Modern Seinfeld

Modern Seinfeld (@SeinfeldToday^[1]) is a novelty Twitter account that offers hypothetical plot lines for modern-day episodes of Seinfeld if the series was still running to this day.

Festivus

Festivus is a parody and secular annual holiday celebrated on the 23rd of December as an alternative to the commercialism of the mainstream Christmas season. The holiday was originally created by late author Daniel O'Keefe, whose son, Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe, incorporated it into the 1997 Seinfeld episode The Strike, where it made its debut. Holiday practices include the Festivus pole, a barren aluminum pole on a stand, a Festivus Dinner, usually emulating what was served in the episode; that being reddish meatloaf on lettuce, the Airing of Grievances, consisting of each person telling everyone else how they disappointed them over the year, and the Feats of Strength, consisting of a wrestling match between a chosen challenger and the head of the household. The holiday has seen a larger adoption since the airing of the episode, including Google incorporating it as an easter egg in 2012.^[21]

Search Interest

External References