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I respectfully disagree. While the idea that the cast of Seinfeld are awful people is regularly put forward (including by the show's own finale), it always rung hollow to me. Yes, they're often shallow to the point of conceit, but villains?

Kramer was in an AIDS walk. George saw a security guard standing all day and wanted to give him a chair. Elaine was concerned that a shopkeeper hosing down the sidewalk in front of his store was wasting water. Jerry helped Bania with his (Bania's) comedy routine, despite finding him personally annoying. There are lots of little examples scattered throughout the show of the cast members doing nice things for people, simply because they feel moved to do so. While they also have their awful moments, they're essentially ordinary people, with good and bad days, simply a bit more outsized for the sake of comedy.

Of course, none of that applies to Newman. He's definitely a villain. :P

My wife and I pretty much live that show. Our son grew up with it, and we all use it to better articulate various points and perspectives.

They are, all of them, firmly within the 'Black' section of the Magic the Gathering colour categories.

That they are essentially ordinary people is not wrong, but what does that say about ordinary people lol.
 



That they are essentially ordinary people is not wrong, but what does that say about ordinary people lol.

Yeah, they are definitely ordinary people in some respects. They aren't total sociopaths. But they do extreme things normal sitcom characters wouldn't do (they were more like things you would see characters in sketches do because you don't have to have the audience love and continue to follow a sketch character: they can be atrocious and funny, but Mike Seaver can't do something that crosses certain lines). Just as a random example, at one point Jerry heckles a woman at her work for heckling him at his stand up routine. And he ends up harassing her so much she runs out of the building into traffic and loses a toe. I think they would have been wary of characters doing that sort of thing prior to Seinfeld (it happened for sure, I mentioned Sledgehammer who does all kinds of awful things, albeit kind of unintionally and cluelesslly). But I think Seinfeld really helped make this more of a norm

And obviously it is done for humor so you can watch it and brush it off. But Larry David seemed to be doing all this pretty knowingly and intentionally. I tis notable that the finale episode underlines this aspect of the show and he was the one who wrote that episode.
 

I respectfully disagree. While the idea that the cast of Seinfeld are awful people is regularly put forward (including by the show's own finale), it always rung hollow to me. Yes, they're often shallow to the point of conceit, but villains?

Kramer was in an AIDS walk. George saw a security guard standing all day and wanted to give him a chair. Elaine was concerned that a shopkeeper hosing down the sidewalk in front of his store was wasting water. Jerry helped Bania with his (Bania's) comedy routine, despite finding him personally annoying. There are lots of little examples scattered throughout the show of the cast members doing nice things for people, simply because they feel moved to do so. While they also have their awful moments, they're essentially ordinary people, with good and bad days, simply a bit more outsized for the sake of comedy.

Of course, none of that applies to Newman. He's definitely a villain. :P
I agree. In most episodes they're not bad people (there are a handful of exceptions where they really are villainous though, wasn't there an episode where Elaine tried to poison her neighbor's pet or something)
 

I agree. In most episodes they're not bad people (there are a handful of exceptions where they really are villainous though, wasn't there an episode where Elaine tried to poison her neighbor's pet or something)

There is an episode where they repeatedly drug and liquor up a woman to play with her vintage toys lol
 



There is an episode where they repeatedly drug and liquor up a woman to play with her vintage toys lol

You make it sound like they roofied her. IIRC, the "drug" is tryptophan in turkey. Which is essentially a placebo effect.

Actually drugging someone to get their toys sounds more like an It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia plot.
 

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