Here’s an unsurprising fact: I grew up watching Seinfeld reruns on TV. I was too young to understand what domain they were trying to master, but like most urban millennial Jews, I absorbed the cadence and understood that the show tapped into a fundamental absurdity about modern society. Needless to say, I wasn’t alone. The show’s Shakespearian effect was unparalleled in the 20th century: close-talker, spongeworthy, regifting, anti-dentite.
Then Jerry Seinfeld went away for a while. He toured occasionally, was featured in the 2002 documentary Comedian, starred in the lacklustre Bee Movie, then produced the The Marriage Ref, an NBC reality show wherein celebrities solved real-life couples’ arguments that was cancelled after two seasons and a deluge of baffled reviews.
Subsequently, he debuted his current venture, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, a quippy, interview-based web series that runs anywhere from 14 to 22 minutes per episode. It’s basically a talk show featuring one comic guest over a short drive, a cup of coffee and some personal storytelling. This June, Seinfeld debuted its eighth season.
At its worst, the show goes like this: Seinfeld and Jon Stewart are walking through a perfectly pleasant middle-class neighbourhood, the kind Stewart says he grew up in. Seinfeld asks, “Do you wish your kids were growing up like this?” To which Stewart deadpans, “No, that’s why I’ve been working so hard.” Then Seinfeld keels over laughing for literally seven seconds before a cut.
READ: THE 10 MOST JEWISH SEINFELD EPISODES
Much of it is Seinfeld trying desperately to make his lifestyle, and his guests, seem impeccably amazing and definitely worth at least 14 to 22 minutes of your time. As New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas wrote, “The democracy of observational humour has become, in Mr. Seinfeld’s reincarnation, an oligarchy of mutual admiration.”
Seinfeld ruled because it tapped into our subconscious, dragging deep fears and internal questions out laughing. Its success was so uniquely of its time, so un-replicable, that “What’s the deal with airline food?” is now a cliché synonymous with a comedian out of ideas.
But since Seinfeld has become arguably the most famous standup in the world, his everyman shtick doesn’t play anymore, so he changed tracks, banking instead on his celebrity status, offering glimpses into the psyches of the funniest living westerners from the last 50 years.
And that show could have worked: bantering with old friends, spotlighting new talent, analyzing the place of comedy in a morally polarized, politically correct age. In his post-NBC golden years, Seinfeld is easing himself into a La-Z-Boy in an ivory tower, bridging the gap between generations new and old. Shot in HD, edited down to commute-length and streamed online for free? I would totally watch that show.
Except this show isn’t that. Comedians in Cars is stuck in a weird middle ground: too niche to appeal to everyone, too brief to appeal to die-hards. It wastes a lot of time with forced shmoozing and exaggerated laughter, trying to ground celebrities as people with everyday problems. But in this era of mass humanization, I can find those same celebrities on Twitter, scan early YouTube clips, read magazine profiles and learn so much more.
There are nuggets of insight – the poetic nostalgia of Steve Martin’s and Garry Shandling’s episodes are deeply touching without being saccharine. But Seinfeld doesn’t always know how to handle people with whom he can’t reminisce about the good old days. Aziz Ansari, a brilliant mind and rising voice of millennial anxiety, mostly sat awkwardly in a corner while Seinfeld giddily drove Ansari’s tour bus. The episode eventually devolved into Seinfeld getting distracted by excitedly driving a big-rig at the end.
Watching it, I asked myself, “Why the hell am I watching this?” It’s not because it’s funny, though one could argue it isn’t supposed to be. It’s more cinéma vérité than situation comedy. Fair enough. But then why is Seinfeld laughing so hard to convince us otherwise?
The answer is simple: Seinfeld may have been timeless, but Seinfeld is irrelevant.
