Study shows many later Seinfeld episodes not actually funny

[KurtNYC]

Researchers at the KurtNYC Institute for Media Studies have confirmed what many had suspected since the late 1990s -- many of the later episodes of Seinfeld were not funny.

Professor Kurt Kurtovsky says, "while the early episodes are uniformly brimming with dry humor, situations and physical comedy, the later episodes follow a simple formula which does not always bear fruit."

In the formula episodes, a phrase is introduced early in the show: man-hands, re-gifter, double-dip, master of one's domain. The phrase gets used as often as possible during the show. This is akin to the comedy practised by boys in the 2nd grade. It may be barely funny but the more they repeat it the more funny it seems, at least to them.

Many Seinfeld researchers have focused on the Yadda Yadda Yadda episode as being the breaking point. The show had become a shadow of its former self and tried desperately to recapture its edginess, yet what came forth were awkward exchanges like this one:

Tim: You have no idea what my people have been through.
Jerry: The Jews or the Dentists?
Tim: The dentists! Did you know that we have the highest suicide rate of any profession?
Jerry: Is that why it's so hard to get an appointment?

Suicide jokes?!

Yet audiences laughed to the bitter end - how is that possible?

"Sense memory propelled the laughs. The audience became conditioned to laughing when the phrase of the week was repeated. Researchers believe they have found the true purpose of the Seinfeld plucked bass guitar riffs that happen between scenes. It was Pavlovian. In place of Pavlov's bell, Seinfeld uses a bass riff and people laugh on cue like the trigger in hypnosis. The legacy of this phenomenon is that well-meaning people to this day try to get their friends to laugh merely by adding 'yadda yadda yadda' to a sentence."

http://epguides.com/Seinfeld/

[Shell Beau]

1. I thought it was hilarious up until the final episode. It was genius!

[William769]

3. Agreed

[blondeatlast]

2. Uh-oh...

This research confirms my hypothesis. Nonetheless, I'm zipping up the flameproof suit just in case...

[commander bunnypants]

4. I am with ya.

I never found anything funny about the show

[Deja Q]

5. Why study? EVERY sitcom series I've seen is crap by its final season.

:dunce:

Writers run out of ideas and/or bury the series into the ground by reusing old concepts.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

13. The problem with comedy...

I can't watch any Sit Com (other than "The Simpsons" -- and I'm not sure if it qualifies as a Sit Com) for more than a couple of seasons. I think the reason is that the characters never evolve, as they might in a movie. The comedic elements arise from the characters' reaction to a specific situation -- but because the situation changes from week to week, the characters remain static.

The formula of the situation comedy requires the character to make the same mistakes over and over again (Jerry and his love life; George and his career). After a while, it all becomes predictable. I loved "Will & Grace" for the first couple of seasons, but haven't seen it for a couple of years.

One of the benefits of reruns on cable is that a lot of these episodes are "new to me" when I finally get around to watching them. And because I haven't seen the show for a while, I find them more funny than if I had been watching every week.

[KurtNYC]

15. You're right

The one character that evolves sort of is Kramer. The writers took him from quirky and energetic to full-blown insane. It changed the dynamics of the show. Eg. Kramer installs a screen door and has imaginary fights with the neighbor kids. Kramer buys the set of the Merv Griffin show and lives out his talk-show fantasies. Kramer butters himself and then cooks in the sun until Newman wants to eat him. That seems to try way too hard for a show "about nothing." far better I think was the Kavorka episode.

[WeRQ4U]

6. Two Words: Flawed Study

That show was the funniest thing around for quite some time. I wasn't a fan of the last episode either, but the show was damn clever up until then.

[El Fuego]

7. NOTHING is funny after you study it to death.

Take any movie or show supposed to be funny and relentlessly pick it apart and dissect it, and I guarantee it will cease to be funny.

If you thought it was funny when you first watched it, then it was funny, IMHO!

[dissent1977]

8. What kind of "study" is this?

I might be one of the few people who never liked Seinfeld, but I have to wonder about this study nonetheless. How the hell do you do a scientific study to prove something is funny? Isn't that merely an opinion that can never be objectively studied? This is just a joke.

[HEyHEY]

9. This study was obviously conducted by people with no sense of humour

Disregard it.

[billyskank]

10. Anyway

What's wrong with jokes about suicide?

[ghostsofgiants]

11. I declare shenanigans!

[Tyrone Slothrop]

12. The last two seasons trailed off a little bit

After Larry David left the show.

I think that he was the funniest person involved with that show.

[RandomKoolzip]

14. Huh. I liked the later episodes MORE than the early ones.

Then again, I liked Mike better than Joel (The eternal Mystery Science Theatre 3000 debate still rages....)

[dajoki]

16. i loved all of them

wtf, a study ain't gonna tell me what i think is funny!!:rofl: