November 15, 2023 by Darren Pasek (‘25)
“A show one turns to in hard times for comfort or simply for joy.” That is the definition of a comfort show. No matter what we are talking about—movies, shows, music, food, activities—everyone has something they go back to when all else fails. These things change throughout people’s lives, but there is something constant about Seinfeld. My parents, all the other 50-year-olds, and everyone who has a Netflix subscription seems to be completely fluent in the nuances of each episode’s storyline.
I was part of this camp for a long time, and still do enjoy Seinfeld. I will never forget missing the last Metro North train before it closed for the night. It was New Years Eve 2022 (well, 2023, kind of) after a Phish concert at Madison Square Garden. I was alone and had to kill time in Manhattan until the morning. I walked around for a while but, frankly, I was exhausted and ended up watching “The Limo,” and whatever episodes auto played until the sun came up.
Larry David (the primary writer and producer) contributed a lot to comedy with Seinfeld, but his greatest work would not come until 2000 with the first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm (or Curb, as it is known to fans) on HBO. Unlike in Seinfeld, David acts in and is the main character of Curb. The show is loosely based on his life as a wealthy television writer in LA and uses improv comedy. All the specific lines are made up on the spot with only the broader story arc being prewritten. Curb also enjoys the luxury of being on HBO, where they can make storylines as crude or inappropriate as they would like.
Seinfeld, on the other hand, was on network television. There, they could only dip their toes into the world of dark or alternative comedy. One can view Seinfeld’s situation simply as a competitive disadvantage. As true as this is, I do not care; I want to watch whatever show is more entertaining.
With celebrity cameos and allusions to the real-world, Curb’s humor resonates more deeply than in Seinfeld‘s fantasy land. There is a place for a more fictitious story in everyone’s life, but, in excess, the distilled reality begins to cloud how people view their own life. Instead of providing an escape, excessive Seinfeld viewing provides a cloud of fog that curbs one’s judgment in their own, not fictitious, lives. Curb simply provides a satirical comedic outlet with a group of core characters bubbling through the life of Hollywood elite.