Comedy Troupe Performs A New, Original Episode Of 'Seinfeld'
May 18, 2015 3:22 PM Subscribe
Seinfeld: The Leaning Susan
A full-length, original episode of Seinfeld. The show features uncanny portrayals of the central characters, 90s commercial parodies, and original Seinfeld standup. Even Susan is back. Yes, that Susan.
Performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, NY | March 23, 2015
A full-length, original episode of Seinfeld. The show features uncanny portrayals of the central characters, 90s commercial parodies, and original Seinfeld standup. Even Susan is back. Yes, that Susan.
Performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, NY | March 23, 2015
The guy playing Kramer is perfect. And I have to give them credit for authenticity. But, was Seinfeld really this cringeworthy?
posted by 256 at 3:45 PM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by 256 at 3:45 PM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
The waist on Jerry's jeans isn't nearly high enough.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:51 PM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:51 PM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Awesome.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:58 PM on May 18, 2015
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:58 PM on May 18, 2015
I wasn't a fan of Seinfeld when it was on the air, but this is pretty damn good.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:26 PM on May 18, 2015
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:26 PM on May 18, 2015
>cringeworthy
Yes, yes it was. I used to be a big fan and I've probably seen almost all of them, but while I was watching the grand finale it struck me; this is a bad show about bad people and I should feel bad for liking it.
posted by bitslayer at 4:32 PM on May 18, 2015 [6 favorites]
Yes, yes it was. I used to be a big fan and I've probably seen almost all of them, but while I was watching the grand finale it struck me; this is a bad show about bad people and I should feel bad for liking it.
posted by bitslayer at 4:32 PM on May 18, 2015 [6 favorites]
Seinfeld is still on tv. It's just called It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia now.
posted by Kerwin15 at 4:37 PM on May 18, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by Kerwin15 at 4:37 PM on May 18, 2015 [9 favorites]
Somehow I never knew I wanted a Seinfeld/Les Revenants crossover until I had it in my hands.
posted by emmtee at 4:50 PM on May 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by emmtee at 4:50 PM on May 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
But, was Seinfeld really this cringeworthy?
Yes, but it was a brilliant show that technically was impeccable, but with a cast of characters so selfish, self-absorbed, and unsympathetic, it could stand up for so long with characters that despicable because of its otherwise precise storytelling.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 4:57 PM on May 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
Yes, but it was a brilliant show that technically was impeccable, but with a cast of characters so selfish, self-absorbed, and unsympathetic, it could stand up for so long with characters that despicable because of its otherwise precise storytelling.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 4:57 PM on May 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
I think it was Larry David who said that Seinfeld was a TV show where no one hugged, and no one learned anything. None of that "golden moment" shit that was popular in sitcoms of the 80s and 90s.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 5:09 PM on May 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 5:09 PM on May 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
These pretzels are making me thirsty.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 5:13 PM on May 18, 2015 [15 favorites]
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 5:13 PM on May 18, 2015 [15 favorites]
None of that "golden moment" shit that was popular in sitcoms of the 80s and 90s.
They didn't need it. There was so much layering that emotions played no role in it. It was the show that was about nothing emotionally, but everything intellectually. The layers that included everything from Silver Age Superman, Watergate, New Yorker cartoons, plummy catalogs ensured there was no room for feelings of any sort. You don't bring in feelings into Seinfeld just as you don't bring them when you write the GRE.
It was heartless entertainment at its absolute finest, but it certainly wasn't mindless by any stretch of the imagination.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 5:34 PM on May 18, 2015 [6 favorites]
They didn't need it. There was so much layering that emotions played no role in it. It was the show that was about nothing emotionally, but everything intellectually. The layers that included everything from Silver Age Superman, Watergate, New Yorker cartoons, plummy catalogs ensured there was no room for feelings of any sort. You don't bring in feelings into Seinfeld just as you don't bring them when you write the GRE.
It was heartless entertainment at its absolute finest, but it certainly wasn't mindless by any stretch of the imagination.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 5:34 PM on May 18, 2015 [6 favorites]
Seinfeld is still on tv. It's just called It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia now.
Pistols and Delaware runoff crabs at dawn.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:34 PM on May 18, 2015
Pistols and Delaware runoff crabs at dawn.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:34 PM on May 18, 2015
I did not expect to watch the whole episode, and suddenly it was half an hour later and the actors were taking a bow. That was incredibly spot-on.
posted by lilac girl at 5:36 PM on May 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by lilac girl at 5:36 PM on May 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's the best fan homage I've seen
posted by Monochrome at 5:38 PM on May 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Monochrome at 5:38 PM on May 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
That was very well done, they hit just about every note a Seinfeld parody needs to hit. Even the story where all three plots (hairdresser, Leaning Susan, undead Susan) collide at the end. Usually things like this rely on impressions but the best part was the story parody.
It was heartless entertainment at its absolute finest, but it certainly wasn't mindless by any stretch of the imagination.
Yep. I wish there was a modern equivalent, since "Arrested Development" is gone too...
posted by mmoncur at 6:02 PM on May 18, 2015 [8 favorites]
It was heartless entertainment at its absolute finest, but it certainly wasn't mindless by any stretch of the imagination.
Yep. I wish there was a modern equivalent, since "Arrested Development" is gone too...
posted by mmoncur at 6:02 PM on May 18, 2015 [8 favorites]
Seinfeld holds a deep grasp of my 1990's brain...I still love the show and watch it on TBS in the evenings.
This performance hit all of the trademark Seifeld-isms including the one that still fascinates me; The inter-weaving of storylines into a final unresolved goal. No show has done that as successfully as Seinfeld, but it doesn't come close?
posted by Benway at 6:03 PM on May 18, 2015
This performance hit all of the trademark Seifeld-isms including the one that still fascinates me; The inter-weaving of storylines into a final unresolved goal. No show has done that as successfully as Seinfeld, but it doesn't come close?
posted by Benway at 6:03 PM on May 18, 2015
Seinfeld is still on tv. It's just called It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia now.
I love Sunny...but apples and oranges. Different comedy...different era.
posted by Benway at 6:06 PM on May 18, 2015
I love Sunny...but apples and oranges. Different comedy...different era.
posted by Benway at 6:06 PM on May 18, 2015
To my mind, there is an unbroken personality arc between Elaine Benes and Selena Myers on Veep. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss plays unsympathetic ambitious fuck-up so very well.
posted by dry white toast at 6:13 PM on May 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by dry white toast at 6:13 PM on May 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
Always Sunny follows the same "no hugs, no learning" mantra, but that's where the similarities start and end.
posted by kagredon at 7:08 PM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by kagredon at 7:08 PM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
About a year ago, some folks at the UCB in LA did a similar show that was like a current episode of Seinfeld. However, it had the bonus joke of taking place on the night of The Purge, and that is a mashup that you don't know how much you need until you see it. Take any show with terrible people as the characters and set it during a night with NO LAW and it'll be pretty great.
posted by dogwalker at 7:25 PM on May 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by dogwalker at 7:25 PM on May 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
To my mind, there is an unbroken personality arc between Elaine Benes and Selena Myers on Veep.
Absolutely. They're totally the same character. I can totally see Elaine getting upset (ELAINE IS GETTIN' UPSET!) at some neo-Poppy about abortion, and going, "You know what, maybe I will run for office! What do you think about that? HUH????" And then she just gets sucked into a vortex of political bullshit.
I half expect an episode of Veep where the office is rocked by a leaked video of President Myers dancing terribly.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:34 PM on May 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Absolutely. They're totally the same character. I can totally see Elaine getting upset (ELAINE IS GETTIN' UPSET!) at some neo-Poppy about abortion, and going, "You know what, maybe I will run for office! What do you think about that? HUH????" And then she just gets sucked into a vortex of political bullshit.
I half expect an episode of Veep where the office is rocked by a leaked video of President Myers dancing terribly.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:34 PM on May 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
That Julia Louis-Dreyfus impression is spot-on.
posted by ostranenie at 8:12 PM on May 18, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by ostranenie at 8:12 PM on May 18, 2015 [9 favorites]
I held on to wearing loafers far longer than I should have and it's all Seinfeld's fault.
This was amazing, even though "George" was too tall, the actor got it exactly.
posted by emjaybee at 8:47 PM on May 18, 2015
This was amazing, even though "George" was too tall, the actor got it exactly.
posted by emjaybee at 8:47 PM on May 18, 2015
This is amazing, also remarkable that just by sitting/standing in certain parts of the stage you perfectly envision the set of Jerry's apartment or the diner. I was able to watch and enjoy this entire thing and mentally project actual Seinfeld over everything.
posted by windbox at 9:04 PM on May 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by windbox at 9:04 PM on May 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Yup, Elaine and George were pitch-perfect. If I squinted I could imagine it was 1992.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:09 PM on May 18, 2015
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:09 PM on May 18, 2015
George's voice was a bit deep, but the mannerisms were good. Kramer would have been much better on a miked set.
posted by lumensimus at 12:08 AM on May 19, 2015
posted by lumensimus at 12:08 AM on May 19, 2015
None of that "golden moment" shit that was popular in sitcoms of the 80s and 90s.
Modern Family still tries to shoehorn it in and it's disgusting. The show would be so much better without that awkward fake feels moment with the saccharine voiceover in the last act of every episode.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:37 AM on May 19, 2015
Modern Family still tries to shoehorn it in and it's disgusting. The show would be so much better without that awkward fake feels moment with the saccharine voiceover in the last act of every episode.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:37 AM on May 19, 2015
Very enjoyable
posted by NordyneDefenceDynamics at 3:43 AM on May 19, 2015
posted by NordyneDefenceDynamics at 3:43 AM on May 19, 2015
The show would be so much better without that awkward fake feels moment with the saccharine voiceover in the last act of every episode.
A given episode would be more satisfying, but the overall show would make no sense, because part of the premise is that everyone in Modern Family likes each other (at least, at some level). Seinfeld worked because Elaine, George, Kramer and Jerry didn't actually seem to care about each other; they were just flotsam of the city that happened to stick together.
posted by sonic meat machine at 4:48 AM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
A given episode would be more satisfying, but the overall show would make no sense, because part of the premise is that everyone in Modern Family likes each other (at least, at some level). Seinfeld worked because Elaine, George, Kramer and Jerry didn't actually seem to care about each other; they were just flotsam of the city that happened to stick together.
posted by sonic meat machine at 4:48 AM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
Anyone protesting that Seinfeld and It's Always Sunny are different should try articulating what differences they think exist. I think you'll find that anything you could say about Sunny would also be true about Seinfeld. Unpleasant, self-absorbed characters? Plots about petty, meaningless struggles? Show about nothing? What's different?
They really are the same show, Sunny is just a more extreme version. It's not surprising that one of the most influential comedies of all TV spawned progeny.
posted by Sangermaine at 7:04 AM on May 19, 2015
They really are the same show, Sunny is just a more extreme version. It's not surprising that one of the most influential comedies of all TV spawned progeny.
posted by Sangermaine at 7:04 AM on May 19, 2015
I guess the main difference is that in It's Always Sunny one character usually finds some sort of success and the others try to knock them down a peg or two, Seinfeld they tend to undermine themselves.
posted by gronkpan at 8:31 AM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by gronkpan at 8:31 AM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
At its core, Seinfeld is really about the little unspoken rules and mores that govern society. Nearly every episode is about the main characters butting up against one of them, and the ur-joke is that their selfishness and pettiness turn what should be minor problems into epic struggles. And yet, we root for them, because we've all been irritated or put-upon by those same norms at one point or another, so we understand.
IASiP has a couple episodes that work on a similar hinge, but (a) the characters are more active, where Seinfeld's are more reactive, and they tend to be the ones who get themselves into the mess driving the plot and (b) the "world" tends more towards the anarchic and weird (compare the McPoyles vs. Newman), so there's less comedy-of-manners type humor. If there is one thing that functions as an overarching joke/social thesis, it's more that these people have taken completely the wrong message from basically every kind of guideline on how to be a human being in society?
posted by kagredon at 8:45 AM on May 19, 2015 [10 favorites]
IASiP has a couple episodes that work on a similar hinge, but (a) the characters are more active, where Seinfeld's are more reactive, and they tend to be the ones who get themselves into the mess driving the plot and (b) the "world" tends more towards the anarchic and weird (compare the McPoyles vs. Newman), so there's less comedy-of-manners type humor. If there is one thing that functions as an overarching joke/social thesis, it's more that these people have taken completely the wrong message from basically every kind of guideline on how to be a human being in society?
posted by kagredon at 8:45 AM on May 19, 2015 [10 favorites]
That was great. The structure was spot on and it was wacky without being completely unreasonable which Seinfeld did very well. I'm glad they didn't play Kramer too big which would have been easy to do.
There were the obvious things like the catch phrase creation and the Get Out! and such but there were so many little things that they put into it that really sold it for me. When George said "spending time in salons" with the over-the-top short-A sound I realized that they paid attention when they were putting this together.
I laughed more than I should have at the commercials and I couldn't begin to tell you why. Don't care. Funny is funny.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 9:01 AM on May 19, 2015
There were the obvious things like the catch phrase creation and the Get Out! and such but there were so many little things that they put into it that really sold it for me. When George said "spending time in salons" with the over-the-top short-A sound I realized that they paid attention when they were putting this together.
I laughed more than I should have at the commercials and I couldn't begin to tell you why. Don't care. Funny is funny.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 9:01 AM on May 19, 2015
kagredon, I don't know, I think what you're describing is a difference in degree rather than kind. IAS is basically "What if Jerry and friends were actually literal sociopaths, not just self-absorbed jerks?"
posted by Sangermaine at 9:33 AM on May 19, 2015
posted by Sangermaine at 9:33 AM on May 19, 2015
I'll have to take a look at Always Sunny... Seinfeld reminds me of Alan Partridge in many ways in terms of style of humour so I'd probably enjoy other shows with that style.
posted by juiceCake at 11:19 AM on May 19, 2015
posted by juiceCake at 11:19 AM on May 19, 2015
Wow, this was scarily accurate. Also, the "how did she come back from the dead, maybe I could reanimate that cousin" was scary comedy gold.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:38 PM on May 19, 2015
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:38 PM on May 19, 2015
Sunny adheres to "no learning," but it seems to me it does frequently employ a Reverse Golden Moment where all the characters realize they should go back to their alcoholic stupor and forget about any of the week's schemes or ideas about self-improvement.
posted by mubba at 7:48 PM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mubba at 7:48 PM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
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