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Watching the new Seinfeld special. He’s not even trying to be contemporary. It’s a 90s throwback set. Comes off as trying to own being self-aware about being stuck in the past but somehow still comes across as out of touch. Just 5 min in though. Maybe it gets better.
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Back to cringe. I think he’s too rich and stable to be a standup anymore now. You can’t fake being contemporary. Even if you’re trying to fake being a throwback retro act you have to do it in a 2020 way and if you’re too rich you’re too insulated.
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But he’s 66...doesn’t look it though. He’s aged really well. I guess it’s fine for a young-old man to want a swan song. I only watched the last Seinfeld season live, since I came to the US in 1997. Watched all the rest in reruns by 2000 I think. Oddly the show is still fresh
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I think the show was much better than his standup and his 3 costars were all funnier and better actors. His great contribution was playing straight man to 3 others at once.
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I guess he was never really messed up and miserable enough to be a great comic, but talented enough to be a reliably good one for a long and anchor an ensemble. But once he got rich enough, there was no reason to play foil to others.
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Replying to
watch the ray romano one at some point if you haven't. It seemed to be going for exactly what you were hoping would work here, and I thought it was excellent. it might restore some faith.
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As I understand it, the original idea for the show was NOT the legendary "a show about nothing." In fact, the original idea for the show, as pitched by him and Larry David, was that is was a show answering the question "where does a standup comedian get their ideas."
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