When Jerry Seinfeld first talked to Larry David in the late 1970s, the seeds were sown for their seminal TV showSeinfeld. The two comedians might not have known it at the time, but their first conversation would form the basis of literally hundreds of scenes in their futureiconic sitcom, primarily between Seinfeld and Larry David’s fictional alter-ego, George Costanza.
TheirSeinfeldcharacterswerefounded on the discussions of that first meeting, as well as thousands of other conversations the pair shared in the decade before they pitched their show to NBC. In an edition ofReddit’s “Ask Me Anything”back in 2013, Jerry Seinfeld recounted how he and Larry David first met.
Jerry Seinfeld & Larry David Bonded Over Being “Obsessed With The Smallest Possible Issue”
Their Mutual Fixation On The Smaller Things In Life Inspired Their Sitcom
Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld’s first conversation is one for the history books. Seinfeld recalled first encountering David as follows:
“He was leaning on my car in front of the Improv on 9th Ave and 44th Street, and this would be probably 1975. That was the first time I ever saw him. But we didn’t talk.”
Seinfeld then detailed the first moment that the two of them actually met each other properly, face to face. He explained:
“When we finally did talk in the bar Catch a Rising Star on 1st Ave and 78th Street two or three years after that, we couldn’t stop talking. We were both obsessed with the smallest possible issue.”
The last sentence of Jerry Seinfeld’s story about his first meeting with Larry David is especially telling. The comedians bonding over their mutual obsession with “the smallest possible issue” set the development of their sitcom in motion. It may have taken another 11 years to get made, butSeinfeld and David were effectively coming up with dozens of storylines during that period.
They probably didn’t realize it in the early years of their friendship, but their obsessive fixation on things that other people wouldn’t give a second thought laid the foundations for an entire TV comedy series. Many of theSeinfeldepisodes written by Larry Davidare based on actual conversations between him and Jerry Seinfeld about things that really happened.
The pair’s exaggerated focus on the tiny problems, frustrations, inconsistencies, and curiosities of life was the cornerstone ofSeinfeld’s success as a show.Many of the sitcom’sstorylines make no sense or have little entertainment value without this brand of neurotic humorpunctuating each episode. More than anything else,Seinfeldexcels in blowing insignificant life events out of all proportion.
Seinfeld Is A Sitcom Obsessed With The Minutiae Of Life
Much Of The Show Seems To Reflect Jerry Seinfeld & Larry David’s Shared Obsession
Contrary to popular belief,Seinfeldwas never a show about nothing. It is a show about things, but, to paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, they tend to be the smallest possible things anyone can imagine. Virtually every time Jerry and George are sitting in Monk’s Cafe during an episode of the sitcom, they find the most ridiculously minuscule issues to talk about.
It’s hard to imagine any other show fixating on close-talkers, low-talkers, a chocolate babka, the neon sign of a chicken shop, an overly severe soup chef, a particularly fresh fruit seller, a baseball cap, a fur coat, or marble rye bread.
Their hyperbolic responses to seemingly mundane events are a core tenet of the show’s humor, which also helps it turn utterly ludicrous storylines into some of thefunniest sitcom episodesin history. A storyline can be generated from Jerry, George, Elaine, or Kramer’s absurdly over-the-top reaction to a minor incident, or their reaction can become the punchline of the story.
Either way, whereother shows would stumble while attempting to hone in on something too specific or insignificant,Seinfeldthrives on building not only brilliant jokes but entire ingenious storylines out of small details. At one time or another, various people, animals, businesses, buildings, items of clothing, and foods have been the subject of the sitcom’s obsession with minuscule issues.
It’s hard to imagine any other show fixating on close-talkers, low-talkers, a chocolate babka, the neon sign of a chicken shop, an overly severe soup chef, a particularly fresh fruit seller, a baseball cap, a fur coat, or marble rye bread, and getting away with it. But we wouldn’t have it any other way with Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer.
What’s more,Seinfelddidn’t just make these minutiae work as the basis for storylines.It won mass popularity and acclaim with this approach, along with the tag that it was a show about nothing at all. Instead, however, it’s a sitcom about almost anything in New York that would generally be considered too unimportant to do a TV episode about.
Why Seinfeld’s “Smallest Possible” Issues Make It So Funny
The Juxtaposition Of Small Situations & Big Problems Is The Essence Of Its Humor
Many ofSeinfeld’s best episodesare principally about the smallest possible issues, from trying to find your car in a multi-storey parking lot, to going out with someone who habitually overuses a particular expression when they speak. Yet,these issues invariably develop into the biggest possible farces, engulfing whole episodes in the moronic blunders of the show’s main characters.
It’s in the yawning chasm between the size of the issues at hand and the reactions of George, Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer, or the events that flow from them, that the essence ofSeinfeld’s humor lies.The show taps into the underlying comedic impulses of classic farceto drive its humor home, especially in the cases of George and Kramer.
On the surface level, the sitcom styles itself as an authentic portrayal of four modern-day New Yorkers. But this veneer of ordinary life serves as a counterpoint to the colossal dysfunctions, absurd neuroses, and peculiar whims of the show’s characters.Seinfeldmight be about the smallest possible things, but it’s also about people making the biggest possible mess of them.
