As maybe the biggest show of the 90s, Seinfeld set the bar for comedy in a big way for a long time.
And that comedy was almost always set in New York City. Sure, there're some bits in Boca Raton and what not, but it's by all means a show about NYC as much as it is a show about nothing.
In fact, it's actually because it's a show about nothing that allows the storytelling to reflect on its setting as much as it takes place within it.
That setting is NYC in the 90s. It was a wacky place.
It was dirtier then, and Jerry's a clean guy. He's obsessed with others' cleanliness and disagreeable eating habits-- whether it's the recycled nuts, or Poppie's unwashed hands.
[anad]
It's not so much a theme that the city and her people are dirty, rather that fact is so ingrained in the characters, that their action is in many ways either determined or affected by our great city of prestige-- like everyone's reactions to Kramer swimming in the East River.
This is only one way that Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer's environment predisposes or informs their personalities and behavior.
But the setting isn't just NYC, it's NYC in the 90s (and half of 1989).
So let's take a look at how these 5 episodes represent the epitome of New York City life in the 90s.
1. "The Stall"
Lots of people remember the gross toilet paper routine between Elaine and, unbeknownst to her, a woman Jerry's seeing with whom Kramer has crossed paths via phone sex operating, who can't spare a square of TP.
Now, many of us can relate to there being no toilet paper in the public bathroom stall, but it's probably a more common occurrence in NYC than many other places, as there's millions of us going through those stalls every day.
But phone sex?
They had the Internet in the 90s, and Seinfeld always had a computer in the corner of his apartment, but apparently Internet porn wasn't a thing for them yet. Phone sex has got to be a thing of the past, except for those who would rather only listen.
Face it, there's a psychotic amount of porn on the web these days and that includes webcam shows. It's like phone sex, except with the added benefit of seeing the person.
2. "The Baby Shower"
Kramer convincing Jerry to install an illegal cable television hookup in this episode is fantastic.
In the 90s and way before, illegal cable was dope. Not everyone had cable, you may remember, in those idyllic days before the phone, internet, and cable bundle packages.
[anad2]
Wow. Bundle packages. Those seemed like a good idea for a little while, until everyone over the age of 7 got a smartphone. Next, tons of people stopped subscribing to cable because of services like Netflix are about one tenth the cost.
What would be the equivalent of an illegal cable hookup these days? Siphoning wifi off your neighbors, that's what! How awesome is that? Exactly! That's what illegal cable was like-- free internet.
3. "The Movie"
In this oldie, everyone tries to meet up at a crowded and sold out movie in Manhattan, but it's so mobbed that shenanigans ensue.
Simply put, if they'd just had smartphones, showing up to a packed out, a sold-out NYC movie showing wouldn't have been so confusing and hilarious.
And plus, our theaters do get wildly packed out. We heard about a popcorn fight that turned into weaves getting pulled during a recent showing of Straight Outta Compton.
Not even kidding. NYC movie theaters can be crazy.
4. "The Dinner Party"
We can all learn a lesson from many Seinfeld episodes, but this is one where he actually takes a shot at some social depth.
A lot of us remember Jerry's famous black and white cookie speech, "If we could only look to the cookie..." Yes, cookies were solid metaphors for racial harmony in the 90s as you can see, because then, perfectly, a black guy across the bakery holds up his black & white cookie in solidarity.
That's pretty quintessential NYC if you think about it for a second. Sure, we've got a mountain of racial problems like the rest of the world, but we like to fancy ourselves as a moderately progressive city.
Easy to break racism down to its essence when cookies are involved.
[anad]
You might have forgotten that near the end of the episode, George & Kramer are blocked in by a double-parked car driven by someone who appears to be Saddam Hussein, so they're cautious about confronting him. Topical right?
Hussein was a 90s super villain in a much bigger way than, well, who else was there? Slobodan Milošević?
We bet you have to Google him, and that's exactly our point. America's on a first name basis with Saddam. Most of us don't know how to pronounce Slobodan (it rhymes with "robo-lawn").
5. "The Marine Biologist"
In the famous episode where George dates a woman who thinks he's a marine biologist, Kramer gave Elaine one of those fancy new "electronic organizers," moments before George notices Jerry's new tape recorder-- both gifts from the bank for opening a new account.
In maybe George's best schpiel of the entire series, he regales everyone with the story of how he saved a suffocating whale by pulling Kramer's golf ball out of its blow hole.
It's a quintessential NYC scene we've seen so many times in Seinfeld, everyone sitting around the diner table-- but this speech is so iconically Seinfeld that it's got that NYC sheen on it. It's not that it couldn't happen anywhere else, but with George being who he is, it could only ever go down in NYC.
[anad2]
Let's not forget that electronic organizers were super trendy back in the day when people had physical address books and Rolodexes.
It was the first step towards loading all that information into a digital address book that's now probably synched with your Google contacts, Facebook friends, and whatever else, all backed up on the cloud.
Banks still give away prizes for opening a new account, but now they're tablets and stuff! Electronic organizer? There's an electronic organizer built into washing machines these days-- and they used to be so dope.
Seriously, what the heck happened?
Check out 9 Reasons Why New Yorkers Wish They Lived in the 'Friends' Version of NYC.
[Feature Image Courtesy: NYC Go]