Seinfeld was not just a sitcom about nothing, it was a show about norm that were different from the ones we see in real life. The series was a 22-minute weekly discourse on the unwritten rules that guide social interaction. Some topics of interaction were: After how many dates are you obligated to break up? Which calls are too important to be made on cell phone? How to dip a chip? How long can you abstain from from having sex? How old do you have to be to work in a theater.
Seinfeld‘s depiction of reality was frequently controversial, and that is already an understatement. The same can be said of behavioral science research, as with the dozens of studies that have documented bystander apathy during emergencies. Being in a hurry, being distracted, being in the presence of other people whom we assume will take care of our issues… there is a wide range of circumstances that render individuals-yes, you and me included-less likely to get involved in the affairs of others.
So it goes on Seinfeld as well. From George knocking down a grandmother in a walker to escape a house fire to Kramer, Jerry, and Elaine trying to force-feed crackers into a man’s mouth when he is passed out, causing him to have a stroke, the show’s characters repeatedly epitomize humanity’s ability to perform below expectation just when the stakes are too high. While the series finale was critiqued by many, it was quite fitting that the last plotline of the show would hinge on the quartet’s brazen indifference to a carjacking, once again focusing on the darker side of human nature.
Who is George Costanza?
George Louis Costanza is my favourte fictional character on the United States-based television sitcom, Seinfeld (1989-1998), and was played by by the famous Jason Alexander (not to be confused with the guy who married Britney Spears). He has variously been described as a “short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man” (by Elaine Marie Benes and himself), “Lord of the Idiots” (by Costanza himself), and as “the greatest sitcom character of all time”.
He is crazy, self-loathing, and is frequently pressured by his parents, Frank and Estelle. He has been best friends with Jerry Seinfeld since their middle school years, and that has led them down a path, that shall not ever be taken – by anyone.
Cannot forget the countless negative character traits he displayed; among them stinginess, dishonesty, insecurity, and neurosis. Many of these traits form the basis of the show -“about nothing”. Episode plots frequently feature George manufacturing elaborate deceptions at work or in his relationships in order to gain or maintain some small or imagined advantage. George appears in every single episode except for “The Pen” in the third season.
1. George Costanza – the social suicide machine
2. George Costanza loses his balance on the Stairmaster.
3. George Costanza’s life can be summed up in 3 words.
4. George Costanza caught with a stolen marble rye.
5. George Costanza wants to become a gigolo.
6. George Costanza poses for gay men.
7. George Costanza – the Latex Salesman who loses his pants.
8. George Costanza the cheap ass.
9. George Costanza and his not so funny jokes.
10. George Costanza – the unemployed marine biologist
What is George Costanza like?
Throughout the first season, George was portrayed as an intellectual man – at one point, he mentions an intellectual interest in the American Civil War and, in some early episodes, appears almost as a genies mentoring Jerry. In the later years, he gets less sophisticated, to the point of being too lazy even to read a 90-page book (Breakfast at Tiffany’s), preferring to watch the movie adaptation at a stranger’s house instead of reading the book.
Is there any hope for George?
George’s professional life was unstable. He was unable to remain in any job for any great length of time before making an embarrassing blunder and getting fired. Very often, the blunder is lying and trying to cover it up, only to have it all fall apart.
Over the course of the series, he worked as a real estate agent (Rick Bahr Properties), a rest stop supply company (Sanalac), Elaine’s company (Pendant Publishing), the New York Yankees (his longest held job), a playground-equipment company for a couple of says (Play Now) an industrial smoothing company (Kruger Industrial Smoothing). Hewas fired from his job at Pendant Publishing for having sex with the cleaning woman on his desk in “The Red Dot”. He was fired from Rick Bahr Properties for trying to kill his boss and was fired from Play Now after he lied about being an invalid.
His original job when the series starts is as a real estate agent; he ends up quitting and getting re-hired, but fired immediately afterward for drugging his boss. He always wanted to be an architect; he first desires to be one in “The Stake Out”, and he claims in “The Race” that he had designed “the new addition to the Guggenheim”. In “The Van Buren Boys”, he denies his young protégé a scholarship from the Susan Ross Foundation when the young man decides he no longer wants to be an architect and wants to become a city planner instead. In “The Marine Biologist”, Jerry tells a woman whom George wanted to impress that George is a marine biologist. The plan backfires when George is called upon to save a beached whale with a Titleist golf ball in its blowhole. He saves the whale, but the woman tells him off when he confesses that he is not, in fact, a marine biologist: “She told me to go to hell, and I took the bus home.” He then gets a job working for the New York Yankees. He has many funny encounters with “George Steinbrenner”.
During the fourth season of the series, George gains experience as a sitcom writer as he helps Jerry to write the pilot for the fictitious show Jerry. While pitching the concept of a “show about nothing” to NBC executives, George dates executive Susan until The Virgin, when she is fired. Following the first and last episode (“The Pilot”), executive Russell’s obsession with Elaine has cost George and Jerry a shot at getting a TV series.
According to the Seinfeld Reunion in Curb Your Enthusiasm, George became a multi-millionaire by inventing an iPhone application called “iToilet”. Surprising! He trusted his entire fortune to Bernie Madoff, and after his divorce, lost all his money to the scam artist. However, his ex-wife Amanda withdrew her half of the money before the scandal ensued, having been creeped out by a quilted jacket with a popped collar that she spotted Madoff wearing one day, and after she offers to reconcile, he gets it back, but their new prenup agreement means that George will have to be a good husband in order to keep it.
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