Jerry before Seinfeld

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Sterlk
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Jerry before Seinfeld

Post by Sterlk »

So I've come to write a bit of a venting piece about Netflix's "Jerry Before Seinfeld", which I've just finished watching. Netflix paid big money to get Jerry to do some stand up, from memory I recall the figure being something like $100 million for 2 specials. So this is an hour he was paid $50 million for.

I love the show Seinfeld, I think its one of the greatest shows of all time, perhaps that's why this special was so underwhelming for me. At the beginning Jerry notes he'll be telling the story of his early years and how he got into comedy, this doesn't really happen. What does happen is that we spend an hour going through all of Jerry's comedy pieces from that period, and he notes at the end of the show "these were the jokes that got me there".

Everybody that's seen all of Seinfeld has pretty much seen this special already - the bird that flies into a mirror that didn't avoid its reflection, ruining an appetite when there's another one coming right behind it, women and cotton balls, the great sock laundry escape, night guy screwing morning guy, the list goes on and on. Most if not all of these are literally pulled from the recordings of the Seinfeld show itself, from the stand up clips inserted into the episodes in the earlier years.

Comedy is one of those things that you have to be in the right mood to appreciate, while watching this all I could do is count the jokes I'd recognised and think how lazy this is - I landed in the vicinity of somewhere between 15-20 bits I'd seen on the show before. Is the material funny? Sure, but its like watching a rerun... you rarely get actual laughter out of it the second time around.

I'm sure Jerry's seen a lot since the show went off the air in the '90s, I can't help but think $50 million would have been better spent if his material covered more of the last 20 years. Here's hoping there's something new in the next one.
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Postman Pat
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Re: Jerry Before Seinfeld

Post by Postman Pat »

I love Seinfeld although I haven’t seen the Netflix show but I recently attended his Aus tour, and he was awesome. The quickest 90mins of my life.

If Netflix was willing to pay me $100mil to go over old material, why would I bother to think about new things?

Seems like it’s all about nothing.


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-GD-
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Re: Jerry Before Seinfeld

Post by -GD- »

I thought the price tag also includes Comedians in Cars getting Coffee back catalogue and new episodes which are coming soon.
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the bone
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Re: Jerry Before Seinfeld

Post by the bone »

Agreed sterlk.... It was quite underwhelming
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Sterlk
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Re: Jerry Before Seinfeld

Post by Sterlk »

-GD- wrote:I thought the price tag also includes Comedians in Cars getting Coffee back catalogue and new episodes which are coming soon.
I like comedians in cars. That might well be the case as an entire package, if so then this special is less scandalously overpriced - still a bit of a pointless hour though unless you missed the boat on the TV show or are too young.
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Re: Jerry before Seinfeld

Post by gerg »

Even when I originally watched the Seinfeld show I never found his standup at the beginning or end of the show funny. The shows success was based on the slow buildup and coincidental type of humour, which if you have watched 'Curb your enthusiasm' is as much on Larry David as Seinfeld. It also had an interesting cast of characters with Seinfeld being far and away the worst actor on the whole show. Half the time the rest of the cast was acting their arses off with Jerry standing there with a **** eating grin on his face. I did love the show though.
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Re: Jerry before Seinfeld

Post by Green eyed Mick »

I don't think Seinfeld was ever that funny. His TV show by the same name was brilliant but that's IMO because of the writing of Larry David and the brilliant casting.
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Re: Jerry before Seinfeld

Post by Botman »

Green eyed Mick wrote:I don't think Seinfeld was ever that funny. His TV show by the same name was brilliant but that's IMO because of the writing of Larry David and the brilliant casting.
Jerry was the least funny character on the show
It was absolutely held up ep by ep out George with pinch hitting from Kramer
Elaine has her moments too
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Azza
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Re: Jerry before Seinfeld

Post by Azza »

Pigman wrote:
Green eyed Mick wrote:I don't think Seinfeld was ever that funny. His TV show by the same name was brilliant but that's IMO because of the writing of Larry David and the brilliant casting.
Jerry was the least funny character on the show
It was absolutely held up ep by ep out George with pinch hitting from Kramer
Elaine has her moments too
The whole Costanza Clan and Newman made that show brilliant.

PS The Jerk Store called, they're running out of you
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Re: Jerry before Seinfeld

Post by The Nickman »

Azza wrote:
Pigman wrote:
Green eyed Mick wrote:I don't think Seinfeld was ever that funny. His TV show by the same name was brilliant but that's IMO because of the writing of Larry David and the brilliant casting.
Jerry was the least funny character on the show
It was absolutely held up ep by ep out George with pinch hitting from Kramer
Elaine has her moments too
The whole Costanza Clan and Newman made that show brilliant.

PS The Jerk Store called, they're running out of you
Have to agree with all of these assessments, Jerry the worst, George and Kramer make the show, and side characters such as the Costanzas, Putty, Newman, Peterman etc are the icing on top.
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