Seinfeld Influence On Gender

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Since the 1920’s, situation comedy has evolved into one of the most popular TV genre’s, generally focusing on day to day events to highlight humorous faults of human behaviour. Voted number 1 on 2002’s list of 50 greatest Shows by TV guide, Seinfeld is a perfect example of a sitcom whose non-thinking humour attracts vast audiences. Seinfeld’s popularity is underpinned by the shows successfulness of making characters truly seem like everyone else, whereby audiences find it easy to identify with the characters. Since its premier in 1990 on NBC, Seinfeld has received 20 major awards including an Emmy award, Golden Globes, People’s Choice Awards and Screen Actors Guild awards, along with being nominated for another 60 awards over its 8 year domination.…show more content…
Religion is one example of an issue that has been explored throughout the sitcom, as subtle references are made to Judaism in several episodes. These episodes contain items including a gossipy rabbi, kosher food laws and jerry’s belief that a dentist became a Jew as an excuse to tell Jewish jokes. Sexuality is also a dominant issue explored in the sitcom. One example of where sexuality is explored is when Elaine attends a lesbian wedding. The sitcom does not water down the idea of a lesbian wedding but acts as if it is a part of everyday life. Gender is an issue which is prevalent throughout Seinfeld, where men are more valued than woman. This is evident in an episode where Jerry breaks up with his girlfriend merely because she doesn’t want him saying hello in a particular annoying voice which is poking fun at her, however he would prefer being able to joke about it with Kramer and George. Along with issues explored in Seinfeld, are attitudes, values and beliefs that the sitcom promotes. Freedom and independence are two values highly endorsed by the Australian public, but are also values which are displayed within the sitcom. Examples that support this need for individualism include the way in which each character pays for themselves at restaurants and never offers to pay for anyone else, and the lifestyle of each character whereby each is single and lives by themselves. Friendship is a prime example…show more content…
In order for a sitcom to be great, it should be re-watchable. Seinfeld has a number of inside jokes including catch phrases and character flaws which are repeated throughout the episodes. The inside jokes are generally only picked up by dedicated viewers who realise that they’re funny, hence they are necessary in re-watchability. Another factor in a great sitcom is chemistry among the characters. The characters of Seinfeld have such great chemistry that we love to watch them, and feel like a part of it. A major flaw with many sitcoms is when the non-main characters get their own plot lines and viewers must endure them while waiting to get to the real meat of the show. Each of the characters of Seinfeld has an equal and valuable role and because of this, none of the sub-plots ever seem boring. The sitcom is rated PG, with mild sexual references, and infrequent course language, therefore would be suitable for viewing between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm to audiences consisting of young to middle age adults as they are closest to the age of the characters, hence would relate more with the situations and issues

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