Seinfeld is very exceptional in that it was a show which featured unapologetically bad people, and glorified them, very effectively.

I think that this contrasts rather heavily with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I had a lot of trouble getting into the show because I thought that that was what they were doing. But, in reality, we're NOT supposed to empathize with or relate to them. The Gang are unapologetically awful people who, despite never really getting what they deserve, cause nearly all of their own problems through their greed and selfishness (plus, Dennis is probably a serial killer).

That’s fair. Like, the spiritual successor to Seinfeld, Always Sunny, is made by people who hate their characters as people. The show goes out of its way to explain to the audience that Dennis and Dee are both rapists because some of the audience didn’t see it. In Seinfeld I can absolutely imagine a scene in which the characters describe sexually violating someone and acting like the victim is overreacting, and the narrative treating that person like they might’ve overreacted. Things are left open to audience interpretation as they consistently act like everyday sociopaths

Seinfeld is very exceptional in that it was a show which featured unapologetically bad people, and glorified them, very effectively.

I think that's more just the consequence of celebrity. They're supposed to be normal New Yorkers, which is to say petty and superficial and cheap and rude. And that's supposed to be a funny thing to watch.

But by the ninth season, you've developed a parasocial relationship with them. You find the petty rudeness and the stingy superficiality endearing. And they've been one-upping themselves for so long, a lot of it just looks absurd rather than obnoxious.

Somewhere there is a video talking about how Jerry Seinfeld is actually one of the darkest comedians working. I don’t even know where I could start to find it, but the guy talks about watching a Seinfeld bit about throwing trash in the movie theater before he leaves for someone else to clean up, and how the guy watching got this chilling feeling he never got from much more serious topics: Like it’s not an act, he genuinely just feels nothing below surface level, and doesn’t give a fuck what happens.

Go back and listen to "I'm Telling You For The Last Time", the comedy album he put out right after the show rapped.

I think a lot of the show is Larry David's own brand of cynical humor. But Seinfield was the perfect vehicle precisely because he's just this soulless husk of a human being who has filled his emptiness with unlimited money.

Found it on Reddit I think: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/18oeiw/clip_from_jerry_seinfeld_standup_on_letterman_feb/

I agree! I think just about anyone who has stupid amounts of money has no conscience, personally. Maybe Bill Gates a little. But I especially believe that Seinfeld was showing us who he really was during the whole show. Well maybe not the first year when he was relatively normal, but after success hit, I honestly think he just became a narcissist.

But you have to look at it within the context of the time. At that point, even the horrible people had redeeming qualities. Archie Bunker was a right-wing racist, but his heart was often in the right place. Murphy Brown was horrible to her coworkers, but she fought for the right causes.

And then Seinfeld came out. Everyone in it was horrible. Irredeemably so. There was just nothing else like it at the time.

It also did some really interesting things in terms of experimentation with what you could do with a sitcom, like the episode that takes place entirely while they are waiting in a restaurant for Chinese takeout.

It's a totally outdated concept now because it's been done again and again, but it was pretty revolutionary at the time. Personally, I credit this to Larry David, not Jerry Seinfeld.