For me, it would have to be Noriega.
Anyway, for me, the funniest part of the show was Kramer's reaction after Jerry points out that he, too, is 30-something, thin and single...
So have there actually been rumors that Seinfeld is gay? Has this hit the tabloids in NY?
"I thought we were friends."
M.
My wife and I have been arguing for a year over whether or not the real Jerry is gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that...
Evidence cited includes:
Jerry recently sold his house that was in a gay part of LA/Hollywood to move to his new house that was featured on Baba Wawa. This fact was mentioned during a Tonight Show appearance in the spring of '92.
Jerry seems very uncomfortable when asked about girlfriends or what he finds attractive in women. This has happened in several interviews most notably in the Baba Wawa interview. He did give a great answer to her I must say.
Jerry is secretive. "People are interested in me WAY more than what's appropriate."
Jerry has no known companion. (Of course having a female companion can sometimes be a cover-up for gays in Hollywood.)
Jerry is fastidious. d8^) This stereotype WAS mentioned by us. I am also fastidious and it is just anal-retentiveness maxxed out.
Jerry always wears long-sleeved shirts and never rolls up the sleeves. (Have to check the data better on this one.) Don't ask me to explain this one.
The Keith Hernandez show flirted with a Jerry-Keith attraction. "Jerry, he's a guy". Jerry seems very comfortable putting himself in a these situations. Of course Uncle Milty wore dresses.
Jerry originally had no women in the show.
Jerry has no girlfirend on the show. It is certainly implied that he is a heterosexual but he seems uncomfortable physically with women. Last night when he was kissing the NYU reporter one could see about a foot of daylight between them. A passionate-looking kiss like that is done in a tight clench. The same thing is true when he has kissed other women on the show. In his defense, Jerry does not seem like the affectionate type and perhaps he feels weird kissing a strange actress because he is a reserved person. Then again maybe he IS gay.
Jerry has never joked about gays in an offensive manner (I am not implying that he should). Remember his bit about why gays make straight men nervous...because they have weak sales resistance. Remember the lesbian wedding which Elaine attended with apparently no moral difficulties. Gays were most likely not offended by last night's show. In fact they might applaud it. The man in uniform was a very positive portrayal and the cast always made it clear that there is nothing wrong with being gay. The oft repeated line above it being OK is either a very PC thing to say or a gay thing to say. We all thought it was humorous since it sounded so PC. Perhaps there was another reason.
The very fact that they did this show indicates that Jerry must have heard rumors that people were suspecting that he was gay. This show was done to meet those rumors head on and to refute them or to help him stay in the closet.
There are more observations but that's all I can remember off the TOMH.
Conclusions: Jerry is either
a.) a very liberal, non-judgmental, anal-retentive, private, NewYork-seen-it-all-and-can't-be-shocked-by-anything-anymore individual; or
b.) gay; or
c.) both.
Right now my wife and I are leaning towards "c". Not that there is anything wrong with that.
When Kramer entered the apartment to give Jerry his gift, it sounded like he said "Faruba!". Does this mean "Happy Birthday" in some other language? I've been exclaiming it all day, and nobody has slapped me yet, so I assume it's harmless.
Also, does Bette Midler have a big gay following, or was Jerry just afraid to seem feminine for liking a female vocalist?
"It's Guys and Dolls, not Guys and Guys."
In article , [email] wrote:
Bette Midler has a HUGE following with gays. (She's very outspoken in regard to gay rights, too!) Clearly the script was making a joke out of a gay stereotype.
Of course, a play on the stereotype that all gay men are fans of big Broadway musicals.
In article , [email] writes...
Yes, she has a LARGE gay following, but I would have found it funnier if it were Liza Minelli. That's always the performer that people make reference to when talking about gay musical tastes. Not that there is anything wrong with that...
Actually, and I can only speculate why... most female comedian types, I'm grouping Bette with comedians.... seem to have a large gay following.
I went to see Judy Tenuta, who is never one to miss joking about male of female homosexuality, and there were several, (apparently) gay couples there (Not that there's anything wrong with it).
I will probably get flamed for my observations.... Please, it's just an observation. I believe that gay people know what it's like to be oppressed, as women were and in some cases are, and have signicant respect for female entertainers...
Again, this is speculation, and probably belongs elsewhere.
COz
Bette Midler started out performing at gay bath houses many years ago with Barry Manilow as her pianist. I promise this is true. I also think Seinfeld is NOT gay. But then there's nothing wrong with...
Kay Jones
Did you know... That the restaurant that the characters frequent (the one at the corner with the red neon sign) is Tom's Restaurant on 112th St. and Broadway and the building is also home to the NASA-Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The interior is not Tom's (and is quite nicer than Tom's in fact). The street merchant occasionally seen in front is selling CD's.
--- Rick Healy NASA-Goddard Institute for Space Studies 2880 Broadway New York, NY 10025
Please note that the inside of Bleeker Bob's Record Store doesn't quite look like that on the inside. It's much grungier.
Also, garbage disposals are illegal in NYC. (The old guy clearly won't be nominated for Attorney General.) The reason for the law is unclear, but has something to do with NYC's sewage system being interconnected with the storm drains and associated health risks. Either that, or we don't want to help the alligators in the sewers reach epic proportions.
FRIENDSHIP FOR ACCOUNTANTS: Q: "Will you do me a favor?" A: "Although you did me several favors in the past, they've depreciated down to nothing. I can, however, advance you a small mini-favor on credit at prime + 2% on the condition that you reciprocate within a year."
Considering they film in L.A., that was more than likely the exterior of the Hollywood store (looked like it to me). And you're right, the inside was probably a set, though it did look a LOT like Tower.
Terra
Bleeker Bob's has a Hollywood store??!! First, they're not really on Bleeker Street, and now they're consorting with La La Land. My, oh, my.
FRIENDSHIP FOR ACCOUNTANTS: Q: "Will you do me a favor?" A: "Although you did me several favors in the past, they've depreciated down to nothing. I can, however, advance you a small mini-favor on credit at prime + 2% on the condition that you reciprocate within a year."
Also, Tom's Restaurant (at 112th and Broadway) is also the same "Tom's DIner" in the Suzanne Vega songs. I used to eat breakfast there everyday in 1991. The food is inexpensive as well as being pretty good quality.
Rob Bernard
Is the show actually filmed at Tom's? I thought I recognized it (I used to eat there).
Joel
--- Rick Healy NASA-Goddard Institute for Space Studies 2880 Broadway New York, NY 10025
[email] writes "does Bette Midler have a big gay following, or was Jerry just afraid to seem feminine for liking a female vocalist?"
I believe Bette Midler got her start performing in bath houses in San Francisco. Something like that. She's from Pearl City, Hawaii. Honolulu also has a significant homosexual population.
Gretchen
That's gay bath houses in New York City. Barry Manilow was one of her bandleaders.
Marc
We'll know for sure if he's soon seen dating Brooke Shields publicly.
T
You obviously haven't seen a picture of "Chuckles" Brezhnev; the moment the question was posed, I knew Jerry would say "Brezhnev"... any guy with five- pound eyebrows and a complexion that makes Lloyd Bentsen look rosy-cheeked has to take the cake.
("Chuckles" joke courtesy of Mark Russell)
I think those pointless conversations are one of the funniest features of Seinfeld. My mother doesn't see the point in showing grown people sitting around talking about who's the strongest superhero, or who's their favorite explorer, but that's the whole point of the surrealist humor... Seinfeld is full of unrealistic characters played out so very plausibly.
. <<<<Infinite K>>>>
One very popular candidate in the mid nineteenth century was Abraham Lincoln. In an extremely funny collection of hate mail entitled _Dear Sir: Drop [address] there are a number of rather extravagant letters sent to Lincoln in which his perceived physical imperfections are covered in what I found to be hilarious and comprehensive detail.
Wes
IMMO the ugliest world leader is Hillary Clinton....
:-)
In a previous message, Ben Scott sez: QUOTE
I think those pointless conversations are one of the funniest features of Seinfeld. My mother doesn't see the point in showing grown people sitting around talking about who's the strongest superhero, or who's their favorite explorer, but that's the whole point of the surrealist humor... Seinfeld is full of unrealistic characters played out so very plausibly.
UNQUOTE
Ben, you're right that these discussions are one of the funniest things in the show. (My personal favorite was the discussion of Superman's sense of humor, using the mustard and ketchup squeezebottles to represent the yellow sun of Earth and the red sun of Krypton, respectively.) But are you saying that these conversations are unrealistic? If so I must disagree. To me they make the interaction among the characters more lifelike. Yes, the conversations are surreal, but so are lots of actual conversations, because life, like Seinfeld, is about nothing. I don't mean that to be a profound expression of nihilism; I just mean that actual conversation is rarely plot-driven and though filled with humor not usually just the set-up for a gag. That's why TV talk never sounded much like real talk. I remember numerous conversations every bit as silly as the ones from Seinfeld, especially during college & graduate education. E.g.: Mayonnaise vs. Miracle Whip; smooth vs. crunchy peanut butter; Kimba the White Lion as allegory for colonialism; Batmobile vs. the Mach V; and many more. In fact the existence of this SIG pretty much proves my point, and it's hard to believe anyone who watches Seinfeld and reads this SIG finds those pointless conversations unreal. NTTAWWT. ;-)
Yes, I think they're unrealistic, in a sense. In high school or college, sure, you have conversations like this all the time. But when you're pushing 40, as the Seinfeld characters are? (some pushing harder than others; I don't want to mention any names...)
Of the 40-ish types I know, even the ones with a great, offbeat sense of humor, you'll never see conversations quite like that. Sure, you can engage them in talk about a variety of nonsensical topics, but I've never debated some odd nonissue like that with anyone in that age group. Perhaps I don't know the right people, but some of the folks I work with are pretty darned funny and irreverent.
. <<<<Infinite K>>>>
In article , [email] (Ben Scott) writes...
Those silly conversations are the most appealing aspects of the show to me. It's been awhile since I've been in college, and my co-workers and I constantly have discussions like those, usually after consuming one or two adult beverages :-). Last Friday, we had a really nice debate as to what is the quickest name known to man. I think the world's quickest name is Tom Mort (go ahead, say it as fast as you can). The debate centered on whether or not I was actually saying both names separately or whether I was actually blending the 2 m's together in violation of rules which don't really exist. The first time I saw them arguing about who was the fastest Superhero, I said,"This is what we do every Friday night".