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Seinfeld's new special just dropped on Netflix

PilotsError

By PilotsError
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futureman

futureman 22444

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44 minutes ago, NOMAAA said:

heard a preview the other day and it seemed like there were some recycled jokes. 

yeah that's always bugged me.  granted, I don't understand the nuances of the stand-up comedy industry, but I would imagine some guys do sets with all new jokes.  I've seen jerry probably 5 times over the last 15 years and he inevitably still throws in bits from the 20th century.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, futureman said:

yeah that's always bugged me.  granted, I don't understand the nuances of the stand-up comedy industry, but I would imagine some guys do sets with all new jokes.  I've seen jerry probably 5 times over the last 15 years and he inevitably still throws in bits from the 20th century.

Well that guy did have cancer in the 20th century, it was edgy---not my thing.  Yeah, the only letdown of seeing him religiously during his bi-annual stop at Bass Concert Hall was I'd say ~1/4-1/3rd of the material was recycled each and every time.  Every comic does it, but he does seem to do it more than most and that's okay since it's Gold Jerry, Gold.  And then during the audience Q&A, he knows what 5-10 questions he's gonna get every time so he had some canned answers he'd repeat every show.  Only time he veered from it was about 6 months before Curb debuted that season where they did the series reunion for Seinfeld.  Jerry kinda teased that out for us long before it was public, that felt cool.  

All that said, I plan on watching this special tonight with the wife.  Who knew 23 hours to kill would turn into 23 weeks?  

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Vito Andolini

Vito Andolini 9124

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I hope I don’t have to fight Biff, but in my opinion, I found it a bit unremarkable, especially the first half hour, with lots of old themes (Pop Tarts, the Postal Service, the effort of going out) dressed up a bit as new material. OK, but nothing memorable.

I do think it picked up from about the 30 minute to 45 minute mark, but then lost a little steam. It’s weird to see Seinfeld do wife/kid humor, but that’s who he is now. How much he hates his wife was some of the best stuff. And the energetic, almost screaming delivery he often goes to (Irritated Jerry?) frequently got screechy. 

He’s still an all-timer and a true pro, but I found it safe, familiar, fine, which again is ok, but not the big thumbs up for which I was hoping. Just my take. I hope you all laugh your balls off.
 

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Tom

Tom 2959

Posted
Posted (edited)
13 hours ago, futureman said:

yeah that's always bugged me.  granted, I don't understand the nuances of the stand-up comedy industry, but I would imagine some guys do sets with all new jokes.  I've seen jerry probably 5 times over the last 15 years and he inevitably still throws in bits from the 20th century.

 

13 hours ago, Lobo said:

1/4-1/3rd of the material was recycled each and every time.  Every comic does it, but he does seem to do it more than most and that's okay since it's Gold Jerry, Gold. 

No, they don't.  99.999999999999999% of comics retire old material the second they drop a special.  Comedy isn't music.  Nobody goes to a comedy show to hear jokes they already know the punchline to.

Edited by Tom
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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45665

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5 hours ago, Vito Andolini said:

I hope I don’t have to fight Biff, but in my opinion, I found it a bit unremarkable, especially the first half hour, with lots of old themes (Pop Tarts, the Postal Service, the effort of going out) dressed up a bit as new material. OK, but nothing memorable.

I do think it picked up from about the 30 minute to 45 minute mark, but then lost a little steam. It’s weird to see Seinfeld do wife/kid humor, but that’s who he is now. How much he hates his wife was some of the best stuff. And the energetic, almost screaming delivery he often goes to (Irritated Jerry?) frequently got screechy. 

He’s still an all-timer and a true pro, but I found it safe, familiar, fine, which again is ok, but not the big thumbs up for which I was hoping. Just my take. I hope you all laugh your balls off.
 

To be fair, I didn't say it was phenomenal.  But it's still better than most of the dregs they let on stage for a Netflix special.

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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29189

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Posted

funny that you guys are having this conversation - old material vs fresh stuff.  greatest hits vs new songs.  what does the audience want to hear, etc.  jerry has been having this argument with fellow comics for years.  louis ck believes that after he does a show/tour, he tears it up and moves on.  he won't do a new stand-up set to air until he has a new 60 minutes that he's happy with.

there was a special on hbo with seinfeld, chris rock, ricky gervais, and louis where this topic comes up (but there are plenty of other times it's been discussed).

 

remember, when you see a special air, it's typically part of a tour.  and seinfeld believes when he's doing a tour, that people in the audience are coming to see him, and some of his classic jokes are part of that experience - like hearing a band's greatest hits.  i personally disagree, but that's why he does it.  in the old days (when jerry came up), comedy specials weren't nearly as accessible, and seeing a comic come through town was your chance to see him, and hear his jokes, old and new.

to me, hearing a joke for the first time is always going to be the funniest, which is why it doesn't vibe with a musical experience, where knowing the song is part of the fun.

although if steven wright did a show next week and i went to see him, i would hope for some of the old classics, so maybe it just depends on the comic.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Posted

^
Very true and well put.  There are so many comics, that even on specials (keep in mind, the term "special" has evolved wildly over the last several decades from album/LP, to CD, to basic cable, to premium cable, to netflix/streaming, to even youtube/hipster mobile services, to actual live specials as part of a tour/festival, etc., etc., etc. 

this is to comments way above--------But we all know what we mean by "special", it's a 30-90 minute set on some sort of format that fits the decade.  And even with all that breadth and optionality, there are way more than 00.01% that reboot some material.  Not all, I said "some."  Go back and watch Carlin video material.  IN a full "special-length" set, he'll still re-use shit over the course of 60 minutes from 5-25 years earlier.  Shitty ones like Dan Cook, Aziz Ansari, Nikki Glaser, Mark Norman, and Denis Leary will recycle shit every fucking set from a 90-minute feature down to a 7-minute set at the Cellar where they're just trying new shit out but throw out 3 old jokes to just sort of placate the audience and buy themselves some goodwill to get extra laughs for new bits that aren't anywhere near audience-ready yet.  

And then there's the comics that truly jettison everything and won't use that shit from a trial set in Denver all the way through a tour that literally uses old jokes in the promo materials.  Louis CK is a great flag bearer of that school of thought, even better than Chappelle or Gervais or Gulman.  But there really aren't that many middle-to-top tier comics that do it that way.  It seems like they do to the casual observer who watches one special, and then another one two years later.  It's all new and it is all new for that particular comic.  But what you don't see is the several months mini-tour or the pop-up appearances over several months in small clubs where that comic sculpts and refines several bits for the next festival or special.  While they're doing those, they'll still toss out well known material to get their bearings, build confidence, but mostly again---to just give that little trial audience a good time and a good story while they're scratching their heads about why Gulman suddenly went from talking about Whole Foods and Trader Joe's to mental illness.  Of course, the degree to how and why they all do that varies wildly.  The final polished product for so many comics does seem 100% brand-new fresh, but it ain't.  That's actually what I love about comedy.  That's what they're trying to replicate at the Nerve App.  Which is coming along thankfully when us comedy addicts are washing out on one at-home set after another falling short.  I think you can actually craft what Seinfeld has been trying to do.  Where you can patch together how the bits came together over the years over one seamless app.  Many comics have tried it as some little cute intro before a special, but this would really be a game changer for dozens of top-tier comics, all dropping at once.  Anyway, ha ha.  

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Vito Andolini

Vito Andolini 9124

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3 hours ago, Lobo said:

^
Very true and well put.  There are so many comics, that even on specials (keep in mind, the term "special" has evolved wildly over the last several decades from album/LP, to CD, to basic cable, to premium cable, to netflix/streaming, to even youtube/hipster mobile services, to actual live specials as part of a tour/festival, etc., etc., etc. 

this is to comments way above--------But we all know what we mean by "special", it's a 30-90 minute set on some sort of format that fits the decade.  And even with all that breadth and optionality, there are way more than 00.01% that reboot some material.  Not all, I said "some."  Go back and watch Carlin video material.  IN a full "special-length" set, he'll still re-use shit over the course of 60 minutes from 5-25 years earlier.  Shitty ones like Dan Cook, Aziz Ansari, Nikki Glaser, Mark Norman, and Denis Leary will recycle shit every fucking set from a 90-minute feature down to a 7-minute set at the Cellar where they're just trying new shit out but throw out 3 old jokes to just sort of placate the audience and buy themselves some goodwill to get extra laughs for new bits that aren't anywhere near audience-ready yet.  

And then there's the comics that truly jettison everything and won't use that shit from a trial set in Denver all the way through a tour that literally uses old jokes in the promo materials.  Louis CK is a great flag bearer of that school of thought, even better than Chappelle or Gervais or Gulman.  But there really aren't that many middle-to-top tier comics that do it that way.  It seems like they do to the casual observer who watches one special, and then another one two years later.  It's all new and it is all new for that particular comic.  But what you don't see is the several months mini-tour or the pop-up appearances over several months in small clubs where that comic sculpts and refines several bits for the next festival or special.  While they're doing those, they'll still toss out well known material to get their bearings, build confidence, but mostly again---to just give that little trial audience a good time and a good story while they're scratching their heads about why Gulman suddenly went from talking about Whole Foods and Trader Joe's to mental illness.  Of course, the degree to how and why they all do that varies wildly.  The final polished product for so many comics does seem 100% brand-new fresh, but it ain't.  That's actually what I love about comedy.  That's what they're trying to replicate at the Nerve App.  Which is coming along thankfully when us comedy addicts are washing out on one at-home set after another falling short.  I think you can actually craft what Seinfeld has been trying to do.  Where you can patch together how the bits came together over the years over one seamless app.  Many comics have tried it as some little cute intro before a special, but this would really be a game changer for dozens of top-tier comics, all dropping at once.  Anyway, ha ha.  

Lobo, you’ve obviously given the art of comedy a great deal of thought. I’m not sure if you’ve watched the special yet, but like Neonmoon pointed out, Jerry is notorious for his joke structure, no wasted words, finding the exact word for optimal effect. True discipline. Howard Stern always gets him to talk about the “process.”

It’s why I was rather stunned when at one moment about halfway thru the set, he went back for a drink of water (I think) and with the camera from high above at stage left, and he threw in a wasted line, I can’t remember what it was, but it seemed kinda sloppy, especially for him, especially in an edited special. 

Seinfeld fans will enjoy it, and it’s great to see him in his mid 60’s still invigorated by getting up on stage, especially considering... as he acknowledges... he sure as hell doesn’t need to be there. 

$950,000,000 gives you the freedom to do what the fuck you want.

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MrBig

MrBig 5377

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3 minutes ago, KingBobo81 said:

I felt like I had heard about 2/3 of the jokes from his last couple stops at Bass, which weren’t super super recent.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wasn’t his last stop at Bass in January 2017? 

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Pig Bellmont

Pig Bellmont 8712

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7 hours ago, Lobo said:

Dan Cook, Aziz Ansari, Nikki Glaser, Mark Norman, and Denis Leary

One of these is not like the others, one of these just doesn’t belong...

Dane Cook is a joke stealing fraud. The others are funny and have had great comedy sets. Mark Normand is an odd bird, but he’s funny. Aziz’s 2010 special was absolutely hilarious. Anyways, you sound like a very cool guy that’s fun at parties 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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1 minute ago, Pig Bellmont said:

One of these is not like the others, one of these just doesn’t belong...

Dane Cook is a joke stealing fraud. The others are funny and have had great comedy sets. Mark Normand is an odd bird, but he’s funny. Aziz’s 2010 special was absolutely hilarious. Anyways, you sound like a very cool guy that’s fun at parties 

They're all joke stealers, just to different extents.  Cook is the worst, then Leary, then Glaser.  You're right, Normand and Ansari are typically very original, it's just that neither of them are very funny to me.  Not sure why I lumped them in with the other three, was probably just thinking of Moontower subconsciously.  Normand is actually starting to grow on me since I've heard him more on podcasts and satellite radio talk shows.  Ansari tells stories very humorously, he's just not an original bit conceiver, IMHO.  Glaser makes my teeth itch when she's doing standup.  Her talk-show is pretty good though, I think we've discussed that on another thread.  

Anyway, back to Seinfeld.  I find him to be quite humorous.  Trying to squeeze in watching the special this week but the kids keep having a tough time falling asleep.  Sorry I'm not fun at parties, last one I was at was probably 10 years ago.

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MrBig

MrBig 5377

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Posted

Saw the special, heard the recycled jokes. Not surprised, but I still laughed here and there. It’s like watching an episode of Curb and thinking, “I’ve heard this joke/storyline before” but you just go with it because it’s part of your TV subscription and not some PPV special from the 90s where you had to shell out $59.99 if you didn’t have a hotbox to descramble the channel. 

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Jerry Callo

Jerry Callo 8698

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I thought this special was alright.  The wife and kids stuff was the best for me.

Although Jerry's finished jokes are a work of art, his off-the-cuff observational humor is great as well.  I really enjoy watching Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee for this reason.

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BERT

BERT 4358

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20 hours ago, The Ace of Aces said:

This was awful.

Ranting about emails, texts and high-end restaurants. He sounds 1,000 years old abd the jokes were rarely funny.

You sound like a barrel of laughs

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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29189

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7 hours ago, SubliminalHorn said:

It was pretty good. Second half was better than the first. That screeching was too much. Did he have to do it at the end of every other sentence? But he’s the comedic genius, not me, so 🤷🏽‍♂️

the screeching and the fake voices were a lot.  they seemed to almost take me into brian regan or jim gaffigan territory, which i'm sure he wasn't going for.  i thought it was pretty good, and most of it seemed new to me, but i haven't seen him do standup (live or on a special) very recently at all.

i do think it's kinda funny he mentioned how he could be anywhere, but chose to be out there, on stage, at 65, doing a special.  while touching, i'm sure it had nothing to do with fulfilling obligations of the huge netflix deal he signed.

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Dbeasy

Dbeasy 15042

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Haven’t seen him in person or much of his past standup acts except for a few specials here and there over the year. I thought it was pretty good. I didn’t hear recycled jokes because I must have missed them the first time around.

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Rougarou

Rougarou 594

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On 5/7/2020 at 5:19 PM, henrygandorf said:

the screeching and the fake voices were a lot.  they seemed to almost take me into brian regan or jim gaffigan territory, which i'm sure he wasn't going for.  i thought it was pretty good, and most of it seemed new to me, but i haven't seen him do standup (live or on a special) very recently at all.

i do think it's kinda funny he mentioned how he could be anywhere, but chose to be out there, on stage, at 65, doing a special.  while touching, i'm sure it had nothing to do with fulfilling obligations of the huge netflix deal he signed.

I saw him at WorkDay Rising in Orlando last fall and it was a lot of the same material. I think he must have workshopped his stuff with all the sell-out corporate gigs.

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BehoId, The Underminer!

BehoId, The Underminer! 11669

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Glad to hear the second half is better than the first.  I made it to about the half way point and just sort of lost interest.  Love Jerry. Comedians/Coffee is one of the better things anyone has done in the last decade.  But my lord, that special was a dud.  I'll put the effort in for the second half based on this thread though, and coronavirus makes everything watchable.

 

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