Rating:  -
If you don't know much about Seinfeld or philosophy you might enjoy this book, but if you're a Seinfeld nut then avoid it at all costs. The show is incorrectly quoted several times and "facts" are also made up at times. The summarization of Socrates' allegory of the cave on page nine misstates some pretty major details. I suffered through the book until page 47 when the writer talks about how Kramer and Mickey embrace communism in the episode "The Race." Anyone who has seen that show even once knows that Mickey is trying to talk Kramer out of communism throughout the show. And even though Kramer definitely shows interest in communism it is quite a stretch to say is becomes an "ardent" communist. Rather than being an enjoyable read this book frustrated me enough that i quit on page 51. In all fairness the rest of the book may be excellent, but i'll probably never know.
Rating:  -
Yes, Seinfeld is always funny. Here's what he said about his comedic inspiration: "[Lois Nettleton] was married to Jean Shepherd. He's the guy who invented talk radio and really formed my entire comedic sensibility. Yes. I learned how to do comedy from Jean Shepherd." He said this in his commentary for "The Gymnast" episode on the sitcom's DVD set, sixth season. Who is Jean Shepherd? See the book EXCELSIOR, YOU FATHEAD! THE ART AND ENIGMA OF JEAN SHEPHERD.
Rating: -
Amazingly bad book. As someone who loves Seinfeld and Philosophy, I found this book insulting for both, and espacially for the readers. I tried reading parts of it, and simply couldn't bring myself to finish any chapter. Just a bunch of jiberish from people who apperently don't like, know, or "get" Seinfeld very much.
The straw that got me to finally give up (and write this review) is when I read that Seinfeld was not the first to write a comedy about nothing, and that "Much ado about nothing" is also such a comedy. What, the writer just googled "about nothing" to find something which has a similar title ??? Discusting.
Rating:  -
Unlike George's tax-preparer girlfriend, Seinfeld and Philosophy is not pretentious. It's entertaining and enlightening (most enlightening when it concentrates on being entertaining). It contains fourteen essays by professional philosophers "about everything and nothing," at least as everything and nothing is experienced by Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer.
One of my favorite essays is William Irwin's on how Kramer illustrates one of Kierkegaard's three stages of human existence - - the pleasure-seeking or aesthetic stage (in no other way could Kramer be considered "aesthetic," kavorka or no kavorka). Irwin really does teach a lot about Kierkegaard's philosophy, but he does it by continually going back to examples from the show, so it's funny as well as informative.
Another really good chapter is Jorge J. E. Gracia's take on the difference between comedy and tragedy. I've never heard it put so simply - - comedy shows us the significance of the insignificant and tragedy the insignificance of the significant.
Gracia's essay made me think about the comedians I've liked the most, for instance the Three Stooges. ("I will show you the Stooges," Jerry tells the Romanian woman he expects to transport him to heights of gymnastic ecstasy by making him "the apparatus.") And like the Borscht Belt comics who often showed up on Seinfeld ("IN-tah-VEN-shun? Who's intervening?") they were old-fashioned tragedians at heart. And mostly Jewish, which explains their style of humor. Survival humor.
In The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America, Lawrence Epstein makes the point that the best Three Stooges stories were about immigrants trying to get into the American middle class - - Moe's always trying to get the boys to work at a regular job and fit in (act less Jewish?), but Larry and Curly always screw it up.
In their films Moe, Larry, and Curly never quite made it, but Jerry did. He's confident enough to make jokes about the Nazis ("It's the Heil Five") and Israel ("I don't get upset if someone asks me the way to Israel"). Jerry's dad put in thirty years selling overcoats in the garment district so his son could achieve more than the Howard boys (as Morty tells Peterman: "Cheap material and bad lighting is what sells clothes").
It would have been interesting to see an essay comparing Jewish philosophers (secular and religious) to Jewish comedians. ("You, Jerry Seinfeld, are no comedian," the Romanian gymnast finally tells Jerry, who nods, in a scene where I think he's acknowledging his debt to those old comics.)
The real Jerry Seinfeld must have wanted to remind people how funny these older comedians (not all Jewish) were because he kept using them on his show. Around the table at the condo meetings every time Morty Seinfeld would get fired as condo president was a group of comedians like Bill Macy (from Maude) and Jesse White ("It's his material"). It's like Carl Reiner said in an interview on the DVD where he starred in an unsuccessful pilot for what became The Dick Van Dyke Show: the rule was "write Jewish, cast Gentile."
Who really thinks that the Costanza family is Italian (how did Frank learn to cook kishkas for Jewish Singles Night?), or that Elaine, like all of her girlfriends who keep going back to see The English Patient and vacation in the Hamptons, isn't Jewish? ("Elaine, ya gotta see the bayyy-bee.") And who does Elaine turn to for advice when she's sick over George and Susan's marriage and can't talk to her usual friends? - - the rabbi in her building. And why did she REALLY steal Puddy's Jesus fish?
Being shallow, I did skim a couple of essays that didn't talk about the show very much. I think the writers might have used Seinfeld (nothing) as a hook to discuss important philosophy (something), but those didn't really come out of the Seinfeld characters.
Eric Bronson's essay relating Seinfeld to Taoist philosophy was interesting (talk about being about Nothing), and I liked Jennifer McMahon's look at Sartre and Seinfeld (a lot of people saw the similarity of the last scene of the four in the Latham, Massachusetts, jail to Sartre's play No Exit). And having Jerry's last question (about the location of George's shirt button) be the same line that opened the first episode of the first show leads to Nietzsche's idea of eternal recurrence.
Mark T. Conrad brings up a funny point about eternal recurrence - - to really have what Nietzsche talked about you wouldn't have one day happening to you repeatedly (like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day), you'd have every day of your life repeated one after the other, endlessly.
In some undiscovered manuscript, Socrates' answer to the question "What is life after death?" is:
Syndication.
Rating: -
I quite enjoyed reading this book. Having an interest in philosophy as well as in Seinfeld, I decided to give this book a read and was very pleased with it. It provided good insite into the characters themselves and was even able to provide more understanding of the different philosophical theories (Kierkegaard and Kramer was especially interesting). I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in philosophy and Seinfeld or would like to know more about either of those. While it's not an educational book meant to teach, it's still a very interesting and fascinating read.
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