After Decades Of Watching Seinfeld, I Had A Major Epiphany About How I View The Show

Despite the impression one might get from the meta storyline in Season 4, Seinfeld wasn't actually pitched originally as a "show about nothing." Instead, the premise Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David presented to NBC was about how a comedian comes up with their material. "Jerry" would live his sitcom life, and the stories would become standup jokes.

Seinfeld himself explained this bit of trivia about the legendary sitcom during a January 2014 AMA on Reddit – but as a long-time fan of the series, it has always struck me as a bit strange given what the show became. To say nothing of the fact that the standup intros/outros were completely eliminated in the last couple of seasons, Jerry's bits on stage only very rarely sync up with the plots of episodes. I've always perceived a disconnect between the standup routines and the various adventures of the main characters, and I recently had an epiphany as to why I've registered that distance.

The Weird Way I've Always Viewed The Standup Bits In Seinfeld

I feel I should emphasize "rarely" in the paragraph above, as it's not as though there are no examples in overlap in episodes between Jerry's standup and the stories that play out. Off the top of my head, I can recall that Season 5's "The Puffy Shirt" features George moving back in with his parents, and Jerry's opening joke is about how that decision is never a sign that your life is "right on track." Similarly, Season 7's "The Invitations" begins with a bit about how wedding invitations would be left on car windshields if the process were left entirely up to men.

Despite these instances, I've long carried an unintended perception of Seinfeld: I've seen the majority of the show as being the adventures of "Sitcom Jerry Seinfeld," and I've seen the on-stage moments as being "Real Jerry Seinfeld." Essentially, the beginning and ending bits are mini comedy specials cut into the series.

I've rewatched every episodes dozens of times since my childhood, and never really came across anything to specifically challenge this view – but that started to change recently when I noticed Jerry's bandaged finger at the end of Season 5's "The Bris." This discovery led me to wonder why it is I've felt there is a proverbial line drawn in the sand between the sitcom and the standup, and I have discovered the answer to my question in the final seconds of "The Sniffing Accountant."

My Seinfeld Epiphany, Courtesy Of "The Sniffing Accountant"

For those who don't recall, "The Sniffing Accountant" is the fourth episode of Season 5, and it finds Jerry, Kramer and Newman scared that Barry, an accountant who is responsible for their finances, may have a cocaine problem. Elaine, a longtime friend of the money manager, insists that they are jumping to false conclusions, but the three men go as far as to set up a sting operation to try and catch Barry using drugs. At the end of the story, it's revealed that the paranoia was actually justified, and Jerry, Kramer and Newman lose a chunk of change when Barry files for bankruptcy.

It's a terrific episode that features one of my all-time favorite bits of physical comedy (Kramer chugging a beer and smoking a cigarette simultaneously), but the important aspect to focus on in this conversation is the standup bit that concludes it. It begins,

It might be hard to catch the nuance in text, but the key words there are "actually did." As phrased in the joke, it feels like "Real Jerry" is explaining the inspiration for the episode that we just watched to the audience rather than "Sitcom Jerry" adapting the wild tale as material... and this take is further legitimized by the fact that Jerry Seinfeld in real life did lose $50,000 trusting his money to an accountant with a drug problem.

Through decades of watching Seinfeld, did I specifically internalize this moment and let it impact the entire way I view the show? I believe that it did, and it has already changed the way that I now watch the sitcom's intros and outros.

My rewatches have continued since my epiphany, and while I am personally still loving the experience of watching Seinfeld on 4K UHD (the box set having been released this past December), I also regularly stream episodes via my Netflix subscription.