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Humour

The Secret of Seinfeld’s Humor

Jorge J.E. Gracia on the Significance of the Insignificant.

One of the most paradoxical features of the Seinfeld phenomenon is the extraordinary popularity of the TV series, particularly with younger Americans, in the face of the insignificance of the topics around which the show revolves. How can a show that deals with what appear to he ordinary, everyday occurrences have such great appeal to a generation of Americans that seems to thrive on sex, violence, and catastrophe? The sex on Seinfeld is tame and the violence nonexistent. So, what is the secret of its success? The answer, of course, has to do with the nature of comedy and its opposite, tragedy.

Comedy, Tragedy, and Seinfeld

Why do we laugh, and why do we cry? Everybody knows that we laugh at what is funny and we cry at what is sad, but no one yet has come up with an acceptable theory of what is funny and what is sad. Every day we experience things that make us laugh and things that make us cry, and there are persons – actors, movie directors, authors – who seem to know how to cause both.

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