I’m talking about stuff like the ridiculous interactions between the regulars and people who are supposed to be fellow city dwellers in public places, like the bakeries, soup shop, stores, etc. Where bizarre behavior is pretty much ignored or taken in stride. I mean, can you watch an episode and imagine seeing or participating in that and thinking it’s just another day in NYC?
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The soup guy is a real guy that predates the show.
There’s a huge difference between the early seasons of Seinfeld and the later stuff. Things like waiting for a table in a restaurant, getting lost in a garage, trying to pick someone up from the airport, rushing to meet friends for a movie, etc are things that most people who live in a city can identify with.
After Larry David left the scenarios became more fantastical and distanced from real life.
Mileage will vary. Obviously things are over-dramatized for entertainment, but there are some references I make that people still readily understand and relate to 20-30 years later.
In terms of colorful characters and bizarre behaviors, I think anyone who has spent enough time around the city and in the subways will be desensitized to certain interactions. That’s not to say everyone here is an absolute psychopath (probably), but some things you see and just *shoulder shrug*.
> Where bizarre behavior is pretty much ignored or taken in stride.
I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for but I pretty much refused to ride the subway, *especially* with my children, because of showtime.
In general though, Seinfeld is about exaggerated versions of things that definitely could happen. I mean there were times I walked all around the neighborhood looking for my car after not using it for a while. I guess that’s pretty similar to the episode of them walking around the mall. Finding out that you went to JFK when your friend flew into LGA definitely happened, especially before smartphones existed.
> Where bizarre behavior is pretty much ignored or taken in stride.
The thing about “New Yorkers have seen it all and aren’t fazed by anything” is definitely a mostly true stereotype.
Keep in mind that Seinfeld was on TV in the 90s and NYC has changed enormously since then. That said, bizarre behavior is absolutely ignored and/or taken in stride. We regularly have severely disturbed and/or mentally ill people acting out in public and on the trains and you just dont make eye contact and ignore the behavior.
(have lived there)
As far as the bizarre events and interactions, it’s like high school shows – The base thing is typically real enough and has happened to someone, somewhere.
But it’s heavily exaggerated in how often it happens – events that happen to the average person on rare occasions or less are presented as daily occurrences.
And many are somewhere between somewhere and heavily embellished about how dramatic they are.
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With that said, yes, your average NYC resident is pretty much capable of ignoring just about any sort of strange human behavior/interaction that isn’t directly threatening them.
>Where bizarre behavior is pretty much ignored or taken in stride.
I haven’t seen much of Seinfeld, but this is very much the case in New York. You see all kinds of weird people on the sidewalks and in subways, and people either ignore it or accept it as part of living in NYC.
I lived in NYC for one year and the funniest thing that happened to me was in a chicken restaurant in Queens.
I walked in to get some chicken and the guy announced, “I don’t have any breasts.”
So I responded, “Well, then maybe you should get implants.”
We both laughed our asses off.
Why just NYC? There are strange and unusual people all over. I remember watching some documentary and they were explaining a situation where there was a huge crowd of people. And this one particular person stood out in a huge crowd. The person literally said he was weird, even for Florida. I had a good laugh at that
Yes lol
Not someone who lived in NYC but *Seinfeld* was well known for caricaturing real individuals that the writers actually knew personally in their real lives. For example Kramer was based on a real neighbor of Jerry Seinfeld’s in his apartment building; the “soup Nazi” was based on a real guy with take out place selling soup in his neighborhood, most famously “Festivus” was based on the real family traditions of one of the writer’s family and according to his telling barely changed at all for the show.
Now, of course these ARE all caricatures taken to an extreme and played for laughs. But, I think *Seinfeld* managed to be zany but still feel true to life because they were based on real eccentricities and I think we all know a few people in our lives with funny eccentricities that we find amusing. Probably very different in the details but somehow similar to the odd-ball characters on Seinfeld making those characters believable maybe even familiar despite being so outlandish in ways you wouldn’t expect.
And I DO think anyone who has even visited the city briefly can attest to the fact that the fact that it’s so wildly diverse with people from all sorts of background with different often conflicting cultural expectations, different life experiences, going through different problems etc. all living in such close proximity to each there’s a lot of tolerance for weird behavior and a lot of weird behavior going on to tolerate.
You should check out r/SubwayCreatures lots of weird stuff in NYC doesn’t even get a second glance.
Not really. It’s one of the reasons I never really watched the show or found it relatable. I’m sure that stuff happens to some people in NYC, but my neighborhood was so vastly different that it felt like they lived in a different state.
Now I will say strange things may happen but not nearly as much as those type of shows would lead you to believe. That stuff, when it does happen, is ignored sometimes but people are more likely to step in or at least say something.
NYC is a wild city and as cliche as it sounds, the phrase “only in New York” crosses my mind several times a day whenever I’m there. Everything in Seinfeld that happened could plausibly happen IRL, IMHO. It’s part of why it’s such an easy place to default to when writing a story. Anything could happen there. It’s almost cheating.
I formally invite you to ask this question in r/AskNYC I think you’ll get some great responses
I went to school with a lot of city kids and a good chunk of my friends live there now, there’s a story or two from each trip.
1. I asked my college roommate what his first time smoking weed was like, I said I ate a whole box of Cherrios and ran up and down the stairs a bunch of times cuz it felt like I was floating. He said he got robbed at gunpoint in a taco bell in the Bronx and then saw a dead baby on the train tracks afterwards.
2. We were walking around battery park one evening and saw a homeless guy in a wheel chair with his pants down and dick fully out. An ambulance pulled up on the sidewalk and the EMT got out and kicked the guys legs and said “God damn it Mike this is the 3rd time this week!”
3. Running through the 42nd street stations to change trains and as we round a corner my friend looks back and says “there’s one for ya Ben!” At which point I rounded the corner and was face to face with a woman who had taken her shoe off and started pissing directly into the shoe, which she then put back on and continued on her day.
4. We got stuck on a train with a woman who possibly had tuberculosis. Actively hacking blood on the flood. The trains were all crowded except that car as people tried to get away from her
5. I watched a homeless man shit next to an MTA ticket machine on a Sunday afternoon, he was very cartoonish looking and had a cig burned down to the filter hanging from his lip. The turd dropped as I was passing him.
Stuff just happens there, there’s so many people. Some of the city kids would complain about Albany being boring and when pressed on what was different about Brooklyn or Queens they said “shit just finds you, sit on your stoop for an hour and something exciting will pop off eventually”
Lived in Queens all my life until 3 years ago when I moved right outside the city. I still go there all the time. I would say yes. I run into so many odd or interesting people in stores that’s very different from when I go to most other places in the country.
What’s great about NYC is that so many workers and people in stores are totally ready to talk about anything at almost any time. You can go to a deli to get a sandwich and suddenly 3 guys are talking about how one guy’s wife cheated on him, and no one knows each other. I’ve ended up in some weird conversations just by picking up food.
Seinfeld was from the 1990s when crime in the city was lower than it is currently. As it stands you don’t want to look at bizarre behavior because you don’t know if they’ll snap and shove you on the subway tracks. :-/
It’s a weird place and weird stuff happens here. One of the reasons I enjoy living here
Always thought this review was seinfeld-esque
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiQnV_tKi40
…and they shot the show in L.A.