Exit
IFTEEN YEARS after
he exited America’s
favorite comedy, Jerry
Seinfeld is re-entering the comedy consciousness in
the biggest way since the 2009
Seinfeld reunion episode of Curb
Your Enthusiasm. Last month, his
name haunted a three-episode arc
on Louie, the old comic heavyweight challenging the modern
comic heavyweight, Louis C.K.
His new web series — Comedians
in Cars Getting Coffee – ended its
first season last week, just as he
prepares to return to his roots:
the comic, 58, is taking the stage
this month for a comedy tour
through New York City, hitting
each of the five boroughs. It’ll
mark his first solo show in the
city since he taped HBO’s “I’m
Telling You for the Last Time” in
1998, the same year he pulled the
plug on his iconic sitcom.
Some are calling this Seinfeld’s
“second act.” But if you look
closely, it’s all been part of the
same act.
When Seinfeld disappeared in
1998, he left America in a feelgood era, hungry for more sublime
chatter about nothing. September
11, 2001, was far away, the recession hadn’t happened yet, George
COMEDY
HUFFINGTON
10.07.12
F
W. Bush was only in charge of
Texas and color-coded terror
charts didn’t exist. In a way, it
feels like Seinfeld didn’t experience any of the trauma of the last
15 years. As he said on Late Night
With Jimmy Fallon recently, he’s
lived on the Upper West Side for
his entire adult life, only moving
within a three-block radius.
In a way, it feels like
Seinfeld didn’t experience
any of the trauma of the
last 15 years.”
We welcome him back not as
a comedian whose material has
gotten better with age — or one
recovering from a period of decline — but as we would a 90s
time capsule. There are no bad
memories inside, Bee Movie and
Marriage Ref now forgotten aberrations. It’s a capsule filled with
the good, old days of Seinfeld,
which still makes us laugh like
the first time on third, fourth,
fifth viewings. Seinfeld managed
to retain his relevancy simply by
going away, letting us relive his
mindlessly satisfying humor.