Seinfeld’s fascination with murder and death is the silly sitcom’s secret weapon that often goes overlooked.
”I could have killed you and nobody would have known.”
”I could have killed you and nobody would have known.”
Seinfeld is glibly described as a “show about nothing,” but it’s actually a comedy that obsesses over the minutiae of everyday life and what it means to exist, even when that existence can feel like pure anguish. For a sitcom that’s so obsessed with life, it’s perhaps only fitting to make murder the ultimate punchline. Any of these karmic encounters with the Grim Reaper will trigger “restrained jubilation” in even the blackest of souls.
Unexpected death is funny to Larry David because it’s the epitome of a Seinfeld-style joke where random elements dovetail together. It’s not just something that goes wrong and spirals out of control for the character, but the Rube Goldberg machine continues to click along until they no longer exist. Death is the ultimate bad luck karma and Seinfeld argues that there’s nothing funnier than that. Seinfeld is often referred to as one of the funniest sitcoms of all time, but its odd obsession with death and serial killers is worthy of dissection.
Seinfeld never tries to hide the fact that it’s a darker comedy that often openly mocks the sitcom’s saccharine lessons and character development. Seinfeld’s selfish characters are the blueprint for modern sitcom sycophants like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. However, egotistical assholes are not the same thing as being a murderer or exhibiting a fascination with the ending of life. But it’s quite surprising to see how many major Seinfeld stories and resolutions are built upon someone’s presumed death. Admittedly, Seinfeld is a comedy and these moments should perhaps not be overanalyzed, but it’s precisely because Seinfeld is a network sitcom from the 1990s that it’s such a shock to see how often death fuels its comedy.
One of Seinfeld’s most prominent instances of death is ironically enough linked to an act that’s meant to be incredibly joyous. Many sitcoms face the hurdle of a wedding and how the core cast will be affected by a supporting player getting this type of promoted role. More often than not, comedies find ways to back out of these commitments and there are no shortage of humorous reasons to decide to not get married. Seinfeld’s most malicious move may be to secure George’s bachelor status through Susan’s unexpected death. To go one step further, this cruel fate is the direct result of George’s cheapness and apathy towards his upcoming marriage.
It’s a stunning way to end this storyline and season of television, which left many audiences completely flummoxed at the time. To make matters worse, George may not carry the trauma of his dead fiancée, but Seinfeld does provide several glimpses into the pain that Susan’s parents continue to carry with them. Her death doesn’t happen in a vacuum and even though George may not be crying that doesn’t mean that others aren’t. “That’s a shame,” as any of Seinfeld’s self-interested characters may say before moving on to beat traffic.
Susan Ross, George’s fiancée, is easily the Seinfeld death that receives the most attention. However, there are more than 15 explicit or implied deaths that occur across Seinfeld’s nine seasons from George pulling out his doppelgänger’s life support to Jared Fogel crashing his car after he adjusts his wig in the mirror, all of which hit with different levels of intensity. It’s fascinating to see how Seinfeld can treat death like the ultimate inconvenience, such as in “The Bris” when a “Pig Man” is directed to the elevator by George, only for him to jump off the hospital’s roof and land squarely on George’s car. However, the opposite tone is present in the show’s broad “Cable Boy” fantasy sequence where Jerry’s decision to steal cable results in him being shot dead by a police squad. Both depictions of death are played for laughs, but from completely different extremes.
The whole reason that Jerry and George’s pilot doesn’t go forward is because there’s new management at NBC, which is the result of Russell Dalrymple’s explicit death at sea. Death is used to casually wipe the slate clean before the new season begins and Susan’s death and George’s upcoming marriage is handled with the same emotionless excision. Susan’s death even becomes a burden that haunts George from beyond the grave as he’s forced to deal with her foundation’s bureaucracy.
Seinfeld is set in New York City, which is hardly atypical for a network sitcom. However, Seinfeld’s version of NYC is filled with more murderers than Jason Takes Manhattan. Seinfeld honestly makes it seem like there are serial killers around every corner and its characters believe Son of Sam is still alive and well in the world. There’s even a popular theory that postal worker Newman is a serial killer who is destined to be the next David Berkowitz, if he’s not the actual Son of Sam himself. Seinfeld creates its own vicious murderers, like the Lopper/Son of Dad, a serial killer who decapitates his victims. Other stories pull from the city’s real-life monsters, like when Elaine dates the perfect guy, except for the fact that he shares the same name as murderer, Joel Rifkin.
There are also multiple Seinfeld episodes where the major punchline comes from events that grimly parallel major crimes and real-life serial killers. “The Big Salad” recreates O.J. Simpson’s infamous Bronco chase with Kramer and his murderer companion Gendason, but what’s easier to overlook during this episode’s run in syndication is that it only aired three months after the Simpson/Brown murders. It’s shocking how quickly this parody of tragedy strikes. The other major example of murder dictating the storytelling is the series’ two-part excursion in Los Angeles. Kramer is presumed to be the Smog Strangler, which is a wild “obstacle” for Kramer to experience during his vacation to the West Coast.
Furthermore, the only reason Kramer is proven to be innocent is because Jerry and George inadvertently free the actual serial killer. They don’t mourn this fact, but instead celebrate with an impromptu song, “The murderer struck again!” These L.A. episodes also have one of the darkest digressions from the series’ run where an eccentric actress in Kramer’s apartment building talks about a Three Stooges short, “Sappy Pappies,” that she starred in. The banned short involves the Stooges accidentally killing a baby and then being executed for their crime. Seinfeld and Larry David posit that infanticide and capital punishment are just the natural heightening of fingers in the eyes and a 2×4 to the head. So why not push its comedy in the same direction?
Beyond the actual murderers that roam the city, Seinfeld also presents death as something that’s as common as breathing because in a sense it is. It’s one of the most unremarkable things in the world because every single person does it. There’s an exaggerated exchange between a father and son. “Hey! There’s a man swimming in the water!” “No, that’s probably just a dead body, son. You see, when the mob kills someone, they throw the body in the river.” The young boy isn’t mortified over this realization, but instead nods his head in understanding as if he’s learned how the subway system works. This glib line is later casually called back to during an exchange between Jerry and Kramer regarding his new fascination with swimming in the East River for exercise. “I saw a couple of other guys out there.” “Swimming?” “Floating. They weren’t moving much, but they were out there.”
Seinfeld’s series finale is an important piece of this puzzle that gives a good impression of what Larry David thinks of his characters, their world, and what would be their funniest fate. Seinfeld’s series finale forces its characters to reckon with a decade of selfish acts. This feels appropriate, but it’d be just as fitting of a finish for the show if the whole cast got slashed by a mugger (perhaps a Van Buren Boys initiation gone wrong…). Audiences would have been appalled, but it’s hard to not picture Larry David laughing at such a morbid twist of fate.
After all, Seinfeld’s series finale does briefly tease the idea of the cast meeting their dooms as their airplane plummets (it’s only in the face of death that George is able to truly be honest with Jerry, too). Larry David’s final line of dialogue that’s yelled at Jerry during the finale’s prison stand-up routine is, “I’m gonna cut you!” He goes out wishing these characters abject pain; perhaps death. Curb Your Enthusiasm even builds upon this idea with Larry’s death functioning as the series’ finish during what was initially intended to be a potential series finale for the show. Because what’s a funnier ending for a comedy than the main character’s death?
Seinfeld’s obsession with death is necessary for comedy to grow and provoke its audience. Decades later, Seinfeld is still praised for its lack of boundaries and ability to deconstruct social taboos, so it’s only appropriate that it subconsciously destigmatizes death and forces its audience to not only accept it, but laugh at death as the ultimate punchline.
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