Seinfeld meets JG Ballard

[pesco]

[Permalink]

[thaumatechnicia]

The box that Michael Richards was carrying for that whole episode had a substantial weight in it, for the effect/realism.

[liquidself]

Ballard certainly fits, and is quite relevant, but at the time I thought it was doing a kind of Waiting for Godot - but there s probably a more relevant Sienfeld episode to that. It also makes me think of Borges in general, and specifically The Library of Babel. There s also that movie, The Cube. I read once that malls are designed to be locaterless, intentionally confusing, timeless spaces.

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[nemryn]

See also: House of Leaves.

Edit: Huh, I guess colors aren’t enabled here? That kinda makes sense, and I’m not complaining about it (beyond some mild grumbling), except to point out that 1) ‘House’ should be in blue type here; and 2) it worked in the preview, which seems odd.

[anon15383236]

@thaumatechnicia

for the effect/realism.

How postmodernly ironic!

[scratcheee]

I was just thinking about this episode a couple days ago. To wit, how much I didn’t like it.

Most of my favorite shows eventually have what I call an “experimental episode” that is devoid of most of the stuff that makes the show enjoyable.

Other examples: Breaking Bad’s “The Fly” episode, and “The Sopranos” when those two guys spent the night stranded in a car in the woods.

Back to Seinfeld: I do often use the word “urimiciticis” from the episode, so it wasn’t all bad.

[Jorpho]

For more fun, I suggest The Cosby Codex, “an attempt to offer the definitive theoretical reading of The Cosby Show”, at McSweeney’s. It gets weird fast.

[jsroberts]

@liquidself

I read once that malls are designed to be locaterless, intentionally confusing, timeless spaces.

See also: casinos, supermarkets and IKEA.

[ChickieD]

Here’s what I got from his standup piece:

Totally awesome idea to have a map on the floor of a mall, oriented the appropriate direction, that you can look down at with a YOU ARE HERE spot for you to stand on. Anything behind or awkwardly close to your position would be broken off the connected map and appear to either side/behind you.

[Gyrofrog]

Yeah, I’ve long thought that this one’s pretty painful to watch, along with the one where the entire episode has them waiting for a restaurant table.

I used to think the same about the reverse-episode, but that one grew on me.