Seinfeld Episodes Create Comedy Through Paralogy

Seinfeld Episodes Create Comedy through Paralogy

As an example of paralogy, I have chosen to write an essay on the "Seinfeld" series. I had originally thought that I would discuss only one of the episodes, but after thinking about it, I now feel that this type of rebellious behavior was generally characterisitic of most of the "Seinfeld" episodes. In fact,this bending of the rules in most every episode by each of the four actors set the scene for a comedy show that successfully made TV audiences laugh for many years.

A paralogic example of violating all the rules of rational behavior was an episode when Kramer begins to spend most of his time in the shower and installs a garbage disposal, thereby killing two birds with one stoneÐ'--to be able to take a shower and at the same time prepare dinner. Who, using any logic, would install a disposal and then even consider combining hygiene (cleansing in a shower) with food preparation! This is truly a departure from conventional behavior. In another episode, Elaine does not like a fur jacket that her boyfriend wears, and while attending a party, she throws the jacket out of the window just to get rid of it. Again, we see behavior that goes to great lengths to be unreasonable and does not follow logical rules. On another topic, George finds a bargain when he purchases some cheap wedding invitations which ultimately kill his fiancÐ"© when she licks them and they are found to have toxic glue. In this particular scenario, the behavior itself (going to the store to buy the invitations) was not so illogical, but the outcome was far from reasonÐ'--that someone could die from licking her own wedding invitation envelopes! Even worse, was the joy expressed by George who had been dreading the thought of getting married anyway. Now that his fiancÐ"© was dead, it let him off the hook and he was rejoicing instead of mourning. As the show drew to a close, the four characters were in a small town in Massachusetts where they were witnesses to an accident and just stood by, refusing to do anything to help the victim, even ridiculing him. As a result, they were all