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Seinfeld After 25 Years: A Look Back
Seinfeld aired from 1989–1998 on NBC, achieving both mass popularity and cult status. The show about nothing poked fun of everything, from ugly babies to a laundry list of touchy subjects, and I seriously question whether it could be made today. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t funny.
According to Movie Guide, “Seinfeld, one of the most popular comedies in the 1990s, poked fun at nearly everything people today find offensive — politics, religion, race, gender, romance, and homosexuality, among other topics.”
But it made people laugh, then, and its nine seasons of reruns on Netflix make me laugh, still. Sometimes, I cringe before I laugh — and then wonder if I need to sign up for sensitivity training. But, without a lot of fanfare, the show also subtly pushed against some social barriers. Same-sex relationships were addressed through George’s ex-girlfriend, Cynthia, who leaves him and rebounds into a relationship with a woman, and then there was the infamous “not that there’s anything wrong with that” episode.