Seinfeld Slang

Hello Seinfeld lovers,

There are so many hilarious words and phrases coined by Seinfeld. Many of them pop into my everyday language or inside jokes with fellow fans—yada yada, man hands, jerk store, baldist, anti-dentite, funeral hello, big salad, close talker, urban sombrero, festivus… I could go on for a while.

Photo credit: cafepress.co.uk

Without Seinfeld, women wouldn't rank men based on their "sponge worthiness," there wouldn't be as many jokes about close talkers, and I wouldn't say "yada yada" when I want to skip over little details in my stories.

I recently discovered a website called The Seinfeld Dictionary. As I read through I remembered episodes and Seinfeld moments that I'd forgotten about. Some of the words and phrases made me laugh out loud. I also realized I use certain Seinfeld lingo without even realizing it. For example, when I'm picking someone up at the airport, I tell people I'm doing an "airport pickup." What am I, a cab driver? No, just someone who has Seinfeld terms engrained so far into my mind that I just use them naturally. "Man hands" is another term from the show that I find myself using a lot, mostly to describe my own mannish hands.

"Anti-dentite" is one term that gave me a good chuckle.

Anti-dentite—1. One who cracks a joke about a dentist who recently converted to Judaism. Quote–"…if this wasn't my son's wedding day, I'd knock your teeth out you anti-dentite bastard."–Mr. Abbott (Mickey's dad).

I'm amazed that anyone could even think of the term "anti-dentite." Check out the YouTube video below for Kramer's famous "anti-dentite" scene.

Another funny term I came across while scrolling through the dictionary was "human fund"—the fake charity that George started. According to the dictionary, the charity's tagline is "The Human Fund. Money For People." Ironically, this charity actually exists. The Human Fund supports arts education programs for underprivileged youth in Cleveland—probably a better cause than fake Christmas gifts for George's coworkers.

I encourage you to check out The Seinfeld Dictionary. You may even find you're using some Seinfeld vocab that you weren't aware of before.

This post may be my last one for a little while. I write this blog as a weekly assignment for my Creative Communications program, and tomorrow is our last day of classes. Tomorrow evening my classmates and I are going to the Creative Communications Media Awards, which I am very excited to attend. I'm also excited for afterwards, when we're all going out to have a good time, and yada yada yada, and call it a year!

The Best of Frank Costanza

Hello Seinfeld lovers,

Frank Costanza is my favourite character aside from the core four. He invented Festivus, the Mansierre, and the "stop short" move. He's a legend.

I was thinking about including some of Frank's famous quotes in this post, but there's no way I could do his character justice by simply typing some words. The humour behind his quotes is all in the delivery. Luckily, I stumbled across a YouTube video full of Frank's quotes. The video is pretty lengthy, but if you're a Frank Costanza fan like me, I guarantee it'll be time well spent.

While searching Seinfeld on YouTube, I also came across some other character clip videos for a few more of my favourites. Check out the videos below. Enjoy!

Jackie Chiles

J. Peterman

Kenny Bania

Uncle Leo 

David Puddy 

Seinfeld taught me that!

Hello Seinfeld lovers, 

"Seinfeld taught me that" — many of you have probably used these words before, right?

I've used them multiple times. I was pretty young when Seinfeld was airing new episodes, so maybe the things I learned were already common knowledge for many adults watching the show. However, that doesn't change the fact that Seinfeld taught me many things. When I'm having a conversation with friends and I contribute a random fact that maybe not everyone knew, it's surprising how often that fact came from Seinfeld. 

In "The Foundation" (episode 1, season 8) J. Peterman taught me that the country commonly known as Burma is now actually called Myanmar. In part two of "The Boyfriend" (episode 18, season 3) Jerry, Kramer, Newman and Keith Hernandez used the story of the "magic loogie" to teach me about Kennedy's assassination. In "The Contest" (episode 11, season 4) the whole gang taught me about something a young girl probably shouldn't know about until she's older. The list of things Seinfeld has taught me could go on for a while.

There's a reason I'm bringing this up. I was able to use my Seinfeld knowledge at school this week, and it made me feel like a smart cookie. One of my instructors was reading quotes from famous writers to the class, and we had to guess the writer. She read out a quote from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and gave a hint that the writer was a famous Russian novelist. I immediately thought of "The Marine Biologist" (episode 14, season 5), and blurted out "Tolstoy!" Who would’ve thought Seinfeld could teach me about a 19th century Russian writer. 

I know it's not that impressive to know who Tolstoy is, but if I hadn't learned it through Seinfeld I don't know that I would've learned it somewhere else. 

Yes, the majority of what I've learned from Seinfeld is random facts, but it's better to know more than less. Thanks for the wisdom, Seinfeld!

Check out the YouTube video below for the "magic loogie" explanation of Kennedy's assassination. 

Best Episode Tournament

Hello Seinfeld lovers,

So this is pretty neat… click the link below for the FOX Sports tournament for the best Seinfeld episode ever.

Best Seinfeld Episode Tournament

If I were a betting man, I'd put money on The Contest or The Soup Nazi. I think The Marine Biologist is hilarious, but I don't see it winning. The Strike is also hilarious. Who am I kidding, they're all hilarious, but one of them has to win. Who do you think it'll be?

Kramer's Jeans

Hello Seinfeld lovers,

This post is for the ladies. It seems these days jeans are getting tighter and tighter. FACT—tight jeans are not comfortable. If you disagree, and you think you can put together a valid argument, I challenge you to do so in the comment section below.

The reason I'm raising this point on a blog about Seinfeld is because I think many of us can relate to Kramer and his tight jeans (episode 21, season 7). If you've never had trouble getting into or out of a pair of jeans before, well, I'm impressed!

Here's some pictures from Google Images of Jerry trying to help Kramer out of his tight jeans (sorry for the poor image quality).

If you have six minutes and 42 seconds to spare, I strongly encourage you to check out the following video with clips from Kramer's tight jeans debacle. It had me laughing out loud the entire time.

KRAMER'S TIGHT JEANS VIDEO

I just want to unwind!

Hello Seinfeld lovers, 

The other day I was thinking about "The Puerto Rican Day" episode (season nine). 

The gang finds themselves stuck in a traffic jam due to the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Hours go by before the parade clears and they're able to get home. The whole time poor Elaine just wants to get home to unwind. 

"All I know is that it's Sunday night, and I have got to unwind!" 

Elaine makes many more remarks like this throughout the episode. 

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because I'm realizing how important the Sunday night "unwind" is to me. Like Elaine, I too NEED to unwind on Sunday night before the week begins again. I've found that when I have something going on during a Sunday night, like piles of homework or another obligation, I get worked up about not having my time to unwind. This time is very important to me. 

I used to work at a restaurant, and every week I got scheduled to work the Sunday night closing shift. This was the worst thing ever. I would've rather closed the Saturday night, and given up my chance to go out, in exchange for my Sunday night unwinding time. 

What do I do to unwind? Nothing. But I need this time to do nothing in order to feel prepared for the week. I know—I'm weird, but I completely feel Elaine's pain throughout this episode. 

It's sort of ridiculous when you think about it. 

"No, I can't go out for dinner tonight, because I need to unwind." 

"I MUST finish my homework before Sunday night, because that time is dedicated to unwinding."

If Jerry Seinfeld felt the need to make fun of the Sunday night "unwind" in this episode, then Elaine and I must not be the only ones who feel this way. This makes me feel like less of an old lady.

Do you feel the same way? Have you gone to serious lengths to ensure you have your Sunday night unwinding period? Feel free to share in the comment box below!

I'll leave you with a little YouTube clip from the episode. Poor Elaine, she's just so frazzled. I feel ya, girl!

FRAZZLED ELAINE VIDEO

Virtual Seinfeld

Hello Seinfeld lovers, 

So this is pretty high up there on the list of coolest things I've ever seen—Greg Miller, gaming programmer, spent two months re-watching the entire Seinfeld series so he could recreate Jerry's apartment for people to experience through an Oculus Rift headset. Basically, you put on the headset, and it's like you're walking around Jerry's apartment. Miller even recreated Jerry's cereal collection with vintage 90s labels. 

This is definitely something I'll have to try. Seinfeld fans sure don't fool around. Click the link below for the full article on Greg Miller's Seinfeld virtual reality. 

JERRY'S APARTMENT THROUGH OCULUS RIFT