Seinfeld 9/11 script: a work of genius or just pretty, pretty good?

The viral spec script has been held up as one of the best pieces of Seinfeldia ever, but it’s got some pretty fierce competition for best imitation

As Bo Burnham sang cheekily in his song Sad: “Everything that once was sad is somehow funny now. The Holocaust and 9/11, that shit’s funny 24/7.” Billy Domineau, a comedy writer in New York City, took that idea to its logical next step this week, penning a spec 9/11 episode of the classic 90s sitcom Seinfeld.

He told The Comic’s Comic that he was encouraging a friend to write “an exercise in bad taste” when the idea leapt to mind. He went on to write and post that spec script – a hypothetical episode of an existing television show used by aspiring writers to show off their skills – and it went viral.

Domineau’s script is indeed in bad taste, but it perfectly captures the self-obsessed way these characters would handle such a crisis. Jerry becomes obsessed with the “dust” that now coats his city, George is happy to be mistaken for a hero who pulled people from the wreckage, Elaine must keep dating a guy who was in one of the Twin Towers, while Kramer seeks restitution for his box cutter, which he had “lent” to his friend Mo Atta.

More than any other show, Seinfeld inspires current takes on the series. The popular Modern Seinfeld Twitter feeds sums up hypothetical episode plots often imagining those characters dealing with modern technology or pop culture trends.

A whole subreddit, RedditWritesSeinfeld, is devoted to ideas for new Seinfeld episodes.

At New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, the sketch and improv troupe Bellevue performed a brand-new Seinfeld episode, entitled The Leaning Susan, perfectly nailing the rhythms, punch lines and musical cues of the original. These days, the team improvises a new episode regularly.

Even the show’s jazzy theme song has been given an EDM spin. Part of the reason for the proliferation of present-day Seinfeld takes is, of course, the show’s incredible popularity, as both a critical darling (it won 10 Emmys and was nominated for 68) and as a ratings bonanza for NBC. In syndication it broadcasts in nearly every market in the US, nearly 20 years after going off the air.

But really what makes it so fun to reference and mimic is the fundamental simplicity of the series. The show’s famous “No hugging, no learning” policy meant that the characters didn’t evolve in the same way that other sitcom characters do; they eagerly spun in their own hamster wheels. The four leads had their distinctive, self-absorbed perspectives – Jerry was bemused, George was neurotic, Elaine was incensed, Kramer was kooky – and they could be cleanly placed in a multitude of unlikely scenarios.

The concept of characters making a mountain out of a molehill would continue with Seinfeld co-creator Larry David’s next venture, Curb Your Enthusiasm. But that show – looser, more improvised – is less fun to adapt than the tightly scripted Seinfeld, which fell neatly into traditional three-act structure. (Watch a classic episode with all the jokes edited out to see how clear its plot lines were; the whole thing lasts only three minutes.)

Building on a beloved series is a simple way for a writer to present ideas in a recognizable format, and being outrageous is a smart way to attract attention, even if the script is impossible to produce. So two decades after it aired its finale, we’re likely to continue seeing takes on Seinfeld for years to come.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKymYq6vsIyrmJ2hn2R%2FcX2VaJiun19lgnC%2FxKKln52cmXp6fZBmqpyqmaXBbq7IpaOyZZSkuqq6xJqs