hapgilmore

Simple, which show do you think is better?

I never cared much for Seinfeld, but CYE is my favorite show on television. Anyone else share this disparity?

MrSmearkase

I prefer Curb Your Enthusiasm, but I do enjoy Seinfeld occasionally.

zuffy

Curb Your Enthusiasm is awesome. Maybe it's because I find Larry David funnier than Jerry Seinfeld.

Tracer Bullet

Seinfeld is more consistently funny and has some of the greatest moments in sitcom history, and CYE is frequently screamingly funny. Seinfeld gets points for writing and brilliance, whereas CYE gets points for setup. I'd have to go with Seinfeld, simply because it's the more important show.

Cardsfan111

Surely Buttmunker has already created a thread about this somewhere...

I voted Seinfeld.

rfduncan

They're actually very different shows in my mind...

jrsl76

I prefer Curb.

chino77

i love both shows but i voted for seinfeld only because i think it has better replay value. curb is a lot of set up which is fine but i cant watch them over and over like i can with seinfeld episodes.

starman9000

Seinfeld.

Curb is great, but it's almost uncomfortable to watch sometimes (which is it's brilliance I know).

bunkaroo

I love them both equally but I give the edge to Seinfeld for volume of episodes and nostalgia.

Michael Corvin

Yeah, I can only take so much Larry at a time. I can't do Curb marathons like Seinfeld. Seinfeld also has the edge in replay value.

Jack Straw

Coming from someone who loves watching CYE & Larry get yelled at and giving it right back, Seinfeld is the better show overall. More interesting and comedic characters and plot lines.

darkblue

Both being Larry David creations, they have a lot in common - principally: formula - misunderstanding + irony (over and over, episode after episode).

I think a lot of people see Curb as the better because it has far more leeway to express itself, what with not being confined by network standards the way Seinfeld was.

But I do agree with Chino77's great point about replay value. Where I've seen every Seinfeld episode too many times to count, I've found Curb re-watches begin to wear out after about 3 viewings.

I think part of that is because the Seinfeld show was wise enough to spread the stories around to all of the main four characters. With Curb, Larry is pretty much the whole show over and over with the rest of the cast being true supporting players. As great a lead as he is, the constant focus on him can cause a certain viewer fatigue with such a bracing character.

Charlie Goose

Seinfeld is one of my favorite shows, but I have never been able to stand more than 5 minutes of ANY episode of CYE.

Fist of Doom

Seinfeld, by about 50 country miles. I like CYE, but there are a bunch of comedies I'd put ahead of it. Seinfeld is the ultimate sitcom, and the most rewatchable show ever.

JohnnyMovie

I like both and I pick Seinfeld is way best.

Mike86

They're both great but I had to go with Seinfeld for nostalgia reasons and the fact that it has so many memorable characters. It's one of the only shows where the guests are as memorable as the normal cast and some of them only appeared in one episode so that's saying something. Curb is great as well though they're really about equal in my book. Larry is great and I enjoy the uncomfortable situations he often gets himself into.

slop101

After it's first season, Seinfeld was very consistent. CYE has varied wildly in quality from episode to episode; it'll have a couple brilliant ones followed by one with barely any laughs.

Throwing Copper

I picked Curb.....mainly because I think it's a whole lot funnier than Seinfeld.

Seinfeld was enjoyable, and went on for so long with so many great characters (even the small parts).

I love how Curb makes people uncomfortable and isn't for everybody.

I probably also picked Curb because I didn't really care for Jerry Seinfeld as a comedic actor. I love his stand-up comedy, but I liked the 3 other Seinfeld characters more than Seinfeld himself on the show.

conscience

Agreed 100%. I can belly laugh at least a handful of times during each and every Seinfeld episode. While I really like Curb and enjoy watching Larry David's screw ups, there are some episodes that are barely funny and go on for far too long.

mcnabb

I love both, but Seinfeld is a better overall show. First, CYE is on HBO, so they have the freedom to curse and be more edgy then Seinfeld which was on NBC. The Suzie character wouldn't be funny if she was on NBC, whereas on HBO she is hilareous with her foul-mouth, "Jeff you fat fuck!"

Plus, CYE only has 10 Episoders per season, and Seinfeld had about 22 per season, so there is much more depth per season on Seinfeld.

Finally, I think the characters are better developed on Seinfeld, as CYE are one-note characters. In saying all of this, I love both shows

Timber

Love both but I think Curb holds up better. I watch Seinfeld and some of the episodes are very dated.

Coral

I enjoyed CYE, but I have to go with Seinfeld.

While they're different shows in many ways, the basic concept is very similar (obviously because of Larry David) so the been-there-done-that effect kicked in. Also Seinfeld had better characters, and I found CYE spends a lot of time on set-up which usually winds up with a predictable outcome.

The other advantage of Seinfeld is that each of the 4 main characters can be seperated in a storyline and still be funny (George at work or with is parents, Elaine at work or with Puddy, Jerry on his dates, Kramer with his shenanigans), while CYE is based all around one character and you basically get Larry David 99% of the time on the show. There was no relief from that one character - and it didn't help that the one character was neurotic.

starman9000

You might need to wait 10 years before making that sort of determination.

Guru Askew

Not really.

The oldest "Curb" is the special and that aired in October of '99 and as such you can look back on it right now and its nearly 12 years later and the show has barely changed. The actors have obviously aged and the show went to 16x9 last season but the show has been remarkably consistent. If you could look back 11 or 12 years ago and say the old episodes were different then they are now I could see you saying "you can't say the new stuff is dated" but "Curb" from '99 and '00 really isn't dated.

The oldest "Seinfeld", on the other hand, was never older than 10 years old (the show ran 9 seasons but there was a full year between "The Seinfeld Chronicles" and the first proper episode) and even then the older episodes seemed very slow compared to later episodes, etc. not to mention the early episodes having a very dated look. This is why they didn't re-shoot the first appearance of Jerry's dad as they did with George's, they literally couldn't match the footage. There are also a handful of little traces of dated sitcom conventions that were forced on the show before Jerry and Larry had enough control to do the show their way.