Seinfeld = South Park???
This entire post came about because of a flippant comment by Sarika while we were watching a rerun of the Seinfeld series finale. Watching Newman (Wayne Knight) let out a vicarious laugh as he is leaving to watch the trial, Sarika said Newman seemed a lot like Eric Cartman at that moment. I then remarked that a grown up Eric Cartman would be a lot like Newman.
We tried to delve deeper into it, and came up with many similarities. Firstly, both are corpulent. Cartman is a very smart kid but his intelligence is always used for some sinister motives. Newman too, despite being well read, intelligent and articulate, is a mere postal worker. Which means he has not been able to apply his intelligence in helping his career prosper. But his guile and wit is at its most productive when it comes to cunning things like manipulating people. As a kid, cartman holds high hopes of somehow obtaining ten million dollars. The grown-up Newman knows it's a lot harder than a kid would assume. However he still tries to make a fast buck through schemes like the bottle deposit, the old records etc.
Who is Newman's greatest nemesis? the Jewish boy Seinfeld. Who is Cartman's greatest nemesis? The Jewish boy Kyle.
We tried to find commonalities between Kyle and Jerry. However, apart from the Jewishness, there was nothing we could think of that would not appear too contrived.
Stan however is most certainly the childhood George. Stan's father Randy is a total nutcase getting into the weirdest situations, as is George's father Frank. Whenever Wendy, the girl he likes, comes near him, Stan pukes. George after all these years is still very uncomfortable around girls. As a kid, Stan has had a few brushes with religious cults. He was heavily influenced by the Mormons, but fought off that influence. He was later influenced by scientology, but denounced it. Religious cults thus marked him as an unresponsive target, and so a grown up Stan, i.e George, was ignored by the cult-members-disguised-as-house-cleaners. Why the cult never tried to indoctrinate has been a mystery. It is now revealed. Stan was the lead singer of the band the kids formed named "Moop". When George saw "Moors" misprinted as "Moops" during a game of Trivial puruits with the Bubble Boy, it rekindled old memories, and he adamantly held on to those memories by insisting that the answer was in fact "Moops".
Kramer is of course Kenny. Firstly, the original Kramer is called Kenny Kramer. Kenny's family is poor, and no one knows exactly how they make ends meet. No one knows exactly how Kramer pays the bills. Kenny keeps getting into accidents and gets killed. Kramer doesn't get killed, but keeps getting into accidents, bumping into things, falling down, being kicked by crazy people. Kenny is the only guy whom Cartman regards as a friend, though Kenny is friendly with Stan and Kyle. Kramer is the only guy Newman regards as a friend, though Kramer is friendly with George and Jerry.
See, it all fits! Seinfeld is nothing but South Park 30 years later.
P.S - This is fun. Try to think up more such parallels and mail them to me. For instance, I think there's a great case to be made for Butters growing up to be Kenny Bania.
Update: A couple of you emailed me the link for the Calvin & Hobbes - Fight Club parallels. Have read it before, and have in fact blogged about it a couple of years back.
We tried to delve deeper into it, and came up with many similarities. Firstly, both are corpulent. Cartman is a very smart kid but his intelligence is always used for some sinister motives. Newman too, despite being well read, intelligent and articulate, is a mere postal worker. Which means he has not been able to apply his intelligence in helping his career prosper. But his guile and wit is at its most productive when it comes to cunning things like manipulating people. As a kid, cartman holds high hopes of somehow obtaining ten million dollars. The grown-up Newman knows it's a lot harder than a kid would assume. However he still tries to make a fast buck through schemes like the bottle deposit, the old records etc.
Who is Newman's greatest nemesis? the Jewish boy Seinfeld. Who is Cartman's greatest nemesis? The Jewish boy Kyle.
We tried to find commonalities between Kyle and Jerry. However, apart from the Jewishness, there was nothing we could think of that would not appear too contrived.
Stan however is most certainly the childhood George. Stan's father Randy is a total nutcase getting into the weirdest situations, as is George's father Frank. Whenever Wendy, the girl he likes, comes near him, Stan pukes. George after all these years is still very uncomfortable around girls. As a kid, Stan has had a few brushes with religious cults. He was heavily influenced by the Mormons, but fought off that influence. He was later influenced by scientology, but denounced it. Religious cults thus marked him as an unresponsive target, and so a grown up Stan, i.e George, was ignored by the cult-members-disguised-as-house-cleaners. Why the cult never tried to indoctrinate has been a mystery. It is now revealed. Stan was the lead singer of the band the kids formed named "Moop". When George saw "Moors" misprinted as "Moops" during a game of Trivial puruits with the Bubble Boy, it rekindled old memories, and he adamantly held on to those memories by insisting that the answer was in fact "Moops".
Kramer is of course Kenny. Firstly, the original Kramer is called Kenny Kramer. Kenny's family is poor, and no one knows exactly how they make ends meet. No one knows exactly how Kramer pays the bills. Kenny keeps getting into accidents and gets killed. Kramer doesn't get killed, but keeps getting into accidents, bumping into things, falling down, being kicked by crazy people. Kenny is the only guy whom Cartman regards as a friend, though Kenny is friendly with Stan and Kyle. Kramer is the only guy Newman regards as a friend, though Kramer is friendly with George and Jerry.
See, it all fits! Seinfeld is nothing but South Park 30 years later.
P.S - This is fun. Try to think up more such parallels and mail them to me. For instance, I think there's a great case to be made for Butters growing up to be Kenny Bania.
Update: A couple of you emailed me the link for the Calvin & Hobbes - Fight Club parallels. Have read it before, and have in fact blogged about it a couple of years back.
