Seinfeld

This is a reflective, funny account of one of the most popular TV sitcoms ever made: Seinfeld (1990-1998) . Ostensibly a show " about nothing," its creator Larry David decreed that it should contain " no hugging, no learning. " Nicholas Mirzoeff explores Seinfeld's obsession with the rules of everyday life in the key areas of comedy itself: dating , relationships, Jewishness and how to be a New Yorker, wherever you happen to live. Mirzoeff situates Seinfeld as an expression of Clinton-era America, from its consistently ironic take on social life, to the changing culture of sexuality and ethnicity. This is a reflective, funny and occasionally digressive account of what it is to watch television.

Nicholas Mirzoeff is Director of the Visual Culture program at New York University.  He is the author of Watching Babylon:  The War in Iraq and Global Visual Culture (2005) and An Introduction to Visual Culture (1999).