Though it had a rocky start on the air, Seinfeld soon became one of the most popular shows in television history and a highly influential sitcom. It also made Jerry Seinfeld a massive star as he played a fictionalized version of himself, a working comedian living in New York.
Jerry was obviously the main character over the course of the series and the writers were never afraid to make him look bad. As the show went one, some aspects of his character grew a bit stale and repetitive while other aspects made his more unlikable. Here are some of the ways Jerry got worse and worse on Seinfeld.
Jerry And Elaine
Seinfeld did a great job of subverting sitcom expectations, including the relationship between Jerry and Elaine. Fans likely suspected that these two would eventually wind up together as is usually seen in sitcoms. But the show never caved into that assumption.
While it is irable that Seinfeld wanted to do something new, it seems like it left something unaddressed with Jerry. How did he actually feel about Elaine after all these years? Was she the one for him? We'll never know.
His Career
Jerry's career as a stand-up comedian started out as a pretty significant aspect of the show. Each episode would even feature clips of him performing his act. However, as time went on his comedy became less and less important.
He always seemed like a pretty successful comedian on the show, but his career remained quite static. Jerry is teased with success and failure at various times, but this never goes anywhere. It makes it hard to ever get invested in that aspect of the character.
Immaturity
None of the main characters on Seinfeld function like real adults, including Jerry. He loves cartoons, cereal, and seems to only relate to the real world through comic books. Over the course of the show, he never seems to grow in the maturity department.
The other characters come to realizations about their directionless lives at various points, but Jerry never does. Any slight move in a more mature direction is usually undone by the end of the episode and he experiences no growth at all.
His Obsessive Behavior
Jerry likes to have everything nice and organized in his life. He is clean and precise whenever he can be, and while that might not sound like a bad thing, as the series went on, his behavior became obsessive.
It's safe to say that Jerry is a "clean freak," unable to relax if there is anything out of place or dirty in his home. He is driven mad by the idea of his girlfriend's toothbrush falling into the toilet. This could have been an interesting character trait but it doesn't really factors into the show beyond a few jokes here and there.
Nitpicking
Jerry's stand-up comedy was always based on observational humor. He examines things in everyday life that he finds strange and comments on them. These started out funny stand-up bits in the early seasons, but later on, it came to represent Jerry's entire outlook on the world.
His life seemed ruled by the small things that annoyed him in life. People who high-five, a girlfriend who eats peas one at a time, and a girl with big hands are just some of the things that he could not get over.
Same Old Relationships
Like the rest of the characters on the show, Jerry does not have a lot of luck with romance. Usually, this is all his own fault and just cements his selfishness and immaturity. It can be a lot of fun watching these relationships crash and burn, but it gets a little repetitive over time.
We see relationship after relationship of Jerry meeting a nice girl, finding some shallow reason to dislike her, and moving on to the next. He barely has any significant girlfriends in the series that last more than an episode.
Disrespectful To Girlfriends
Jerry's problem with romantic relationships is not only that he is indifferent to their success, but it is also that he is often outright disrespectful to his partners. Like many other aspects of his life, Jerry is selfish and doesn't consider the feelings of the women he is with.
In one instance, he tries to get free massages from his masseuse girlfriend. In another, he chooses a silly mocking voice over a girl. And worst of all, he drugs his girlfriend so that he can play with her toy collection.
The Normal One
There are a lot of colorful characters in Seinfeld, but Jerry is probably the most normal out of all of them. Kramer, George, and Elaine all have massive quirks and big personalities that make them fascinating characters, but Jerry is just sort of there to react to their insanity.
He does get involved in some of the others' wacky schemes, but it feels like he's more their babysitter than their partner in crime. As the show goes on, it makes Jerry a lot less interesting than the other characters.
Ruined People's Lives
Jerry and his friends are like black holes — they seem to destroy anything that gets close to them. Through his meddling, thoughtless actions, and even his misguided attempts to help out, Jerry has ruined many people's lives.
When a Pakistani immigrant opens a restaurant, Jerry convinces him to remodel and sell Pakistani food, which proves to be a disaster. Then Jerry misplaces the man's immigration papers and gets him deported. This is just one of the people whose life is ruined, and it would be interesting to see some guilt over that.
Heartless
Jerry has a frequent saying, "That's a shame," which he delivers with such indifference that it's obvious he doesn't actually care. In fact, Jerry seems pretty indifferent to the entire world around him and other people's problems.
He is unmoved by the plight of the "bubble boy", he offers no real comfort or pity to George when his fiancé dies, and he laughs at an overweight man getting mugged. Jerry cannot be bothered to offer any sympathy or thought to anyone but himself.