[lbo-talk] another view of Seinfeld

[Tayssir John Gabbour]

On 11/24/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Danny Hoch talks about his experience as a failed supporting towel
> boy on Seinfeld - he's gotta be Ramon, talk with a Spanish accent -
> and Jerry says let's do the next scene in blackface!
> <http://www.maximumfun.org/blog/2006/11/danny-hoch-on-seinfeld.html>

I might've been tempted before to shrug and say that part of
Seinfeld's humor is to exaggerate stereotypes, and such exaggeration
makes the humor go down more quickly. But now it reminds me of how
PR's father Bernays linked market forces with this sort of cultural
stagnation:

"The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of
propaganda in the world to-day. It is a great distributor for ideas
and opinions.

"The motion picture can standardize the ideas and habits of a nation.
Because pictures are made to meet market demands, they reflect,
emphasize and even exaggerate broad popular tendencies, rather than
stimulate new ideas and opinions. The motion picture avails itself
only of ideas and facts which are in vogue. As the newspaper seeks to
purvey news, it seeks to purvey entertainment."
http://www.pentaside.org/article/propaganda-bernays-1928.html

Tayssir