History Headscratchers / Seinfeld

** The trope is LaboriousLaziness. The trope of a lazy character unwittingly engaging in more effort to take the "lazy" route rather than the supposedly hard option is a common one in comedy.

** Also, well-off financially is relative. Jerry's probably doing okay for himself, but that doesn't mean he's a millionaire or anything close. Just because his real-life equivalent rakes in the big bucks doesn't mean that Jerry is as successful.

* [[RuleOfThree Another one about George]]: so, is he like the adult version of [[{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]]? I ask and put it that way because the happiness and confidence he gained from doing the opposite only seemed to last for that episode.

** Also, non-Jewish troper asking: isn't Hanukkah actually a relatively minor celebration in the Jewish holiday calendar? IIRC it's kind of been inflated a bit because of its close proximity to Christmas and gentiles assuming it has the same significance. So in that sense it might almost be a RealityIsUnrealistic thing; most of the characters don't make a big deal of it because Jewish people as a whole don't make a big deal of it (or at least not as big a deal as non-Jewish people assume they do).

** The producers are probably being a bit glib about the show literally being about 'nothing' (since, as it's not a Dadaist [[TheTropelessTale Tropeless Tale]], clearly it's not literally about nothing), but in addition to the points raised about the lack of clear cut moral lessons, the show's also about 'nothing' in the sense that what does happen is usually kind of mundane and banal. In a lot of sitcoms around the time (not all of them, but a lot of them), in each episode there's usually some kind of meaningful central event that informs the entire episode -- this week the characters are going to the prom; next week the characters are hosting a dinner party; the week after that the characters are going on vacation; and so on. Admittedly, ''Seinfeld'' isn't ''entirely'' free of these kind of things, but (particularly in the early seasons), most of the time episodes involve them just kind of dicking around fixating on things that are kind of trivial. This week, George plans a perfect comeback to someone who insulted him; next week, Jerry worries about the size of his girlfriend's hands; the week after that, Elaine gets into a petty feud with the guy who runs the soup restaurant she goes to for lunch; and so on. It's about 'nothing' in the sense that what happens in most of the episodes by most standards isn't really that important or significant.

** The producers are probably being a bit glib about the show literally being about 'nothing' (since, as it's not a Dadaist TropelessTale, clearly it's not literally about nothing), but in addition to the points raised about the lack of clear cut moral lessons, the show's also about 'nothing' in the sense that what does happen is usually kind of mundane and banal. In a lot of sitcoms around the time (not all of them, but a lot of them), in each episode there's usually some kind of meaningful central event that informs the entire episode -- this week the characters are going to the prom; next week the characters are hosting a dinner party; the week after that the characters are going on vacation; and so on. Admittedly, ''Seinfeld'' isn't ''entirely'' free of these kind of things, but (particularly in the early seasons), most of the time episodes involve them just kind of dicking around fixating on things that are kind of trivial. This week, George plans a perfect comeback to someone who insulted him; next week, Jerry worries about the size of his girlfriend's hands; the week after that, Elaine gets into a petty feud with the guy who runs the soup restaurant she goes to for lunch; and so on. It's about 'nothing' in the sense that what happens in most of the episodes by most standards isn't really that important or significant.

** Out-of-universe, Cranston could also have been required to wear particular styles or facial hair for other roles that he had; actors are sometimes contractually obliged to develop or keep a particular look for a character (usually if they're doing a recurring role like a theatre production or a starring/recurring role on a TV show) that they'll have to wear in other, smaller roles that they might also get during the production. So on some occasions Cranston might have had another role which, say, required him to have a beard and the ''Seinfeld'' producers were okay with him keeping it. In-universe, as above, Tim's probably just one of those people who's constantly trying out a new look.