History YMMV / Seinfeld

** So many actors had small parts before making it big. Some easy-to-miss examples include Creator/JenniferCoolidge, [[Series/WillAndGrace Megan Mullaly]] and Creator/ConstanceZimmer.

* FairForItsDay: While George and Jerry's panicked, self-conscious NotThatTheresAnythingWrongWithThat response to being MistakenForGay in "[[Recap/SeinfeldS4E17TheOuting The Outing]]" makes the two seem more homophobic [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny by today's standards]], the sentiments expressed were groundbreaking for a series in the '90s -- making the joke about the two male friends' insecurity in a time and place that they acknowledged as being homophobic, stressing that the problem was their own. There’s also some decent examples of ValuesResonance in the episode, especially with how Kramer is upset that Jerry and George didn’t tell him about being gay, showing that he is supportive. “I thought we were friends!” The scene with the gay soldier is also obviously critical of the US military’s homophobic policies at the time.

* NeverLiveItDown:
** Some viewers will never forget the time George pushed a clown and an old lady onto the floor and abandoned children to what he thought was a terrible house fire (it turns out he just mistook overcooked food for said terrible house fire). Despite the series moving on like nothing happened and George still being presented in a positive light at times, it's very hard to forget about such atrocious actions. The SnapBack and fact that it was a one time thing, understandably, does not really mitigate what he did.
** The series finale is practically made of this, with its decidedly DownerEnding still earning its share of mockery among fans to this day.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Many people felt this way as the show went on and the characters became more and more unpleasant and cruel. Some wags watching the finale said they were hoping for the plane to crash.

* IdiotPlot: In general, a lot of the conflicts in the show only happens because of the main characters telling a lie that ends up spiraling out of control and not [[AesopAmnesia learning from it.]] [[Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad Of course]] it is a part of the appeal of the show.

** Creator/BryanCranston as Tim Whatley
*** Also from ''Series/BreakingBad'', Creator/AnnaGunn in "The Glasses", and Creator/BobOdenkirk in "The Abstinence".

** In that same episode, Jerry and Elaine have a brief conversation on annoying Disney songs. Elaine eventually cuts Jerry off saying "Why don't we just ''[[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 let it go]]''.

** In that same episode, Jerry and Elaine have a brief conversation on annoying Disney songs. Elaine eventually cuts Jerry off saying "Why don't we just ''[[WesternAnimation/Frozen let it go]]''.

** In "[[Recap/SeinfeldS6E5TheCouch The Couch]]", Elaine, a passionate supporter of abortion rights, is very distressed to learn that her current date isn't when he states "Someday, we're going to get enough people on the Supreme Court to change that law", referring to the landmark ''Roe'' decision. As of June 24, 2022, his declaration came true when the court indeed overturned the decision.

** Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus and Creator/MichaelRichards were on sketch shows before they were on this show. Louis-Dreyfus was on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' from 1982 to 1985 while Creator/MichaelRichards was on ''Fridays''[[note]]ABC's AlternateCompanyEquivalent of ''SNL''[[/note]] from 1980 to 1982 (show co-creator Larry David was also a ''Fridays'' cast member and the final episode had some former cast members, like Melanie Chartoff, Bruce Mahler, and Mark Blankfield), so if you watch either of these shows, you'll be surprised to learn that Elaine and Kramer did sketch comedy.

** "[[Recap/SeinfeldS4E7TheBubbleBoy The Bubble Boy]]" has Jerry and Elaine getting lost while driving because George was driving too fast for them to catch up, and he was the only person that knew the address of their destination. This immediately dates the episode to the mid 90s, because this would not have been a problem if George had a cell phone. It even dates the episode to an earlier season, because cell phones appear in later seasons.
** The finale featured a bit where Elaine is reprimanded by Jerry for calling someone to ask about their health on a cell phone (rather than calling on their home phone). With the ubiquity of cell phones in the new millennium--to the point where some people don't even ''have'' a home phone--it seems almost laughably outdated to suggest that calling someone on a cell phone rather than a home phone would be seen as rude.
*** In general, the widespread use of cellphone technology in the years after many of these episodes were aired would have made the plots of a few episodes easily resolvable. For instance, the episode "The Boyfriend, Part 1" has part of its plot revolve around George attempting to scam the unemployment office by giving them Jerry's phone number and claiming that to be his new employer. Jerry goes along with it, but the scheme gets derailed when Kramer answers the phone in complete ignorance of the scam while Jerry is out. If this were done on a show set when cell phones were nearly ubiquitous, it'd be easy to question why George wouldn't have given the unemployment office Jerry's cell phone number instead. In addition, this particular plot might have just fallen apart from the start in the age of widespread use of internet search engines if a savvy unemployment office employee bothered to look up George's fake company and find that "Vandelay Industries" doesn't exist.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Mickey in "[[Recap/SouthParkS7E21TheWaitOut The Wait Out]]". He's pretending to be Joey in bed, as the real Joey is on the street being chased by Kramer.[[note]]He ran off because Kramer was walking weird because of tight jeans, making Joey think he was Franchise/{{Frankenstein}}'s monster.[[/note]] Joey's mom comes in and sees what she thinks is Joey's body under the covers, and says "Good night, honey." Just as she's about to leave, Mickey (sounding decidedly unlike a little boy) gruffly says "Good night." He couldn't just keep pretending to be asleep?
--->''(Joey's mom is heard screaming from down the hall)''\\
'''Jerry''': It's gotta have something to do with Kramer.
** Kurt in "[[Recap/SeinfeldS8E11TheLittleJerry The Little Jerry]]". First of all, he had been shaving his head for the swim team, and only decided to let his hair grow back in to impress Elaine. When he's depressed that his hair isn't growing back on the top of his head, why doesn't he just continue to shave his entire head to look like he did before? Then, at the end of the episode, he's arrested for looking like George. All he had to do was show his driver's license and that would've cleared things up immediately. But what does he do instead? He punches the cop and gets over a year in prison. The cop in that same episode counts as well, because even though Kurt insists he's not George, the cop says "We know you're bald. We know it's you."
** George tells a complete stranger ''where Jerry lives'' in "[[Recap/SeinfeldS5E3TheGlasses The Glasses]]".
** Jerry finds out a supposed tennis pro actually can't play at all, and agrees to throw a game to him so his wife will respect him again. But then the jackass insists on throwing nasty trash talk at Jerry after every point, which naturally soon drives Jerry to play for real and destroy him.

** "[[Recap/SeinfeldS4E7TheBubbleBoy The Bubble Boy]]" has Jerry and Elaine getting lost when the car they are following to their destination goes through a light turning red that they have to stop at. Modern viewers can be excused for having no idea why this would be a problem at all; GPS would solve this problem, as would cell phones. Jerry and crew having neither immediately marks the show as mid-90s. (And for you younger readers -- yes, this used to happen. You had to hope that the person you were following would notice you weren't behind them any more and pull over to wait for you.)

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Jerry in "[[Recap/SeinfeldS6E16TheKissHello The Kiss Hello]]". Jerry isn't the nicest person but he's right to avoid unwarranted physical contact from the other people in his apartment building, and they were mean and petty to disown him.

** One of Jerry's dates of the week was a dermatologist, whom he derogatorily referred to as a "Pimple Popper". There is now a real, quite popular reality show starring a dermatologist with that very name on [[Creator/TLC TLC]].