I'll mention something different for my own contribution than my usual:

I've always hated Seinfeld, including when his show was brand new. "It's a show about nothing!" was a thought terminating cliche in the 90s that was used to pitch the show at me again and again by its fans, and also to dismiss any and all problems I had with the show and its ultra-privileged smarmy main character. If I got anything valuable out of that show and for that matter his stand up routine, it was a lifelong allergy to New Yorker comedy that front loads a whole lot of "I am a New Yorker which means I am smarter and tougher and wiser and more cultured and more sophisticated yet more grounded than you" self-aggrandizement into the set. :nyet:

EDIT: Please post your own disliked Hexbear-approved popular things! Don’t just reply to mine! :rage-cry:

  • RNAi [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Dude, I tried to watch the first episode and I couldn't even finish it, like where the fuck is the funny? It's not something about the epoch cuz The Nanny is contemporary and pretty funny, but that shit had me waiting for something funny and it never happened, and the canned laughs made me more and more bored, and my family was "this is garbage, that guy is extremely annoying and unfunny, who the fuck recommended this to you?"

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Something something it's a show about nothing.

      Something something the main character is a smug smarmy narcissistic asshole just like the comedian playing the character with basically no differences, but because that's on purpose it's good and okay.

      • RNAi [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        But it's not funny, like, there's nothing that can even be interpreted as funny-intended because it's so awkward and forced (plus the canned laughs) so if something might have been funny intended is distorted into a super unfunny and forced bad joke.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          I think my allergy to laugh tracks also started with repeated attempts by friends to make me watch Seinfeld. If I sat there frowning, I'd be told "it's a show about nothing!" as if those were magic words to dispel my lack of laughing. :agony-minion:

        • spectre [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny

          • RNAi [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            What did it start? Being boring as a bit? It's garbage, don't try to essay-out of reality

            • TankieTanuki [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              The page does say this lol

              Not to be confused with honestly thinking Seinfeld is not funny.

              I don't have any strong opinion on Seinfeld but I was too curious about the tropes it started and sad that the tvtropes page didn't mention any so I found these articles.

              https://www.vox.com/2014/7/6/5874267/how-seinfeld-changed-tv-30th-anniversary

              https://screenrant.com/seinfeld-ways-about-nothing-changed-tv/

              https://www.indiewire.com/2014/02/how-seinfeld-revolutionized-the-sitcom-29472/

              • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
                ·
                2 years ago

                yeah, it really was the first sitcom that didn't have a high concept. i think that was a key part of it's charm was that it didn't have an elevator pitch the way basically every tv show had. it was allowed by execs to be a vehicle for one comedian's style of observational humor and became a huge hit.

                it wasn't like "a bunch of doctors working in a military hospital during the korean war" or "the whole thing takes place in the 1950s in a small town with a loveable rebel" or "two people with 3 kids each get hitched and there's a maid or some shit."

                like even the term "sitcom" implies there's some novel, describable situation which induces comedy. as though the comedy writes itself due to the situation.

                i also don't really give a shit about seinfeld anymore, though i used to watch it when it was new and i was a teenager. it was almost a given that most people thought jerry was the weakest part of the show. george was the gas, because he was constantly fucking up and emotionally charged all the time. elaine pretty normal except when she wasn't, and kramer was the wild card. the door thing with the audience cheering is crap today, but his more subtle twitching and mannerisms would still work if deployed today. giddyup. add in the truly absurd peripheral characters like newman or frank constanza, and there's some real pepper in that gumbo. mouth pop

                i saw it was on streaming last year and revisited the episode where they forgot where jerry parked in the mall parking garage. very 90s. totally just a nostalgia experience at this point, because everything is so dated. especially the laugh track. but yeah, it was amusing watching kramer awkwardly and disastrously carry around some appliance in a box and to see both george and jerry get busted by a mall cop for taking a whiz, because george would of course fuck up like that but jerry is too refined. back then, an entire episode of a show taking place in the impossible labyrinth of a massive mall parking structure, trying to find the car was pretty clever for the shit that was being cranked out.

                for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave%27s_World

      • RNAi [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Ah I just have to skim-watch the first 1200 episodes like that stupid anime that never ends

        • Bugger [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I actually jumped in a later season and that was fine. I dont think I've ever seen the first or second season.

          • RNAi [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            The whole thing is about not having any arc at all apparently

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              hexagon
              ·
              2 years ago

              The thing that is bad is bad intentionally so it is good actually :galaxy-brain: