“Not That There’s Anything Wrong with That”: Seinfeld and Queer Culture
The episode begins with Jerry, a successful stand-up comedian in New York City, waiting in a coffee shop to meet a young journalist from New York University for an interview. He waits with George and their mutual friend Elaine, and the journalist enters the coffee shop without Jerry noticing. She sits in the booth in front of the group and very clearly begins to eavesdrop on their conversation; Elaine takes advantage of the situation and starts joking loudly to Jerry and George about them being gay and how they should be open about their relationship. The joke turns into an issue, however, when Jerry reschedules the interview to take place at his apartment when George is there.
The banter between Jerry and George during the interview is delivered as though they are an actual couple, and the interviewer asks questions that become increasingly personal as she suddenly becomes fascinated by the possibility of Jerry’s homosexual relationship as a celebrity. As supported by Yep’s theories, Jerry and George feel the need to defend their heterosexuality in any way possible, including by having sex with the interviewer. In the image on the right, ...
Seinfeld challenged many cultural boundaries during its nine years on the air, and its portrayals of the queer community had consistently been better than most. Peele describes a consistent phenomenon within film and television that puts queer characters in a negative light, including in situations of “unhappiness, murder, despair, freakishness, and invisibility, a cultural space long-familiar to queers” (6). In this episode, the “gay” couple is put in a more pragmatic context, where the partners are of lower-to-middle social class, living together, having common arguments about things like clothing like any couple would, and, in George’s case, of a body type and appearance not often given to a gay character (balding and overweight with glasses).
An overlying theme of this episode is Jerry and George’s desperate attempt to each prove their heterosexuality when it is threatened. Gust A. Yep deeply analyzes this common cultural phenomenon in his work, “The Violence of Heteronormativity in Communication Studies: Notes on Injury, Healing, and Queer World-Making.”
Adrienne Rich, author of “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” explains the foundation of heterosexuality in our society and what practices keep it as an expected, unquestionably normalized lifestyle. When Jerry’s parents read the article and the journalist’s accusations of the relationship, Jerry’s mother apologizes for accidentally buying him female clothing as a child, as though something had to have gone wrong in Jerry’s life for him to become gay.
Language employed by the characters in this episode shows a lot about the attitudes concerning politics and the gay community during the time of its production. This episode’s recurring line among several characters (including Jerry, Jerry’s mother, and George’s mother), “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” suggests a consciousness within the show that pertains to the gay community on television and how they are typically portrayed.
