Friends vs Seinfeld

[babinro]

I personally never cared much for Friends. I've seen about one season worth of episodes and never came back to it. The show was interesting at times but never really funny to me with few exceptions (Mrs. Chanandler Bong)

Seinfeld on the other hand is my all time favorite sitcom, surpassing greats such as Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Arrested Development.

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

Gotta go with Seinfeld on this, never watched much of friends...but their humour is very different, both sitcoms but with very different writing styles.

You just can't beat Larry David, the writing is genius and the situations in each episode all manage to have a fantastic climax where everyting just comes together.

 

[Random Fella]

Seinfeld isn't really funny in the slightest to me, much too in your face American comedy
Friends I find much more entertaining, and the jokes are much better.

 

[Squidden]

I always preferred Seinfeld because it was a much darker comedy and never tried to preach morals or teach lessons about love and happiness and all that jazz like Friends did. Objectively, I think they are both good shows. Subjectively, I liked Seinfeld's humor more because it wasn't overly serious and it never had a single moment of drama.

 

[Astoria]

Friends is the easy winner for me. Seinfeld just never seemed funny or interesting. I still watch Friends almost every night and laugh at it. For me it has the right blend of comedy and seriousness.

 

[DrunkPickle]

Actually, both are horrible shows in my opinion. I immediately change the channel whenever I see the intro.

But I've never really been a fan of any kind of show; I guess I just don't like the genre ("shows"). The only shows I can actually stand to watch is The Big Bang Theory, Dr. Who, and some of the HBO/Starz miniseries (Game of Thrones, Spartacus etc.).

 

[A Free Man]

I've never really watched either.

Being brought up with the anarchic Young Ones, the truly insane {i]Dallas[/i], last week's episode of Soap and Charlene in Neighbours; I've still not sussed Friends or Seinfeld.

Friends was what the girls in my school said was aspirational; when its focus was what latte a group of rich thirtysomethings would drink. Saccharine coated mush.
Seinfeld, like Buffy is something that people wanted me to try via osmosis. Maybe try that soon, now the hype has died down.

Still, of the two, I'd still pick something else.

Haha well I wouldn't say the characters in friends are "rich". At different times they have different amounts of money based on their jobs and some of them do alright from time to time. But one of them is practically an out of work actor most of the time and another is a full time masseuse, hardly what I would call rich. Also they all live in apartments and most of them have roommates. Also the fact that lots of people tell you to try something is a pretty bad reason to not try it. It's just as bad as liking it only because other people like it. You should try them at least and then make up your own mind. You might surprise yourself and grow to really like one or both.

OT: I suppose you can guess by now which one I like. I never really got into Seinfeld, I just coulnd't get it's humor. But I love friends I watch it rather often because my sister has all the DVD's.

 

[Alakaizer]

And yet, still no talk of British sitcoms. Namely the Young Ones and Red Dwarf!

Spoiler

Wait... is Red Dwarf technically a sitcom?

EDIT: Wikipidia says yes!

"Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series (plus a ninth smaller series named Back To Earth) of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009?present."

Mr. Flibble for the win. IT Crowd and Black Books were both pretty good too.

 

[Swifteye]

Wow and here I thought it would be an easy contest. Seinfeld hands down the writing is pretty relevant to american culture and the characters while pretty despicable tend to have very relatable situations and if you watch the right episodes. Things can be very wacky. The show has influenced pop culture it was that successful and effective. Friends on the other hand.

Look. I don't doubt that Friends was popular. But among my group, friends was the show liked only by dorky suburban plain as bread white people (humorously that stance stands as most of my friends who were Caucasian agreed). You couldn't PAY a person of ethnicity to watch friends. I've seen the show it's like the full house of adult sitcoms. It is like box macaroni and cheese. Edible but so very processed it's garbage in comparison to homemade. It's lack of teeth and ability to truly be witty or clever.

 

[AsurasFinest]

Both are wrong. Frasier is the winner. It manges to be intelligent and funny, never going for jokes which pandered to the lowest common denominator like Friends did and was consistently good unlike Seinfeld which only really got good around the third season.

 

[shado_temple]

Something I've definitely discovered with Seinfeld (both the show and the comedian himself) is that his form of wit is simply lost on some. I tried to get my friends as hooked onto the show as I was, but only had something of about a 60% conversion rate, with the other 40 just not "getting it". Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

 

[The Funslinger]

It seems like you are comparing apples and oranges. Seinfeld and friends are two completely different types of shows, Seinfeld being centered on the individual as a part of the group, and Friends being focused on the group as a collection of individuals. They are written and presented in two very different ways. Friends is more akin to How I Met Your Mother, while Seinfeld is more like My Name is Earl.

The characters on Seinfeld are the cause of the humorous situations while the characters on Friends are more reactionary.

I've never really watched either.
Friends was what the girls in my school said was aspirational; when its focus was what latte a group of rich thirtysomethings would drink. Saccharine coated mush.
Seinfeld, like Buffy is something that people wanted me to try via osmosis. Maybe try that soon, now the hype has died down.

Still, of the two, I'd still pick something else.

Your loss. Both are superior to pretty much every show from the previous decade.

Indeed. And whoever said that the characters in Friends were rich?

 

[The Funslinger]

Seinfeld isn't really funny in the slightest to me, much too in your face American comedy
Friends I find much more entertaining, and the jokes are much better.

Indeed. While controversy can be funny and shouldn't be completely shied away from, if you have to be controversial to be funny, you're doing something wrong and are an idiot.

Edit: I just realized how much I've been saying "indeed"...

 

[Something Amyss]

Your loss. Both are superior to pretty much every show from the previous decade.

Personally, I thought both were awful.