If someone were to say to you, “I’m disturbed, I’m depressed, I’m inadequate, I got it all,” your first inclination would certainly not be to laugh. However, George Costanza from the 1990s hit sitcom “Seinfeld” serves as an inspiration for a newfound interpretation of life’s austerity.
Burdened with an unrelenting and ruthless streak of bad luck, his misfortunes are consistently utilized as a mode of slapstick humor rather than interpreted as dismal. For the majority of the show’s nine seasons he remains jobless, single and living with his parents. The parody of his aesthetic shortcomings — being below average height, bald and pudgy in physique — also adds to his character’s comical appeal. Pragmatically this life status could be termed unideal or rightfully deemed tragic. However audiences find not only themselves laughing at George, but find George laughing at himself.
The sitcom especially exploits George’s romantic setbacks as a major mode of comedy. “I got rejected by a bald woman,” he admits to his friends, prompting them to keel over with gusts of laughter. If any of George’s happenings were befallen onto any of us it would be nearly impossible to laugh. As students at a competitive university with grueling academic schedules, it could serve us well to learn from George’s expressive and humorous reactivity when things go terribly amiss.
My week was not going as planned. A roommate spills water onto my laptop — it goes without saying that I’m now constructing this article from a different computer — delaying my productivity for days. I dismiss this tragedy after mourning for an appropriate amount of time and attempt to move on with my week in preparation for midterms. If only it was as easy as I needed it to be.
I misread several syllabi and am now behind in three classes. I decide to give to charity and consequently end up caught in a torrential and painful downpour of rain — going off-route to donate $4 costs me 10 minutes which would’ve saved me from getting soaked had I not strayed from my usual walk to class. I attempt to run in said storm, but to no avail. My clothes are soaked through within minutes at which point I acquiesce to the falling rain and walk disheartened to class. Shivering throughout lecture I decide to go to the gym afterwards to lift my spirits. On the way I’m splashed head-to-toe by a car speedily passing through a puddle. I do not make it to the gym.
Surrounded by passersby on McCormick Road, doubly soaked with rainwater, I stand and impede the walkway of several thinking to myself, “Is this a joke?” I start to laugh at the absurdity of what has happened to me within the span of two days. The ferocity with which I desired the week to go well was met with utmost opposition from the fate I was dealt. The “are you kidding me?” response was refreshing, a perspective I’m not accustomed to having. Instead of panicking and collapsing onto my bed at home out of exasperation and frustration, I simply laughed at myself.
It’s difficult to see it at the time, but some personally deemed disasters are actually funny. We pressure ourselves to plan ahead and have everything that happens to us unfold as expected or as we feel they need to. Our foolishness in assuming such control is exposed when things go awry or when we have a streak of especially bad luck. If you can recognize the humor of personal distress within the context of television then you should turn this lighthearted gaze onto yourself when things don’t go according to plan. Embrace calamities and mishaps as opportunities to laugh. Take to George Costanza for example and regard mistakes or accidents as comedic instead of causes for a headache. “For I am [insert name here], Lord of the Idiots.”
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