In 2017, the Seinfeld parody account @Seinfeld2000 asked an essential question: “What if Seinfeld [was] still on TV?” They answered the inquiry themselves: “Jerry [gets an] iPad.”
And thus, a perennial Seinfeld meme was born. The account was a satire of other Seinfeld-related accounts that earnestly asked what the show would be like if set in our current era, but it’s not as though its suggestions were so far from the truth. Jerry would get an iPad if Seinfeld were set in the 2010s, and it would be really stupid.
Since then, dozens of other memes have emerged that address the same question, imagining what Seinfeld would look like in a contemporary context. This is the basis of one popular meme where the characters are imagined as fuckboys complete with curly cropped hair, one dangly earring and a crossbody bag. Another meme outfits Kramer with this look and has him saying, “Jerry, she’s low-key kind of mid tho, FR.”
Seinfeld isn’t the only show to get this treatment since the meme emerged around two months ago. Sopranos has also delivered frequent fodder, as has American Psycho and Mad Men. Many of these memes use iconic images to bump up the irony, like the photograph of George W. Bush being told that a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center. “No cap sir a plane has deadass crashed into the world trade center and another into the mf pentagon no cap the situation is NOT bussin’,” his Chief of Staff Andy Card is pictured saying.
All of these memes rely on the basic format of creating a fan fiction around what these cultural artifacts would look like if they occurred among today’s e-boys. Strictly, they all have the requisite curly hair and dangly earring, and they each say something that includes the phrases “no cap,” “for real” or “mid.”
That said, there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about these memes. It’s not even the first time Seinfeld characters have been imagined as fuckboys. And yet, in a moment where nearly everything is a sequel, revival or recycling of an earlier franchise or idea, we still manage to keep finding something fun about editing Patrick Bateman to wear a heart-shaped earring. Just like wondering what Seinfeld would have been like if he had an iPad, photoshopping famous people and images to include the word “bussin’” is quickly becoming a timeless bit.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
