The Marriage Ref- How It Can Be Funny

With all of the critical backlash against The Marriage Ref recently, I figured I would explain why the common viewer may really enjoy the Jerry Seinfeld produced show. Don't get me wrong, there are a few aspects that will detur anyone from loving this show, but there aren't enough wrong-doings to make up for the hilarity of a quality panel.

The audience can be extremely distracting, as their need to laugh and clap at every single comment made can get quite annoying. Then again they might help the panelists get their juices flowing. Then there is the Ref himself, Tom Papa. As Tyson so elequently put it while I was watching this week's ep with a few broskies in NYC*, "He's corny." Although he is extremely corny, he occasionally pulls off a good line to make up for the rest of the episode.

*There is definitely something to be said about watching a comedy with a bunch of dudes that enjoy the same type of humore as you. This week's panel, which featured Larry David and Ricky Gervais, was probably the best so far, but my position on the subject might have been exaggerated by the constant cracking up by everyone in the room.

The stories about the married couples are rarely funny themselves, but who cares? We're there to watch funnymen like LD, Gervais, Seinfeld and Alec Baldwin make ridiculous comments about random people. Baldwin and Seinfeld were a good duo to start the series with, but last night LD and Gervais showed you why this show can be unbelievable at times. It is made or broken by the panel. David's undeniable humor combined with Gervais's infectious laugh made it work this week. Next week's panel does not show as much promise. Jason Alexander, Cedric the Entertainer and Martha Stewart...no thanks.

Watching Larry David talk about anything would be hilarious. That's why Curb Your Enthusiasm is fantastic, that's why this week's Marriage Ref was very funny, and that's why if I got to pick one celebrity to just hang out with for a day, LD would be my number one choice. His disgust with human beings, and the fact that he doesn't mind sharing his negative feelings for said humans never gets old.

Other Points

-Seinfeld should have just had himself and LD be on the panel every week and rotated the third guest.

-Ricky Gervais's laugh is incredible, making The Ricky Gervais Show on HBO that much better.

-Episode two, featuring Seinfeld, Tina Fey and Eva Longoria proved that you can't have a good panel with two females. Never try that again.

-Madonna was surprisingly good this week. Maybe she just got caught up in the greatness of LD and Gervais, but I laughed a few times at what she had to say. Something that can't be said for Fey, Longoria or week one's Kelly Ripa.

Curb- Seinfeld Reunion and Finale

This week's season finale was not quite up to par with last week's stellar episode. Having said that, I still thoroughly enjoyed almost everything about it. I especially liked that it was 40 minutes long. So much good stuff that they had to extend their normal 25-27 minute range for the second straight week.

Other than getting to actually see another Seinfeld ep (on Larry's tv) the best part of the night was definitely Larry and Jerry's conversation a the party for Jason's book. Jerry stepped up big time and proved why his character on Seinfeld (which is almost identical to his real life persona) is in my top ten characters of all-time. I lost it when he was explaining to Jason that the title of his pamphlet could have also been Acting with Acting. He then ties in the entire convo he had with Larry, by saying to Jason "Having said that, I think this is a terrific title."

Jer also came up huge by doing the LD stare down to LD. Although not as good as the original, Jerry's final burst of bug-eyed stare was fantastic. Final note on Jerry was that I loved his very Seinfeld-esque observation that Larry's unimaginable love for wood meant that when he is at a funeral, he is more concerned for the coffin than the deceased. Classic.

How were the other people on the stage not cracking up at Larry's version of George? It was hilarious.

And final note on the Curb side of things, George doing LD's pretty, pretty, pretty good was also extremely enjoyable to see.

Great season.

Now to all the haters out there that were unhappy with the Seinfeld finale back in 1998. What were and are you thinking? It was a great finale. It did what a finale should do. It summed up the show in a way that gave it a complete ending. Going through and bringing back all the old characters to show how sick and twisted Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer were was both eventful and fulfilling. I would have been extremely unhappy at the time, if the finale had been something like what Curb's Seinfeld ep within an ep was. There was no closure on the characters. In '98 the four guys go to jail because of all of the trouble we've seen them get into. It was a perfect end to a perfect series.

Sepinwall, like most I assume, disagrees...

In fairness, placing this "Seinfeld" reunion in the confines of a "Curb" episode makes it easy for it to stand out. It's all the good bits, none of the plot mechanics: just joke, joke, joke, joke, joke. But what we did see of it, here and in "The Table Read," felt much more along the lines of what the finale should have been: just one last collection of stories involving these four socially maladjusted people.

In a final mini-rant, I'll say that I don't want my series finale to be just like any other episode, which he is basically say here. I want it to be momentous, like the original finale was. Having said that, this reunion ep inside of Curb was great for what it was. A way to get these four actors, and at times characters, together again for one more time in a way that they would all enjoy.