Seinfeldian Conversation

"Nonstop. I admit, I have some sort of strange fascination: How long can two people talk about nothing?"
—William Riker, Star Trek: The Next Generation

A long, rambling, seemingly improvised conversation between characters about something that is beyond pointless, like loose shirt buttons. Often, the characters will devote as much intellectual effort to it as people in a debating society, making it even more pointless. Prone to sudden, almost transition-less topic-shifts as the characters are basically talking for the sake of talking. Tropes may provide a good topic.

Often happens at a time of awkward tension, like being Locked in a Freezer. Sometimes follows the same beats as a who's on first type sketch.

Named, of course, for Seinfeld, which had this as its signature trope. The characters were always debating things like the opposite of eating tuna (Jerry suggested that eating salmon is the opposite, because they swim in the other direction; George rationalized that it was chicken salad.).

Not to be confused with Sein Language. See also Distracting Disambiguation. When the conversation about nothing turns into an unusually passionate argument, it's a Cavemen vs. Astronauts Debate. If the conversation involves who would win in a fight, see Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny. See also Talk About the Weather.

Be warned that not all viewers may like it. Long conversations betray the notion that film and television are visual media, so not everyone will have the patience to sit through it. This can be regarded as Padding and make the viewer scream "GET ON WITH IT!"

Examples of Seinfeldian Conversation include:

Anime and Manga

  • A memorable instance in One Piece has Sanji and Luffy escorting an ill Nami up a dangerous mountain to see a doctor, while at the same time dodging a near constant stream of attacks by a species of massive carnivorous rabbits. Despite all this in, Luffy manages to rope Sanji into a rambling argument about whether or not people from snow countries have to sleep.
  • Done a few times on Azumanga Daioh. For example, in the first Beach Episode, Osaka starts talking with Sakaki about the kanji that are used to write words like "hemorrhoid", "seal", "fugu" and "dolphin".
    • Then there was Tomo and Kagura's fight over Santa Claus. They conclude that he is paid by the government and flies at mach 100.
      • They were thinking what to say to Chiyo. Chiyo stopped them by saying that her father was Santa. Cue to Sakaki's fantasies...
    • Asides from being a Cloudcuckoolander, Osaka's big thing was puns and wordplay. Talking about kanji seems like a logical continuation.
  • Lucky Star is almost entirely a series of Seinfeldian Conversations—but imagine four high-school-age girls sitting in the coffee shop instead of Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine. The first episode starts with a six-minute discussion of how to eat various foods. In fact, the trope was formerly named Chocolate Cornet.
    • It's occasionally lampshaded when a character (usually Kagami, as the Deadpan Snarker) will comment "That was random" when another character suddenly changes the entire topic of the conversation.
    • It's lampshaded even further in the dub: "Will someone just get to the Punch Line already?!"
    • That's what happens when a slice of life 4koma is made into an anime, see Azumanga Daioh above.
  • The Bottle Fairy anime is full of this.
  • Cromartie High School is this trope. The anime's shining moment is when Kamiyama and Hayashida have a long, meandering conversation about how boring they find their school, whilst the animation starts looping / rewinding itself—just to ensure that absolutely nothing which might move the plot along occurs.
    • In the first volume of the manga, Kamiyama attempts to teach some of his classmates how to have a 'normal' (ie: 'pointless') conversation. The topics range from how to eat fish to Kamiyama's meeting with an alien which lead to him being invited to ride in its spaceship; the punchline is that he didn't get to because the alien lost its keys (thus rendering the entire story 'pointless').
    • Possibly one of the best examples of Cromartie's dominance over this trope is Kamiyama's attempt to explain to his class how the perceptions we have of person can influence our reactions to his/her behavior. Only Cromartie could take a topic as dull as that and make it so bizarre and funny.
      • Another great one is the humming episode, in which the characters spend the entire episode trying to figure out where they've heard a tune that they can only hum. The spend the majority of the episode doing nothing but humming, and never come to a conclusion.
    • It's worth noting that Cromartie's 'legendary' 2nd-year delinquents a.k.a. The Four Great Ones (allfiveof them!) are even more skilled conductors of Seinfeldian Conversations than Kamiyama & Co.
  • Every conversation between Drossel and Gedächtnis in Fireball is like this.
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei features a lot of this, and a lot of it is concerning various tropes used throughout the show.
  • In Ultra Maniac, Ayu in male form (who calls herself Ayuoh in that form) and another girl have a conversation about...how to spell Ayuoh's name.
  • The characters in Tentai Senshi Sunred never stop talking about food, deals on food, and what household cleaning products work best. This comes mostly from the evil organization's leader and his band of monsters, bizarrely enough.
  • In between slipping on banana peels and having ping-pong matches, the cast of Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru engage in these.
  • Black Lagoon has a few of these: The one that most easily stands out is Revy and Eda's conversation on what gun Jesus would use.
  • The prologue of Baccano! 2002: Bullet Garden goes meta when several members of the Mask Makers have a rambling conversation about rambling conversations in Quentin Tarantino flicks, which devolves into an argument over which one of them gets to be Steve Buscemi.


Comic Books

  • Jesse Custer and Cassidy of Preacher (Comic Book) frequently engage in this (on Bill Hicks, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, etc.) whenever they go out drinking.
  • This is the medium that is characterized by questions in the vein of "Can Batman beat the Fantastic Four alone, or does he need Spider-Man's help to take on the Human Torch?" If you ever met (or if you are) a comic book nerd, you know the debate will be better than any presidential election debate.
    • As an example of when this type of conversation is taken to absurd lengths artist Jacen Burrows relates a story of when he was promoting his collaboration with Warren Ellis Scars, a dark crime drama about a cop going through a nervous breakdown, at a convention he was asked who would win in a fight between Batman and the main character.
  • This trope might as well be renamed "Bendisian Conversation" after Brian Bendis, as it has been the defining trope of his comic writing from his first self-published indie work all the way through his latest run at Marvel.
  • Starman also has a lot of this. One of the most memorable being a group of mobsters arguing over the best Stephen Sondheim musical.
  • Mesmo Delivery opens with the one of the main characters discussing with the other about how he would have made a better Elvis then Elvis himself.


Fan Works

  • leoandsnake often uses this, even having the other Top Gun guys discuss Barry Bonds' batting average while Maverick and Iceman get each other off right in front of them.
  • There is a Harry Potter fanfic (either here or here)in which Ron and Draco's first nonhostile conversation ever centered on whether it's possible to figure out the twist of The Sixth Sense before it's revealed. (Draco claims he figured it out by himself, while Ron says it's impossible.
  • The Jerry Seinfeld Program is a new series of webisodes by Seinfeld and George Costanza impersonators that takes this to exaggerated extremes.
  • After waking to finding out what happened, the narrator resorts to this option to help Melanie C overcome the shock in Case of the Missing Technology. The latter was in the process on becoming a Cyborg against her will, which the narrator knew there wasn't anything she could do.

Films -- Animated


Films -- Live-Action

  • This trope is pretty much the entire content of Mindwalk.
  • Used frequently in films by Quentin Tarantino, usually immediately followed by some seemingly non-sequitur (and frequently violent) act by the speakers; e.g., The "foot massage" and "Royale with Cheese" conversations in Pulp Fiction. Here, it is generally being used to underscore how blasé the characters have become towards a daily routine most people would find appalling, or at least extraordinary.
    • The "foot massage" conversation, while seemingly Seinfeldian, actually serves a point, as Jules is trying to emphasize how dangerous and jealous Marsellus Wallace can be, particularly in regards to his wife Mia, who Marsellus is leaving with Vincent for a few days.
      • Not to mention that Tarantino has a prominent foot fetish, and sees foot massage as being quite intimate.
    • In the words of Roger Ebert, the dialogue in Pulp Fiction isn't Seinfeldian at all, but "load-bearing." For example, the conversation about a pot belly between Butch and Fabienne. Instead of rehashing Butch's story arc up to that point (paid to take a fall by Marcelus, secretly bet heavily on himself, etc.), Tarantino uses the scene to very quickly establish Fabienne's character and the loving, passionate nature of their relationship. Another example of how the dialogue is used in the movie; Lance's girlfriend discusses her body piercings at length. Later, after Mia OD's on heroin, Lance and Vincent are forced to inject adrenalin directly into her heart...the ultimate body piercing experience. Hence her reflection on the incident..."Trippy."
    • The "Like A Virgin" and tipping-habits discussion in Reservoir Dogs and pretty much any conversation at the bar in Death Proof are more examples. Even then the conversations serve a purpose. Mr Pink refusing to tip marks him as The Spock, and White arguing with him marks him as The McCoy, setting up their relationship throughout the movie. Mr. Orange spends the scene acting like the new guy trying to fit in, and he also is the one who tells their boss what's going on -- he's disclosing private information. Lots of other little clues give insight into personalities and relationships.
  • All of the View Askewniverse contains this to some degree. Clerks is almost entirely built around Seinfeldian Conversation, and there's T.S. and Brodie's conversation at the cookie stand about whether or not Lois Lane could carry Superman's baby to term in Mallrats. When it happens in Dogma it's almost shocking, as it's not really Seinfeldian—the religious discussions are at least tangentially related to the plot, and most people would consider religious discussion worth a lot of thought and time. The hands-down winner, however, is The Flying Car.
  • In Stand by Me, the characters talk about what Goofy is and whether or not Mighty Mouse could beat Superman. They are, of course, talking about tropes. No wonder that movie's so popular.
  • In Ocean's Twelve, upon being told they were going to be killed,the group immediately got into an argument of why the group was called "Ocean's Eleven"
  • Subverted hard in Donnie Darko in which the exchange just pisses Donnie off and makes his friends all look like idiots.

Sean: We gotta find ourselves a Smurfette.
Ronald: Smurfette?
Sean: Yeah, not some tight-ass Middlesex chick, right? Like this cute little blonde that will get down and dirty with the guys. Like Smurfette does.
Donnie: Smurfette doesn't fuck.
Sean: That's bullshit. Smurfette fucks all the other Smurfs. Why do you think Papa Smurf made her? Because all the other Smurfs were getting too horny.
Ronald: No, no, no, not Vanity. I heard he was a homosexual.
Sean: Okay, then, you know what? She fucks them and Vanity watches. Okay?
Ronald: What about Papa Smurf? I mean, he must get in on all the action.
Sean: Yeah, what he does, he films the gang-bang, and he beats off to the tape.
Donnie: [shouts] First of all, Papa Smurf didn't create Smurfette. Gargamel did. She was sent in as Gargamel's evil spy with the intention of destroying the Smurf village. But the overwhelming goodness of the Smurf way of life transformed her. And as for the whole gang-bang scenario, it just couldn't happen. Smurfs are asexual. They don't even have... reproductive organs under those little, white pants. It's just so illogical, you know, about being a Smurf. You know, what's the point of living... if you don't have a dick?
Ronald: [pause] Dammit, Donnie. Why you gotta get all smart on us?

  • The "animal crackers" segment in Armageddon.
  • An early example is It Happened One Night. One of the classic romantic comedies, despite the fact that the two leads mostly discuss things like hitchhiking techniques, and what does or does not constitute a piggy-back ride.
  • The 40-Year-Old Virgin has many of these, though it should be noted that a lot of them were in fact ad-libbed. Some of the deleted scenes shown on the DVD display this even more.
  • Mahalik and CJ have a few of these in Scary Movie 3 and 4.
  • Barry Levinson's Baltimore movies - Diner, Tin Men, Avalon (film) and Liberty Heights - are filled with examples of this trope (Diner in particular might be the Ur Example).


Literature

  • In Discworld novels, Sergeant Colon and Corporal Nobbs of the A-M City Watch often spend their time discussing how tins of salmon can all be the same size, or what Death's first name would be, if he had one. This prevents them getting in the way of the competent officers in the main story.
    • While Pratchett is rather good at this, giving the idea that we're only seeing a part of a character's life, the Watch series is particularly rife with examples, from the Nobby-Fred non-sequiturs to Constable Visit's prosyletizing to Detritus' War on Slab although the latter serves as a sort of Chekhov's Gun.
    • More importantly (from their perspective) it prevents them getting in the way of the antagonists in the main story. Well, mostly.
      • Nobby and Colon 'old school' coppers. Their preferred method of policing is to pick a bridge or a large stone building and guard it for the duration of their shift so no one can steal it. Their entire approach to police work is Seinfeldian.
    • The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy, also by Terry Pratchett, makes heavy use of these as well.
    • The UU wizards do this pretty much constantly, only Ridcully, Rincewind, the Librarian, and Ponder's group ever seem to do anything but this trope (and eating, of course).
  • Postmodern novel Bear V Shark is an extended discussion on, well, Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The entire thing is like a very long Seinfeldian Conversation.
  • The postmodern novel White Noise features a lot of bizarre, rambling, misinformation-laden conversations on topics like "When was the last time you brushed your teeth with your finger?", parallels between Elvis Presley and Adolf Hitler, and whether rats are classified as "rodents" or "vermin"; they frequently take a Wiki Walk from one pointless topic to another. (Much of the dialogue in that novel is either this or Contemplate Our Navels.)
  • Zach and Lucien of Character Issues. Their conversational topics range from aliens to the proper plural of walrus. For the record, they decide that it's "walri".
  • Any Neal Stephenson written conversation featuring a member of the Waterhouse family is prone to this - possibly the best example is a conversation on the foundation of banks and fiat currency in the middle of the Great Fire of London during The Baroque Cycle.
    • Justified in that Asperger Syndrome, which can lead to Seinfeldian thought processes, seems to run in the family.
  • The parody novel The Dragon With The Girl Tattoo has a chapter where Helltrik Vagner talks about how, after the human civilisation was overthrown, "Several decades passed before proper intensive factory farming of goats, sheeps and pigs was established." Kaal corrects him on the pluralisation of "sheep", leading to a three-and-a-half page argument on the subject. Of course, anyone familiar with the Millennium Trilogy can spot the Foreshadowing here.
  • American Psycho has these in both the book and the film adaptation. There's an infamous scene involving a fight over business cards and there are ruminations on random pop singers and 1980s culture in between the main character murdering people. Actually, all of the novels by Bret Easton Ellis have this to a degree.


Live Action TV

  • Like the above mentioned, pretty much all of Seinfeld. It literally begins and end with this trope.
  • Everybody Loves Raymond has several of these. One prominent example is when Frank and Marie Barone argued for a full two minutes about what "fork split" on the side of a package of English Muffins means. Frank insisted that it instructs you not to cut the muffin, but to split it with a fork. Marie insisted that it meant that they already split it for you at the factory with a fork. At the end of the argument, Frank refused to eat the muffin, because it was cut with a knife, and thus Marie had "killed the crannies and smushed them into the nooks." Marie retaliates by splitting apart Frank's newspaper with a fork.
    • And then there was the episode where they were fighting over who invented the lawn. "Nobody invented it, it's grass!"
  • House has several of these between House and Wilson. In season 2's episode "Clueless", they were sidetracked from discussing a patient's illness by debating whether or not a music room and a conservatory are the same thing.
  • They happen with delightful frequency in Gilmore Girls. Where did all the anvils go? Where indeed.
  • The West Wing does this almost as much as Seinfeld, although the content of the pointless conversation in question is usually high-intelligence. This happens most often on the part of President Bartlet, who takes great pleasure in torturing the rest of the characters with his inane ramblings and trivia and analyses and getting away with it, because he's the president and no one can tell him to shut up.

Josh: I don't understand -- Salvador Dali had distinctive penmanship?
Donna: Yes.
Josh: How was it distinctive?
Donna: Well, for one thing, he wrote in Spanish.
Josh: He was Spanish.
Donna: Which would account for his distinctive penmanship.
Leo: [entering] Excuse me, am I interrupting something important?
Josh: I can't begin to tell you how you're not.

  • Seen on Cheers many times, usually as Sam and Diane walked around the bar talking about the main plot while Cliff and Norm engaged in inane bar talk such as what movie has the most sweat (Cool Hand Luke), or whether Wile E. Coyote is the Antichrist.
  • The black comedy Rescue Me often abuses this, usually with something most people wouldn't find as proper conversational material.
  • More than a few Monty Python's Flying Circus shorts go on about something random like the sound of words without end, until they finally Drop the Cow.
  • Babylon 5 did this a few times to play up the idea that "life goes on" even in space. One notable instance was when a very bored Garibaldi dragged Sinclair into a conversation about getting dressed in the morning. Garibaldi got distracted and couldn't remember what he did first with his pants, and wanted to know what Sinclair did.

Sinclair: (sighs) Fasten, then zip. You?
Garibaldi: Fasten, zip!
Sinclair: How much longer?
Garibaldi: One hour, fifty-seven minutes. Wanna talk socks?
Sinclair: No.
Garibaldi: Just a question.
Sinclair: I'm not having this conversation.

  • Drake and Josh: "So, what's the difference between a hoagie and a submarine sandwich?"
  • Angel spent over two minutes on the characters arguing about whether cavemen or astronauts would win in a fight. Of course, since the show is made by Joss Whedon, this was mentioned later on in a very different light.
    • Unsurprisingly, this came directly from the writers; Joss Whedon walked into the writer's room one day and saw "CAVEMEN VS ASTRONAUTS - WEAPONS TBD" written on the board. He couldn't resist.
  • The New Adventures of Old Christine (AKA the first show to break the Seinfeld curse) had these frequently mostly between Old Christine and her brother Matthew.
  • Lost has had several of these, often involving Hurley. The episode "Catch 22" saw Charlie and Hurley pursuing a downed parachutist through the jungle while discussing who would win a race between Superman and The Flash.
  • Rove, an Australian late night talkshow host, is all about this trope in interviews. He usually quickly passes over major things in the interviewee's life for bizarre little tidbits. He also had a game called 20 Bucks In 20 Seconds, where he asked a range of odd little questions aimed at spawning this (which evolved into Final Five, which is the same idea but fewer questions and no time limit).
  • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia frequently features the gang engaged in a heated argument about a ludicrous topic in an inappropriate moment, such as discussing the difference between "bears" and "twinks" while in a business meeting.
  • Some seasons of Last of the Summer Wine love this trope, especially the second Foggy run. Their version typically has the three main characters speaking in turn as though in a conversation, but they're actually all monologuing on different unrelated subjects and ignoring the other two.
  • Andy and Maggie engage in this sort of conversation regularly on Extras. In fact, in might be said that this is pretty much what their whole relationship is built on.
  • Happens often in Red Dwarf. One example is the discussion between Cat and Lister about who out of Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble is more attractive.
    • Well, I'd go with Betty... but I'd be thinking of Wilma.
  • The Brazilian Sitcom Os Normais had this as its main source of humor. One memorable exchange between the main characters, the engaged Rui and Vani, during a day washing their car, somehow ended with a female alien that could shoot lasers from its genitalia.
  • The presenters on Top Gear are sometimes seen talking like this in the lulls between two parts of a challenge.
    • Or when one of the three arrives at a destination late.
  • Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is basically Seinfeld if it just focused on George (who was based on Larry David, Seinfeld's co-creator).
  • Appears in Friends, with conversations about why Donald Duck wears a towel after showering, or why there isn't a superhero named Goldman.
  • French comedy series Kaamelott wishes to marry this trope. Most of the humor of the show involves characters of the Arthurian legends involved in day-to-day routine and such dialogue. Example exchange between two minor characters:

Ywain : Oh. All right then. There's really a LOT of people there. (speaking about people who showed up to pull the sword out of the stone)
Gawain : Maybe two or three of them just showed up to clean the place up afterwards.
Ywain : All right, sure, but still, surely everyone must realize that the once and future king must be of bourgeois or royal lineage!
Gawain : Right. So... Arthur's of a something or other's lineage?
Ywain : What?! Well... of course he is. He's the son of Pendragon.
Gawain : Right! ...So which one's Pendragon, anyway ? Is he the one who stripped naked to put his sword down at Caesar's feet?
Ywain : (pause) Vercingetorix?
Gawain : Oh come on, Arthur ain't the son of Vercingetorix! Plus, Vercingetorix hardly comes from a bourgeois lineage. So there.
Ywain : Errr... no, wait, you...
Gawain : No, no, no, shut up. Since you obviously don't know what you're talking about, just shut up.

  • Everything Dwight, Andy, Kevin, Creed, and to a lesser extent Kelly and Phyllis say in the American version of The Office.
  • On How I Met Your Mother a simple metaphor leads to Ted, Robin, Marshall, and Lily having an intense shouting match about which is better: ducks or rabbits. We only get to see bits and pieces of the actual argument, which went on for quite some time, but they seem to get very, very intense about everything, and discussion ranges from the animals merits as pets, food, good luck charms, and competitors in a steel cage death match.
  • Dead Like Me had a few of them, one in particular involving Mason and Roxie discussing having a bird as a pet. It gets very heated.
  • In a Halloween episode of Bones, Cam dresses up as Catwoman. When Brennan compliments her on her costume, she says something about how Catwoman is "the strongest of all the woman superheroes" (though Catwoman spends more time as an Anti-Hero than anything else). Since Brennan habitually dresses up as Wonder Woman for Halloween, she takes offense at this, and spends the rest of the episode singing the praises of Wonder Woman to anyone who will listen (i.e., Booth).
  • NCIS: Los Angeles loves this trope.
    • The original NCIS as well. While most crime shows jump directly from the intro part with the victim to the main characters arriving at the crime scene, the NCIS characters almost always spend a few minutes at their desks, talking about something irrelevant, before they get called to the crime scene. Whatever they happened to be discussing is also usually brought up again before the episode is over.
  • Peep Show, as a Sadist Show, uses inept and neurotic characters to make its Seinfeldian Conversation extremely uncomfortable.
  • In the All in The Family episode "Gloria Sings the Blues", Archie and Mike argue abouth whether you should put on your socks on both feet and then your shoes, or your the sock and the shoe on one foot, then the other one. Archie, however, treats it as Serious Business.
    • In the episode "Archie's Raise" they argue about whether it's okay to put mustard on a pretzel.
    • Mike and Archie argue in one episode whether it's a better idea to tuck both sides of a sheet into the bed and slide in through the top, or fold over a corner and lay down through the untucked side.
  • This was a frequently used trope in Ed. One such conversation:

Ed: Hey, who would win in a fight between a big tall guy and an invisible fat guy?
Mike: Big tall guy.
Ed: Really?
Mike: Yeah.
Ed: What if the invisible fat guy had a whip?
Mike: Is it an invisible whip?

  • The Scoobies in Buffy the Vampire Slayer frequently find themselves in this trope, though they rarely last for more than a brief amount of time. Indeed, the first time Willow and Oz said more than a few words to each other was when Oz described how the other animal crakers are jealous of the monkey, being the only one allowed to have pants.
  • Used frequently on Homicide: Life on the Street with the Detectives often cracking Jokes at crime scenes or wondering about the correct pronounciation of "Araber".
  • Used on Oz occasionally with moments such as the Conversation about Gay puppets serving as the best Humour moments
  • Happens very often on My Name Is Earl, when Randy and Earl are about to go to sleep, Randy asks Earl his opinion on something ridiculous, and once Earl responds, Randy will continue the conversation, such as in the below example.

Randy : Hey Earl.
Earl : Yeah, Randy
Randy Who do you think would win in a fight, Muppets or Sesame Street?
Earl : I don't really think they'd fight; they're both pretty peaceful.
Randy : What if they had to, like in that head-chopping-off movie where there could be only one?
Earl : Muppets.
Randy : Okay. Muppets or Fraggles?
Earl : Muppets.
Randy : Okay. What about Muppets or He-Man?
Earl : Just He-Man, or He-Man and his friends?
Randy : Just He-Man.
Earl : Muppets.
Randy : That's who I had.

  • Done a few times on Blossom. One specific example that comes to mind is a conversation between Blossom and Six about how people on tv never seem to need to use the bathroom. This discussion ends when Six announces that she has to go to the bathroom.
  • In one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Data tries to engage in small talk, or as he calls it, "non-relevant conversation." When the Enterprise reaches Arkaria Base, he hits it off with small talk master Commander Calvin Hutchinson, prompting the page quote.
  • Usually done with nerd topics in The Big Bang Theory. In one episode they start talking about who the most genuinely heroic character in the Marvel Universe would be, going along the lines of the doctor who gives Wolverine his prostate exam. A few minutes after more plot-relevent events happen, Raj tried to bring the topic back up and Leonard dismissed it as his new question being rather stupid. Raj replied, "We are talking about probing the hinies of superheroes... there are no stupid questions."


Music

  • Trapped in the Drive Thru by "Weird Al" Yankovic, based on Trapped in the Closet. Particularly the first part (of three).


Radio

  • In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, when Zaphod's about to plummet to his death, Ford tries to engage him in a conversation about the etymology of one of Zaphod's exclamations.
  • Pretty much the entire series of little-known cult radio classic Vic and Sade consists of deadpan, often absurd dialogue revolving around small-town life.Check it out.


Theater

  • The one-act play Goat Plague consists entirely of a Seinfeldian Conversation about plague-naming.
    • Indeed, a lot of one-act plays seem to have these.
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is mostly this. The rest of it is Hamlet.
  • Waiting for Godot is a philosophical version of this trope. Didi and Gogo talk nonsense while waiting for the eponymous Godot. They keep on talking about how things happen, whether they should continue, if they're hungry, if they should commit suicide. Godot never shows up, and they don't do anything.
  • Martin McDonagh is quite fond of this one, and it appears in the most of his major plays and films. He willingly notes the Tarantino influence.


Video Games


Web Comics

Rick: Is this like a "Seinfeld monologue, or do you expect an answer?

  • The appropriately named strip "Small Talk" from Order of the Stick is nothing but panel-length clips of conversation between the side characters while the more central protagonists exchange information in the background.

Malack: --so then I said, "I don't care that you were late, Acolyte Prilak, I'm not going to repeat the conversation we all just had."
Durkon: Aye, why should everyone need ta listen ta tha same thing o'er again?
Malack: Exactly! I mean, it was too wordy by half the first time.

Web Original

Bubs: I suppose we could talk about my napkin friend for another couple of hours.
Coach Z: Your napkin? Well, it's got my snot balls on it!
Bubs: Man, you don't even have a nose!

  • Red vs. Blue loves this trope. It is incredibly telling that for all that occured, episode 100 ended the same way episode 1 began, with one character asking another "why are we here?" and receiving a rambling answer with no relevance whatsoever to the question.
  • Two Best Friends Play has bits of long conversations occasionally, usually about the backstories of games besides the ones the two friends are playing.
  • This "Cheap Epic Meal Time Tribute Preview" contains, among other things, a seinfeldian conversation that is offscreen with a mosquito and musings on whether saints excrement is a viable religious relic.
  • Veronica will often attempt this in Shadowhunter Peril. A memorable moment is when she is in the middle of a battle with Taylor. She's trying to kill Taylor...while at the same time commenting on her hair and asking if her questions annoy her.


Western Animation

  • Done frequently on Sealab 2021, where the characters tend to get so engrossed in their Seinfeldian Conversation that they fail to notice little things like the fact that Sealab is about to explode. (See Somebody Else's Problem.)
  • Many other Adult Swim shows strive on Seinfeldian Conversations.
  • The Boondocks has a similar example were Gin Rummy and Ed Wuncler III talking about the value of things like text-messaging before robbing a bank (which they do consider mundane, since they won't be arrested despite screwing up so bad, since Ed's grandpa owns the police). This was probably done to as an homage to Pulp Fiction, and is even more obvious considering Rummy is voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.
    • Also in an episode in which Rummy railed against the sillyness of hands free bluetooth phone devices, between Ed talking to a woman on his bluetooth, while the pair went about robbing houses in the middle of the night.
  • The short-lived animated series Spy Groove featured the main characters, Agent 1 and Agent 2, getting into conversations like this, such as who would be peanut butter and who would be jelly on a sandwich.
  • Family Guy often makes use of it in conjuction with the series cherished Overly Long Gags.
    • One gag featured world dictators having a Seinfeldian Conversation about Seinfeld.
  • Most of Henchmen 21 and 24's conversations fall into this category. (Read: All)
    • SMURFS DO NOT LAY EGGS!
    • Even after 24 dies.
    • Billy and White do it a lot, too. And Watch and Ward. Or really, any of the several Author Avatar Those Two Guys character sets.
    • Also Hank and Dean on occasion.
  • Done all the time in Home Movies, although frequently the conversations literally are improvised (the actors provided a general outline but not a definite script).
  • The pilot of King of the Hill opens with a several-minute Seinfeldian Conversation, which ends with a few lines about Seinfeld being a show about nothing.
  • The main characters of Metalocalypse will insist on having those conversations to the detriment of anything else, no matter how hard CFO tries to get them back on track.
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