Saturday, January 26, 2008

#3: Whine anyone?

George Costanza is one of the biggest whiners on any sitcom, past or present. In “The Bubble Boy”, George first starts his whining spree by arguing with Jerry over his decision to play a personal message in front of his girlfriend of the week, Naomi. He then whines about him not having a date for the weekend since they’ve already made plans.

A few scenes later, George is whining at Susan to stop her attempts at affection while he’s driving since he’s more worried about making good time. When they can no longer see Jerry’s car, he starts whining about it being Jerry’s fault for not being able to drive fast enough to keep up.

When George and Susan arrive at the house without Jerry and Elaine, Susan again tries to show her affection for George and is shunned away by his worrying about someone seeing them. Susan makes toward the door and George begins to complain about not being able to go in there due to an unfortunate visit he paid his grandmother in the hospital.

In the final scene at the cabin, George sheepishly whines to Susan about not receiving change for the tolls even though her grandfather’s cabin is burning down in front of them.

Robert is a classic whiner in the sitcom, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND. It doesn’t matter if things start going well for Robert because he is constantly overshadowed by his more successful brother, Raymond.

3 comments:

Kelli Marshall said...

Yes, Robert Barone is definitely a whiner like George--nice job! However, is George really "overshadowed" like Robert?

RScar said...

In many ways George is overshadowed by Jerry. Jerry pokes fun at how no one would envy George or certain things relating to his physical appearance. Jerry even gets confrontational when George starts thinking of himself as better than Jerry. Admittedly, overshadowed is a bit of a stretch when it comes to their relationship because at the end of the day, nothing is really resolved in terms of their relationship like it is in the strong family dynamics of EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND.

Kelli Marshall said...

Thanks so much for elaborating! To prepare you for argumentative essays, however, may I ask that you get even more specific in your answer?

You nicely write, "In many ways George is overshadowed by Jerry." Then you cite two examples, but they are rather general. From what episodes are your examples? And how exactly does Jerry "get confrontational" as you say? Thanks!