Which is the better TV show, Seinfeld or Friends?

There are two kinds of people: one that knows Seinfeld is better, and the other that hasn’t watched Seinfeld.

Seinfeld was miles ahead in terms of pure laughter. Period.

I only cried on Seinfeld from laughing so hard thanks to the genius of Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. Friends was a RomCom; the writing wasn’t extraordinary.

It featured more characters.

Sometimes Monica and Chandler took spotlight, Joey was focal sometimes, and Phoebe never was important. It was always about Ross and Rachel which was never the point in Seinfeld. Also, the Seinfeld characters were funny, whereas in Friends, the jokes said by the characters were funny!

It frequently paralleled real life situations.

It focused on the subtle nuances of life, and did brilliantly in capturing them. The episodes were themed around routine normal incidents with a funny twist like ‘scratch, not a pick’, ‘man hands’, ‘being caught in the act’, ‘shrinkage’, ‘ugly baby face’, ‘the parking space’, et al. This makes it all the more relatable.

It was more quotable.

Master of your domain; no soup for you; yada yada yada; yeah, thats right; the sea was angry that day, my friends; Oh Moses, smell the roses, and the list goes on. And the only line that Friends could muster is “How you doin?“.

It was more promiscuous.

Friends tried with Joey, Monica and Phoebe’s random boyfriends in the beginning, but they didn’t hold a candle to Seinfeld. This makes Seinfeld edgier.

It had better minor characters.

J Peterman, Frank & Estelle Costanza, Mr. Steinbrenner, Susan, Morty and Helen, Uncle Leo, Mr. Pitt, Newman, Banya, Jackie Chiles, David Puddy, yada yada yada! Friends had Gunther and the Geller parents. Cool.

It didn’t rely on relationship humor.

Sure they played around with George & Susan once in a while. But Friends rested its shoulders on its couple, and relied on that for all its comedy.

The Seinfeld female was funny.

The three Friends females were good, but Elaine was funny and so much more. They can never match the charm and zaniness of Elaine!

Its aloof character was actually likable.

Kramer’s goofiness was funny and entertaining; Phoebe was irritating at times.

In short, FRIENDS was built on a conventional pitch, very formulaic and predictable with likable characters (not that there is anything wrong with that). On the other hand, Seinfeld went the unconventional way, pushed the envelope in terms of humor, and emerged as a masterpiece. It’s a comedic institution, and well and truly the master of its domain. It will stand the test of time, and that is what makes it superior.

Not much left to say after Robert Frost ‘s answer.

Seinfeld, indeed, is better when it comes to pure craftsmanship. And for purists, it would always be better than Friends.

One more springs to mind – Arrested Development. Smart writing, original characters and hilarious settings. Now compare it to The Big Bang Theory. Good writing, good characters and familiar settings.

Friends took the “Bar” and replaced it by “Coffee Shop”, TBBT took the “cool people” and replaced it with “nerds”. You already have a successful formula, change the settings and take the characters from a different section of society, and voila!, you have brand new successful TV series. Rehash.

It’s difficult to compare the two, because they’re so different from one another.  I would argue that Seinfeld‘s humor is more sophisticated:  the episodes are so tightly crafted in a way that most episodes of Friends are not.  On the other hand, Friends had a warmth to it (which of course was not at all the aim of Seinfeld) that made it lastingly endearing and easy to rewatch. 

Comedy snobs generally see Seinfeld as the superior show.  But creating characters that are as lovable as the Friends were is a skill, too.  Plenty of sitcoms since have tried to copy the Friends dynamic (a young, good-looking group of friends) – most have failed miserably. 

Seinfeld definitely pushed the envelope in terms of what you could do with humor – how dark you could go, and creating humor from selfishness and impersonal observation rather than warm relationship interactions. 

But it’s easy to forget that Friends was considered somewhat edgy when it premiered, too, not concerning humor itself, but in its portrayal of sexuality:  Monica having sex on the first date, Carol and Susan’s relationship (yes, a lot of the humor surrounding them would be unacceptable today since it sort of depends on “gay” as the punchline, but the very fact that they were a committed, loving couple was revolutionary), Joey doing a sex study and focusing solely on pleasuring his girlfriend until the study was over, etc.

Critical assessments of the two shows generally rank Seinfeld higher (for example, the Writers Guild of America ranked the best written shows of all time:  Seinfeld came in at number 2; Friends came in at a distant number 24).  But surveys of “favorite” shows often rank Friends higher (the Hollywood Reporter recently surveyed over 2800 television insiders – directors, producers, writers, actors, etc. – about their favorite shows of all time:  Friends came in at number 1; Seinfeld came in at number 5).

For me, Seinfeld .

Not only between FRIENDS and Seinfeld, I think Seinfeld is the best sitcom out there ever.

No doubt Friends is super awesome and crazy. It was the first sitcom I had ever watched. I was in complete awe after completing the 10 seasons. I thought no other show can be so funny throughout the series.

Then came Seinfeld. After the first season, I thought it is good but definitely not better than friends. But then, as the series progressed, I was hooked, completely.

The story-lines are better than friends – the uncanny resemblance with common man’s life and its nuances , the cast is great – the craziness of Kramer, the always-worried Costanza, the ludicrous Benes and gluing them all together is Jerry. Nobody is going to love them in real life – they are selfish, foolish – but the characters are so lovable – that is what make a treat to watch.

If you have watched FRIENDS only, then please give Seinfeld a try and you will also find it better. It is a show about nothing – you will be mesmerised by that nothingness :))

Are you kidding me? The question should be, “Is Friends as good as Seinfeld?”
It’s a rhetoric question, the answer is ‘obviously not!’

If you are judging by the first two episodes, you are not used to this kind of comedy which is totally based on conversations, situations and characters and not on a plot. Watch till season 2 and I am sure it will sink in. You will get a feel about the craziness of the characters and will fall in love with this show about nothing or as we say, a show about life. Every life situation comes down to a funny situation or episode of Seinfeld.

It has another component in Jerry’s stand up act and it too has some truly golden lines which will make you think.

For better reference, Robert Frost’s answer to Which is the better TV show, Seinfeld or Friends?

Here are some facts about Seinfeld:

• The show led the Nielsen ratings in its sixth and ninth seasons.
• In 2002, TV Guide named Seinfeld the greatest television program of all time. In 1997, the episodes “The Boyfriend” and “The Parking Garage” were respectively ranked #4 and #33 on TV Guide’s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
• In 2009, “The Contest” was ranked #1 on the same magazine’s list of TV’s Top 100 Episodes of All Time.
• E! named it the “number 1 reason the ’90s ruled.”
• In 2013, the Writers Guild of America named Seinfeld the #2 Best Written TV Series of All Time
• That same year, Entertainment Weekly named it the 3rd best TV series of all time.
• The final episode enjoyed a huge audience, estimated at 76 million viewers (58 percent of all viewers that night) making it the third most watched finale in television history, behind M*A*S*H and Cheers.

• Jerry Seinfeld’s earning from the show in 1998 was US$267 million.
• He refused NBC’s offer of $5 million per episode, or more than $100 million total, to continue the show into a tenth season.
• As reported in July 2007, he was the second-highest earner in the television industry, earning at the time $60 million a year.
• The show became the first television series to command more than $1 million a minute for advertising–a mark previously attained only by the Super Bowl.
• According to Barry Meyer, chairman of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Seinfeld has made $2.7 billion through June 2010.

I rarely find myself disagreeing with Robert Frost, and I’m not sure I do on his final answer of Seinfeld, but I can’t get on board with the idea that Friends fitting the typical mold of a sitcom is a bad thing.

Sure, it may get old when every sitcom seems to follow a similar formula, but that doesn’t mean the formula is bad, or even that a particular show is bad. Friends was a great show despite the fact that it fit the sitcom mold.

(The problem with all shows being copies of one another is much worse today than when Friends first aired. Every new sitcom seems to have a voiceover narration, they feel the need to make some sort of moral point during the course of a 23 minute episode, and there just has to be a prototypical “dumb” guy.)

The characters in Seinfeld are cartoons. They are a lot closer to Homer and Bart than they are to Monica and Chandler. If we met them in real life, we would hate them. We wouldn’t be friends with them, or want to hang out with them. They’re only funny because we’re not there experiencing the events with them. The typical Seinfeld episode takes an ordinary, everyday event and exaggerates the heck out of it until we barely recognize it. Thus, a show about nothing – the everyday things in life we never take a second thought about.

We never see character growth. Seinfeld and George and Kramer and Elaine are the same and at the same place in life at the (rather dumb) end to the show as they were in the first episode. And that’s okay. Much like Bart never makes it out of fourth grade. That’s the point. There is no character growth because that would be something.

The 6 characters in Friends are the friends you wish you had. (Most of the time.) We’re supposed to grow up with them through that time in our lives where friends are all we have. There is clear character growth and development, and we’re always cheering for Ross and Rachel to get back together, or for Joey to finally find his breakout role.

Where Seinfeld is a parody and exaggeration of the mundane routine of our everyday lives, Friends attempts to give us a more “realistic” take on it. The comedy is a lot less situational, and a lot more personal.

Both shows were driven by the unique individual characters, and the chemistry that developed between the actors. Most shows focus on a central 1-2 characters. There are definitely other characters with their own personalities, but they are secondary. Very few shows pull off a true ensemble cast like both Friends and Seinfeld did. (Despite being named Seinfeld, the other 3 characters were equally as important as Jerry.)

I think the comedy behind Seinfeld is a lot tougher to “get” than Friends. Some people don’t like Friends but not usually because they don’t understand it. It’s routine, very funny, but routine. Plenty of people don’t understand the comedy behind Seinfeld. It might make a lot more sense to them if it were a cartoon, but all the yelling and the mundaneness of it can be confusing as a sitcom.

Depends on what you enjoy. Personally I found Friends very childish and juvenile, something I’d enjoy when I was 13 maybe. After season 6, some episodes were just un-watchable. It is a show that would have failed without a laugh track.

Seinfeld is a class apart. It is a show that I have enjoyed most. The repeatability of the show is unmatched. Iconic episodes like “The Contest” and “The Marine Biologist” are just too good. It never tried to be a preachy sitcom (it was probably the first that didn’t follow that formula, Friends came after it). It didn’t rely on irritating romantic sub-plots to keep going.

When it aired, Seinfeld changed the way people looked at sitcoms. It never took itself or the situations in the show seriously. In all sense, it was a show about NOTHING. And that’s what was so damned brilliant about it. By now, I have watched the entire Seinfeld series about 4 times and I can still watch it again.

So, to conclude, yeah, I’d say Seinfeld is a much better show than Friends. It is probably the best sitcom ever made, followed by Arrested Development.

Seinfeld hands down.

Barring the finale, for the whole 9 seasons the sitcom was indeed a “show about nothing“. On the other hand, Friends had a linear storyline in almost every season in the whole course of its run. The first season was about Rachel getting settled and Ross falling for her, the second and their were about their on and off relationship among other things, then the Ross-Emily, Ross-Rachel (the Vegas wedding) Chandler-Monica arcs and so on and so forth. Season in season out, Seinfeld had nothing pretty much going on (As an exception, yes there was this time when George Costanza was engaged but still George was acting “Georgish” during that time) and yet was equally funny, comical and tickling our bones.

Coming to the characters, Friends was about 6 twenty something friends living in Manhattan and did many things that is typical of that demographic group. By that I mean the show to a great extent was built upon the pillars of dating. There were many serious relationships involving its characters all along the show’s run. I agree Seinfeld too turned to that page every now and then (It’s an American sitcom after all. There has to be dating involved somewhere) but not to an extent to build up a storyline around it. Seinfeld employed much older characters, including a selfish short bald guy who for most of the time can’t figure what they are doing with their lives. George worked 3 different jobs, was unemployed for a considerable amount of time, Kramer never really had a job even though he finally retired from “working” and Elaine had her fair share of getting fired. Jerry being a comedian was the only with a constant work life. It is quite uncanny to see such people getting together and remaining and friends. One’s unemployed who lives on his neighbour’s fridge, another is miserable and selfish, the third one is a beautiful yet short tempered girl and the last one finds the silliest of reasons to breakup.

Finally the guest characters – Friends had a guest character in almost every episode including some known Hollywood celebrities. Most of them were non recurring. Seinfeld made sure they were never totally out of the picture. Be it Newmann, George’s and Jerry’s parents, Uncle Leo to name a few. In fact, the finale made sure that every single one of them had one last appearance. Even when the curtains were drawing to a close, the show ensured that the guest characters were not left out. Apart from a countable few, friends never really had memorable guest entries.

PS : Although Friends was pretty formulaic, in its own accord it was one of the most loved sitcoms and is still is. But Seinfeld ruled the sitcom kingdom even before Friends existed and it still does.

Seinfeld is a better show,definitely.

1. Realistic:I have always felt, Seinfeld was more realistic than Friends. Seinfeld had characters all of us could relate to; whether it was Jerry who found minor reasons to break up with women or George who was pretty much a loser and is always insecure about his capabilities or Elaine who was dishonest and impulsive. But with Friends, most people can’t really relate to Joey’s dumbness or the very eccentric Phoebe.
2. Characters: In Seinfeld, in-spite of the characters being horrible people you begin to love them for who they really are.Whereas in Friends, most people don’t really like Rachel until she becomes this “independent” young woman. The characters in Friends were also deliberately made stupid to make them appear funnier.
3. Writing: Seinfeld was better written. It was a “Show about Nothing”,but it still made us laugh. Larry David’s motto of “No hugging, no learning” only made the show more entertaining.
4. Secondary Characters: Seinfeld had funnier secondary characters; Newman the “evil genius”, the “short-tempered” Frank Costanza, the “obnoxious” Estelle Costanza or the “successful,eccentric lawyer ” Jackie Chiles. Janice was the only secondary character in Friends you could really call funny.
5. Catch Phrases: Friends had great catch phrases : ‘How you doing’, ‘We were on a break’ and ‘Joey doesn’t share food’. But nothing could beat the in-numerous number of catch phrases Seinfeld had : ‘Giddy up’, ‘close talker’, ’low talker’, ‘anti-dentite’, ‘yada yada’ to name a few.
6. Kramer period.

Both series are completely different in terms of characters and chemistry between them. It comes down to individual preferences.

1. Seinfeld : There was weirdness, wackiness, madness and insanity without worrying about the sub plot then Seinfeld is your show. “The show is about nothing”, this statement alone sums up the 9 seasons of Seinfeld. Seinfeld changed the world of sitcoms.  Such was the influence of Seinfeld that critics claimed that Friends was a “rip off Seinfeld”( but later that perception changed and rightly so). Seinfeld is closest you can get in terms of pure comedy without any adulteration.

2. Friends : It is the best romantic comedy series of all time. The writers of this series weren’t solely focused on dishing out comedy, they tried to forge a special bond between the characters in which they succeeded. Moreover, the emotional problems faced by the characters sometimes draws out the predicaments we faced in the past, that is why we were able to relate to the characters in the series.

Major differences between the two series:-
1. Friends had character development as the series progressed. In Seinfeld, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld ensured that there was no character development  throughout the show.
2. As mentioned above, Friends is a romantic comedy and Seinfeld is a purely comedy show.
3. In Friends most of the humor is drawn out based on relationships, Ross-Rachel(couple) with the famous “We were on a BREAK”, Joey- Chandler (Friendship), Ross- Monica (Siblings& Friends), Chandler-Monica(couple) etc but Seinfeld was more of a situation comedy due to misfortunes of the characters mainly George Constanza and Cosmo Kramer, sometimes Jerry and Elaine.
4. The most important difference is Seinfeld was being centered on the individual(Jerry) as a part of the group, and Friends was being focused on the group as a collection of individuals.

Both shows have attained the status as classics in the world of sitcoms.
Both are superior to pretty much every show from the previous decade
Its wrong to compare them.

(Edit: You can also find the link for my answer which reveals how Friends has blatantly picked up concepts from Seinfeld and used in its series.

Kartikey Totewar’s answer to How much did Seinfeld influence Friends? )

I’ll compare FRIENDS, HIMYM and TBBT and Seinfeld.

Which is better?

Fun/Laugh quotient: FRIENDS

Sheer brilliance and innovation: SEINFELD

So my personal favourite is Seinfeld. Let’s see why.

Friends has that universal comedy genre which almost all of the people can relate too. I know comedy is no joke (no pun intended) and it is extremely hard of an art to make someone laugh and Friends sails through amazingly however I don’t find its comedy witty. It’s funny and you laugh your ass off at times but the quality is mediocre. Just try comparing comedy stand up artists Russel Peter’s and Chris Rock’s comedy with George Carlin’s. The previous two are good but George Carlin is hands down more innovative and intelligent in terms of his scripts.

TBBT and HIMYM are comedy genres but not universal. People who like an overall complete story right from the first season till the last, who are attracted towards the rom-com genre and love how the story connects to their lives (the little life lessons which HIMYM’s episodes generally give) would be crazy fans of it. The crowd who has at least the basic understanding of engineering/science and like the geeky comedy which TBBT conveys would have a treat watching it. So both of these series are for targeted audiences(even though the target audience is huge) and not universal.

Seinfeld (1989 to 1998) on the other hand is universal, a comedy treat and intriguingly innovative. It’s a story which revolves around a comedian Jerry Seinfeld (an actor of the same name) and his friends, who himself created and produced this series. His ever new comedy stand up, innovative story line of the individual episodes and the sheer brilliance of the dialogues which have been adapted in certain movies (they being catchy) makes this series worth watching. The laugh factor might be slightly lower than Friends, but in no way I would rate Seinfeld any lower than Friends.

FRIENDS put the laughter in comedy. Seinfeld puts the art.

They are both great television shows that I love, but they appeal to different audiences, so saying which is better is a matter of preference.

Friends is more of a feel good sitcom about friendship and family. There are many episodes that revolve around the holidays which have become classics. It is character driven, meaning that the characters develop as the seasons go on. It can get a little emotional too.

Seinfeld is more of a situational comedy. Its characters are one dimensional for the most part, and much of the humor comes from the plot and how they handle what is going on around them. The humor is much more cynical, and the characters do not develop at all.

Both shows are hilarious and very smart. They also have great writing and acting teams. However I like Seinfeld better. That is not to say that it is a better show, but it matches my own personal sensibility more. I’m a very cynical person when it comes to relationships, and I sometimes feel I am too smart for my own good. That is why I find Seinfeld to be more relatable.

I wish I could live in a world similar to Friends, which is probably why I like it so much. However I feel that it is not realistic.

FRIENDS blessed us with its premiere about 20 years ago, with the story revolving around six 20-somethings living in New York trying to get their life together. When the series wrapped up with its 10th season in 2004, almost the entire world said goodbye to these six people with a really heavy heart. This TV show not only made a huge place in the hearts of millions worldwide, but also set an incredibly high standard for the many more sitcoms to come. Alas, not all the other shows could manage to do as well as FRIENDS did. And I’m not surprised.

FRIENDS was more than just a TV show- it became the face of pop culture. It was fresh, new, and unusual as compared to the other shows going on at the time. It resonated with youngsters to an extent that even newer generations can watch and relate to almost every dilemma portrayed in the series. Not all shows have that kind of an impact, and that is why FRIENDS will remain evergreen for years to come.

If you haven’t watched FRIENDS yet, let me tell you why this show is one of the best shows ever to be aired on TV.

1. All the characters in FRIENDS are simple, with no extra fluff

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The spoiled but independent Rachel, the neat freak and formerly fat Monica, the goofy and lovable Chandler, the weird hippie Phoebe, the intellectual Ross, and the fun-loving Joey.

2. The situations they went through are realistic for every twenty-something

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All of the characters were struggling either with their careers or their love lives, or both simultaneously.

3. Their jokes are evergreen

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You watch it once, you’ll laugh. You watch it 10 times, you’ll still laugh.

4. Some of their dialogues and scenes are downright iconic

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“We were on a break!” “Hi.”

5. Through the show, each character starts to grow on you

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After all, they’re really lovable.

6. And you eventually realize just how similar they are to you

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THIS IS ME.

7. It isn’t long before you start picking your favourite, and taking their side

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Which, by the way, is really difficult to choose.

8. It teaches you that the best of friendships are meant to be cherished

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They’ll be with you through thick and thin.

9. It teaches you that fights with friends are a part and parcel of life

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They might hurt you, but there is no one else who will love you as much as they do.

10. You can never, ever get bored of the show

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Not even for a second.

11. The phrases and gestures used in the show will always remain fresh in your memories

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Remember the gesture Ross made when he wanted to give someone the finger? And Monica’s “I know!”, Rachel’s “Nooooo” and Janice’s “Oh. My. God.”? Sigh.

12. The humor in the show is actually pretty damn intelligent

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This particular joke above has a deep meaning to it, which makes it bloody hilarious. Read here.

13. It makes you believe in love, no matter how much of a cynic you are

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If Chandler can find a soulmate, so can you.

14. And that falling in love with your best friend can eventually end beautifully

When you have your lobster, hold on to them.

15. But most importantly, FRIENDS continues to re-instill the faith in us that eventually, we will all have a happy ending

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There is no other sitcom that can make you feel as wonderful as FRIENDS, because it’s a reflection of our lives- a story of 6 20-somethings trying to find their way in the world, just like we are, and of finally making it. Their happy ending is the best happy ending anyone could ever ask for. The show may have ended, but the legacy will always remain. And that makes every FRIENDS fan ecstatic.

This is definitely not an easy comparison but if you think critically enough, it has to be…

*Drum rolls*

SEINFELD !!!

• Seinfeld had a smaller cast than Friends. (Not that its a major criteria or anything but it sure is more difficult to make a show with a smaller cast)

• Besides Kramer all the characters are more realistic and relatable than that of Friends.
• The show wasn’t exactly about nothing, but even so the story revolved about the smallest things one could possibly experience in their lives.

• The minor characters of the show were extremely interesting and engaging.

The Soup Nazi ( Just haaaaaaaaaad to be mentioned)

The Bubble boy (Well he didn’t even make a proper appearance but he lives in a goddamn bubble y’all!!)

• By the third season or so you do understand what the basic scheme of the show is, that it starts with the problems of each individual character and that by the end somehow its interrelated, which either leads to the solution or makes it worse for one or more of them. The best part is that even after knowing this it is almost impossible for you to guess how the episode will end and it only gets more and more interesting as you watch it further.
• There was no on again-off again relationship in the show.(No Jerry and Elaine’s wasn’t one either)
• The characters aren’t ideal human beings.

They lie, they betray each other, they have unacceptable contests among them. They are basically “Evil”. But that’s life :/

Seinfeld
I am looking at this question, trying to come up with reasons that are so vivid and explicit in my mind to prove to you how obviously Seinfeld thrusts, thumps and annihilates Friends and I don’t want to sound elitist. But Fuck it.

1. With Seinfeld they wrote funny characters. With Friends, they wrote funny jokes and made the characters say them. The humour in Friends runs as shallow as the drama in Seinfeld; and vice versa. I liked Mr. Heckles, but they killed him.
2. They cut through the bullshit in Seinfeld. No melodrama, no hugging, no on and off relationships among the main characters, no nothing. Seinfeld would never take 2 full episodes to break up with a woman, while George, Elaine and Kramer sit in the adjacent room. Never.
3. You’ve got to give at least 2 seasons for the characters of Seinfeld to sink in. Situations on Seinfeld are barely funny if you detach them from the characteristics and quirks of the characters. On Friends it hardly matters who’s talking. Rachel and Monica could deliver each other’s jokes and dialogues and it would barely make a difference to the episode. If George and Kramer do that, it would make no sense. I’m sure they’d still manage to make it funny though.
4. The humour in Seinfeld is dark and cynical. The darkest Friends went was when Ross sees his mom when he has sex. George falls short of rejoicing when he hears his fiance died licking the cheap invitations to their wedding. And they make it funny. And it is.
5. Jason Alexander is a bloody brilliant actor. Admit it, no one from Friends had to really ‘act’.
6. Predictability. Everyone knew Rachel and Ross would get back together in the season finale. Could you have imagined and predicted the Seinfeld season finale?
7. Friends is too formulaic. The geek, the stupid one, the OCD one, the sarcasm one, the crazy one and the brat. But one at least needs to give Friends credit to be among the first ones to use this kind of formula.
8. No matter what you do, Seinfeld would always win, because they had the brilliance of Larry David.

Friends and Sienfeld are two completely different types of shows despite both being sitcoms. The comparison is rather difficult.

Friends focuses on friendships, relationships, love, career with many ‘Awwww’ moments. Seinfeld on the other hand, as they say, is a show about nothing, about random but very true and common social situations and actual human behaviors.
Seinfeld sure has taken the risks and mastered the art. Its a cleverly written show. But just because Friends is based on something conventional, one cannot declare it easy either.
I can relate to a couple of reasons why the people who love friends loves it. If you can relate to them, you might like Friends more than Seinfeld, but again, you never know.

1. I started watching Friends in my early twenties.. a time when my friends were actually my life, sharing time and stuffs with them more than with my family. But Seinfeld was about people who were not exactly very good at the friendship stuffs. I had Monica, Rachel and Phoebes in my life, I would have never wanted a Elaine in my life. 😛
2. I had ambitions and big dreams for my career. And seeing the characters in Friends succeed in their careers made me feel good. I myself was loving the way I was growing. Sienfeld, on the other hand showed constant failures and stupid mistakes in careers.
3. I had fantasies and love stories built for my love life. Seeing Friends grow into their characters, getting matured, making families, romancing despite flaws made me realize that there can exist great partners. Seinfeld showed bad relationship goals and utterly unreasonable break ups. At a time when they were supposed to make wonderful relationships, they were doing nothing.
4. I wanted and had people like the characters of Friends in my life. But I would never want any of the characters of Seinfeld in my life and neither of my friends were anything like George, Elaine or Jerry. Or Kramer.
5. I liked Seinfeld but would never root for the characters. But Friends, I can stand up for them. I loved how the characters in Friends grew and got attached to them and their qualities. There was no character in Seinfeld whom I adored for anything apart from clever jokes and being funny.
6. I make both the show’s references in my daily conversations. When I am bored, I play one of the two and its works. But when I am utterly sad or lonely, only friends cheers me up.

I personally loved watching both the shows but Friends, I fell in love with Friends and I am totally addicted to it.

Seinfeld’s jokes, Chandler’s sarcasm, George’s cunning ideas, Joey’s stupidity, Kramer’s foolishness etc… they are all unique. The characters in both the shows had their own type of funny.
If you ask me which is a better show, I don’t know… depends what category is the award for? But which show do I like more and can watch many more times? Friends.
It completely depends on the type of person you are. Your age, where you grew up, your society, the friends you have, the parents you have, your childhood etc. The best way to find out is to watch both and have a good time and then make a decision. Watching any of them won’t be a waste of time.

The one you find funniest depends on personal taste but Seinfeld is the better show because of its courage and desire to break new ground.

Friends was the easiest pitch in sitcom history. Lets take 6 good looking white people and make a show about them. Let’s make two of them likeable idiots who always fail to understand things in a comedic way (and lets import one of those from another show and maker her a twin sister). Lets throw in a wisecracker and a neurotic and include some unresolved sexual tension. It’s like someone sat down and said “Lets create the easiest sitcom setting we possibly can.” They used an established trick that had been around for years: create an environment that the viewer is jealous of and would love to be a part of.

Seinfeld on the other hand broke all the established rules. The main character played a shallower version of himself and had two friends which were unconventional sitcom characters. George especially was a short, fat, bald loser who had no place in any conventional sitcom other than as a walk on for the others to bounce off. The presence of the lead’s ex girlfriend was another incredibly bold choice. They killed off any chance of sexual tension early by making it clear they’d both been there and long since moved on. None of the characters were especially likeable and nobody watched Seinfeld thinking: “I wish George was my friend”

You can see how innovative Seinfeld was when you look at the way the network treated it. They gave a greenlight to Friends after a bit of tweaking and immediately ordered 22 episodes. Seinfeld started with a very tentative four episodes followed by a slightly less tentative 13 before finally becoming a full series show.

Friends broke no rules and didn’t pave the way for anything new to come. It did what it set out to do and hit its target audience very well but didn’t connect with anyone who couldn’t empathise with the characters.

Seinfeld changed the landscape of the sitcom and made it possible for those that followed to go into territory that it never could have if Seinfeld hadn’t pioneered new ground. It didn’t rely on you knowing or empathising with its characters, it was happy for you to sit back and appreciate the fact that you didn’t have friends, neighbours, parents etc who behaved that way.

Well the answer is rather debatable, but I can surely tell you what the mass perception is.

If you post on Quora – you will get Seinfeld
If you post on Facebook – you will get Friends

This is really interesting as people on Quora are more inclined towards anything that feeds their gray cells while people of facebook derive pleasure from aesthetics and appeal.

Seinfeld.

IMO, Friends is not even in the same league.. I find many episodes of  Friends quite amateurish and dumb.

Edit: I should clarify what is good about Seinfeld..

Seinfeld is about normal day to day mundane things that most of us won’t even bother mentioning in a conversation but add a funny twist to it.. some of those episodes from the top of my head..

• about guys’ penis shrinking in wet/cold climate
• going to visit a family who had a new born but find the kid to be ugly (I know it sounds sorta rude, but hey, it happens in real life)
• George getting a massage from a handsome guy
• girl with the ‘man hands’ (I think the phrase ‘man hands’ was introduced by Seinfeld)

You can see this theme in most of the episodes. A routine normal incident with a funny twist.

On the other hand Friends is set in a lala land where a bunch of youngsters live a carefree life screwing around.. It has some funny elements too. But overall not even in the league of Seinfeld, at least for my taste.

The other awesome sitcom  is Everybody Loves Raymond. Its not for everyone. I doubt anyone single will enjoy it as much. But for couples, its so damn funny and in many episodes you can relate to incidents from your day to day life.