Seinfeld’s old jokes losing relevance

Why does Jerry Seinfeld bother doing stand-up anymore?

The superstar comedian has made more than $400 million from syndication of his classic sitcom “Seinfeld,” according to CNBC. And he reportedly pocketed another $100 million for a new Netflix deal that includes his talk show “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” and two stand-up specials this year.

Why exactly? Seinfeld himself couldn’t offer a very strong explanation at the Riverside Theater during the first of two shows Friday.

“This is a not necessary special event that a lot of people worked very hard to put together just to kill some time,” Seinfeld deadpanned. “That’s why I’m here. I have nothing to do either.”

Perhaps he could spend more time working on new material, so these “not necessary special events” could actually be special.

Friday marked the third time Seinfeld has been in Milwaukee in five years, offering people the chance “to do something to convince yourself your life doesn’t suck,” Seinfeld joked.

People paid up to $150 a ticket for that privilege — and were rewarded with a 70-minute set of largely recycled punchlines, yet again. The same thing happened when Seinfeld played the Riverside in 2014. And many of the jokes he told that year, and on Friday, were used back in 2012.

That included the “I have nothing to do” punchline, and his condescending ribbing of the Milwaukee audience. (“How do you take the excitement of living here all the time,” he said at the top Friday.) His likening of marriage to a game show lightning round husbands never win is as old as “The Price is Right” at this point. Once more, there was the riff on breakfast foods from his childhood, where Seinfeld compared eating shredded wheat to kissing a wood chipper, and likened the creation of Pop Tarts to Moses’ miraculous reception of the Ten Commandments.

Yet again, fans heard Seinfeld describe the “royal coronation” that is the family bedtime routine, and compare his kid sleeping next to him to a goat tied up in a laundry bag. He had a joke that positioned the circus as popular family entertainment, even though Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is shutting down this spring due to weak sales; and another complaining that movie theaters’ prime features were cupholders, in an era of recliners and gourmet concession stands. There was a joke tied to an Ambien commercial that hasn’t been on TV in years, and a gag about a “new trend,” alcoholic coffee drinks, that evidently was a new trend several years ago.

Seinfeld prefaced a jab at Swanson frozen dinners by asking the audience about its slogan — except the slogan critical to the punchline hasn’t been used in ages. Seinfeld again pondered the timed specificity of 5 Hour Energy Drink — because evidently, he doesn’t have the energy or time to replace the bit with something else.

And the one portion that guaranteed fresh talking points at previous Milwaukee appearances, a brief audience Q&A, didn’t occur for the first show Friday.

Seinfeld may not be investing much mental power into his comedy anymore. But he effectively disguised his detachment with engaged delivery Friday, complementing frequently clever phrasing with wide-eyed expression and vocal exasperation. It was enough to generate hearty laughs, even a few snorts.

“Our life does suck, we know that,” Seinfeld quipped at one point. “My life sucks, too, perhaps not quite as much.”