In another episode, Jerry specifically breaks up with a woman because she’s “too good.” Here, again, he says this directly: “She’s giving and caring and genuinely concerned about the welfare of others. I can’t be with someone like that.” Because he’s so candid about this distaste, it feels like a traditional joke. But it’s not a traditional joke. It’s an omnipresent worldview that informs everything else, and it’s what made audiences feel like they were watching the most sinister (and the most authentic) versions of themselves.

And that's why I have always hated Seinfeld. As a member of the audience, I never felt like I was watching "the most sinister and authentic" version of myself. I felt like I was watching people I would actively avoid pursuing activities I would eschew in an environment I would leave.

Okay, satire. But you watch Friends and you're given the message "here are people you should care about." You watch Seinfeld and you're given the message "here are people we will make you care about even though they all suck."

It took me years, but I figured out that some art is created from the worldview that people are evil. My worldview is that people are good. As such, evil-worldview art has never appealed to me, has never interested me, and has never given me a toehold within which to discuss its merits with people who love it to death (lookin' at you, Chris Nolan). If you compare Seinfeld to Arrested Development, Seinfeld is full of people who make evil choices because they're amoral. Arrested Development is full of people who make evil choices because they're immoral.

It's two letters, but it's an entire worldview.