Seinfeld: Did It Predict The Future On Ukraine?

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Looks like it’s not only The Simpsons who can predict the future. 

Social media can’t get enough of this Seinfeld clip from Season 6’s “Label Maker’ episode where Kramer, playing a game with Newman that appears to be Risk but might just be a sitcom stand-in, underestimates the Ukraine.

Newman’s game defenses are “on the brink of complete annihilation,” but he’s not giving up yet. After all, he still has troops stationed in the Ukraine!  Kramer isn’t having it, dismissing the country as a sitting duck. “The Urkraine is weak. It’s feeble. I think it’s time to put the hurt on Ukraine.” 

But as the events of the last few weeks have shown, there’s more fight in Ukraine than either Kramer or Putin might have believed. 

A fellow train passenger, who just happens to be from, you guessed it, Ukraine, takes exception to Kramer’s accusations of weakness.

Hey, Kramer protests, we’re just trying to play a game here. 

“Ukraine is game to you?” growls the man in the fur ushanka.  “I take your little board and smash it!” The pieces go flying. Game over. 

The valiant response from the country’s citizens and President Voldomyr Zelensky (who you may have heard is a bit of a comedian himself) proves Seinfeld prophetic -- the other side may be holding most of the game pieces, but Ukraine is anything but weak. 

And because the Internet is both weird and greedy, there’s been a funky byproduct of the viral clip. A number of online outlets have jumped on the video’s popularity and begun selling merch with a grinning Cosmo Karmer and a “The Ukraine is weak” tagline, including T-shirts and coffee mugs.   Couldn’t they just stick with “These pretzels are making me thirsty?”

Sure, why not use a war to promote a ill-conceived product that “you can use yourself, or as a gift for family and friends, anime fans, a great gift!”

Unless these online opportunists are trying to sell their unofficially unlicenced knock-offs in Moscow, shouldn’t they be selling pro-Ukraine shirts with our subway rider instead?

We’d buy a few of those fur hats that read: “I come from Ukraine! You not say Ukraine weak!” And even if you’re not convinced such a product line could be a best-seller, we already have our first customer lined up and ready to swipe his credit card.

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Top image: Columbia Pictures Television