The Real 'Show About Nothing' Is a Surreal, AI-Generated Seinfeld Stream That Will Literally Never End
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Larry Feinberg and Fred Kastpolous chat about nothing as their bodies awkwardly contort to sit on couches stationed around the apartment.
“What did the fish say when it hit the wall?” the pixilated and jerking form of Jerr—sorry, I mean “Larry,” asks the invisible audience. Then there’s a pregnant pause that lasts too long, even for an amateur stand up comedy act. Finally, the punchline: “…dam”
There’s a lot of strange, awkward pauses in Nothing, Forever, an AI-generated show based on the Seinfeld TV sitcom. As the name suggests, the Twitch stream running the channel never actually ends, and all the dialogue was created using a base of GPT-3, which most laypeople would recognize as the system that laid the groundwork for ChatGPT.
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Each “episode” lasts just a minute, and revolves around inane conversations between characters Larry Feinberg, Fred Kastpolous, Yvonne Torres, and Zoltan Kakler. They’re all stand-ins for the main cast of the award-winning ‘90s television show, though all of them lack any noticeable personality. Their conversations often flow together, and the show occasionally seems confused who is leading the scene, or who was just speaking.
The endless show repeatedly flips back to Larry doing standup, where he might tell a bad pun or a joke that makes no sense. Try “What did the computer do when it was mad?… Throw a tantrum.” It then cuts to an establishing shot of a row of New York brownstones before moving into an apartment setting.
It really is a show about nothing, forever. These characters talk endlessly about unseasonable weather, about the latest date they had (how did it go? Always “great”), what they had for lunch, and on and on. To put it mildly, the show is bizarre, but in such a way that’s its captivating. Seinfeld promised a show about nothing, but this AI-generated endless repeat of brainless conversations held by some of the most boring people on the planet truly is “nothing.” For those who were never fans of Elaine, Jerry, George, and Kramer’s antics, the AI stand-ins are much more entertaining overall.
Nothing, Forever was created by Skyler Hartle and Brian Habersberger under the banner of “Mismatch Media.” In a Reddit thread where the pair announced their creation last December, Hartle said the show was supposed to not only mirror Seinfeld, but also the point-and-click games of the early 1990s. The artwork and laugh track are pre-generated, but Hartle wrote that everything else is generated using machine learning models, from the camera cuts, to dialogue, to music, and character movement.
Over email, Hartle told Gizmodo that he, Habersberger and a few other off-and-on again collaborators worked for four years on the project part time, in between their other full time jobs. It started as an art project, but quickly the team started looking at generative AI and how it could disrupt the current media ecosystem, long before ChatGPT and DALL-E took the internet by storm.
“Our hope was to prove that it was possible to create a real, generative show that people would watch,” Hartle said. “We were also building the show in such a way that we could use the underlying technology to spin off more shows, and in the future, offer a platform for creators to do the same.”
Since Nothing, Forever launched in December, Hartle said they’ve been watching the Twitch chat scroll by, and noticed how people are creating their own memes and subcultures based on the AI-generated characters in the show. Hartle and his co-developers want to update the system in the future to help viewers “feel involved and have the opportunity to massage the narrative and steer the direction of the show over time.”
After watching far too much Nothing, Forever, I decided to include some of my favorite clips emblematic of the world’s first real “show about nothing.”
The Postal Worker and The Barber
Yvonne: “Did you hear about the postal worker who wanted to get a haircut?
Larry: “No, what?”
Yvonne: “He said we don’t serve your kind here.”
Fred: “That’s hilarious.”
Larry: “You know what would make it even funnier?”
After several seconds of silence, Larry folds himself into the table while Fred contorts on the couch.
A Vegan and a Ham Sandwich
Yvonne: “Have you heard the joke about the vegan who ate the ham sandwich?
Larry: “That’s not a joke, it’s a crime. I can’t even imagine how it tasted.”
Yvonne: “I don’t know what’s more surprising: that they ate it, or that they liked it.’
Fred then loudly makes something in the microwave.
Yvonne: “Wait why are we talking about vegans?”
Snack Privileges
Yvonne: “Actually I do get free office snacks. Can you believe it?”
Zoltan: “No way. What kind?”
Fred: “Sandwich cookies.”
Yvonne: “Sure enough. Not just any sandwich cookies either. Fancy ones, with rasberry filling.”
Several second pause.
Zoltan: “Oooh, sweet. I’m looking forward to making this job my own.”
The Best of Larry’s Standup
“What do you call an unhappy vegetable? A cauliflower.”
“What did the egg say when it wanted to dance? Eggscuse me.”
“What did the computer do when it was mad? Throw a tantrum.”
“What did the hard boiled egg say when it was finally done? Eggsactly”
“I saw a woman with really big hair. She must have been from Texas. Then I saw a woman with small hair. She must have been from New York. Why don’t we get rid of borders, then everyone will have the same sized hair.”
A Pig in Central Park
Yvonne: “I just got the strangest phone call.”
A laugh track plays.
Larry: “Who was it?”
Fred: “What did they say? I’m betting it was the mayor calling, right?”
Yvonne: “No, it was my aunt. She wanted to know if I’ve seen a pig in central park this morning.”
Larry: “That’s bizarre. What did you say?”
Yvonne: “I told her I didn’t have time to go sightseeing.”
Many Interesting Channel Options
Occasionally, the stream will suddenly switch to an old-school channel guide. Andy Griffith is on at 1:30 p.m., or you could watch Sesame Street for a straight hour. Better yet, settle down to watch the last 30 minutes of The Kead or The Sonner.
Gourmet Chili Dogs
Fred: “Hey, did you hear about the new restaurant opening up next month?”
Yvonne: “Wow, really? What kind of food do they serve? I’m so excited to try it.”
Fred: “They specialize in gourmet chili dogs.”
Larry: “Chili dogs? That sounds like something I’d like to try. What else do they have on the menu? Is it a sit-down restaurant, or more of a grab-and-go type joint? You know, like a place you just stand at the counter and order.”
Laugh track plays.
Yvonne: “Well from what I heard, it will be more of a restaurant.”
That’s What Separates the Men From the Boys
Larry: “So what did you guys do last night.”
Laugh track.
Fred: “Well, I took Yvonne to see a really funny movie and then we ended up at the restaurant.”
Larry: “What kind of movie?”
Fred: “A romantic comedy. It was actually pretty good.”
Yvonne: “You know, Fred, I didn’t think it was really that funny. I mean, come on. If you’re going to laugh at a movie, it has to be really good.”
Fred: “Well that’s what always separates the men from the boys.”
Laugh track.
Yvonne: “You got that right.”
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