Seinfeld and The Tick (Superman)

Jerry has teamed up with Superman again to pitch American Express in a cleverly designed series of short films, or webisodes, called the Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman. The series depict Seinfeld hanging out with the Man of Steel and discovering haphazardly that membership has its privileges. It's a good bit of advertising that is great fun to watch ("Oh Yes Wyoming!"), but for anyone who's seen the live-action comedy "The Tick", based on the comic and cartoon of the same name by Ben Edlund, the similarity between Superman and The Tick is obvious.

To start, both Superman and The Tick are voiced by the same actor: Patrick Warburton. His voice is unmistakable. Patrick is also the actor who played David Puddy on the Seinfeld TV series. And because he's a great talent with such a recognizable voice, it's hard to listen to him as Superman without visualizing in your head the other characters he's played elsewhere to perfection... which leads us to the next similarity.

Superman's personality in these films closely resembles The Tick's (and even reminds you of Puddy's a little bit). Though the same actor's voice is associated with both characters, it's the attitude and reactions of Superman that really liken him to The Tick - a bumbling, somewhat clueless super hero. Like the Big Blue Avenger, Superman appears nonchalant, unconcerned, and even unfazed by the events taking place around him while Jerry is the epitome of levelheadedness. While Superman is uncertain as to how to resolve a particular situation, Seinfeld comes up with the simplest of solutions. This juxtaposition works well for the ads in providing humor for the scenes, but it really does smack of plagiarism of The Tick's writing and feel.

While I do enjoy the commercials despite their copycat implications, I wonder if The Tick's creator is as pleased knowing that his own creation was the inspiration for their work. Maybe someone should fork over some royalties for this borrowing of intellectual property.

Spoon!