A Twitch channel called WatchMeForever is streaming an AI-generated parody of Seinfeld around the clock, and has become a topic of discussion among Hacker News commenters who gather to watch the nonsensical antics of virtual Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer. Commenters say the description lists GPT-3 as the engine, churning out scenes where characters discuss going to a sushi restaurant and then never leave the apartment, or deliver stand-up bits punctuated by a canned ‘pause for applause.’ The dialogue is frequently incoherent, the animations crude, and the laugh track fires at random moments.

Yet the stream has become an unlikely hit on Hacker News, where it gathered over 900 points and 248 comments. Viewers described the experience as ‘the TV equivalent of Blaseball’ — a chaotic, community-driven spectacle where the live chat collectively jokes about the AI’s mistakes. One commenter noted, ‘Without the chat I would have checked out of the nonsense in a minute, but the audience reacting to the endless non sequiturs truly made this an art.’ Another compared it to watching ‘alien scientists clone chimps to bring back humans.’

A commenter says the creator has been working on the project for years, well before ChatGPT. The stream raises questions about copyright — the characters are clearly derived from the NBC sitcom — and about what counts as comedy when a machine is writing the jokes. For now, viewers seem happy to watch the show about nothing become a show about AI’s limitations.