Jerry buys an expensive suede jacket before meeting Elaine’s father with George, only for Elaine to be delayed doing a favour for Kramer.

Written by: Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld
Directed by: Tom Cherones

I suspect the recurring theme of this season is going to be a kind of reversal of how we talk about the decline of The Simpsons in its Golden Age – people often say ‘bad Simpsons is still better than 90% of television’. Here, what is not yet Seinfeld at its most fully operational is still fantastic television. My first runthrough of Seinfeld, I was surprised at how it was constantly evolving and changing, all the way to the end; most famously, becoming wackier after Larry David left, but also the slow addition of aspects like the colliding plots (which doesn’t really come in until season four) or elements like the Costanzas (with Estelle coming in in season three and Frank showing up in season four), Elaine’s various bosses, or even situations like George’s various living situations and jobs. At the moment, we are seeing Seinfeld without any of that – just the basics of our core four, an uncomfortable social situation, one weirdo, and all the jokes they can make about that. And it’s great fun!

There’s two things that strike me about “The Jacket”. The first is the basic neurotic, Jewish, city-living sensibility of Jerry, George, and the show as a whole. Despite not being Jewish, I’ve often identified with Jewish and Jewish-related pop culture; there’s often a scholarly curiosity about every subject under the sun, an equally voracious sense of humour willing to make a joke out of the exact same subjects (up to an including the self – see George as the ultimate schlemiel), and a sense of moral philosophy. There’s a vibe in a lot of Jewish fiction and comedy that not everybody is ever going to completely agree about everything and we all just have to live with that, and this is amplified by urban stories like Seinfeld where you layer on the practical problems of living in a city with many different cultures.

The second thing that strikes me about “The Jacket” is that it’s about this sensibility colliding with its exact opposite. We never find out if Alton Benes is from or now lives in a small town, but we do know he was in the military – that most institutional of institutions. He believes firmly that there is right, there is wrong, and he is fully equipped to immediately spot the difference – to the point that he does not recognise one doesn’t have to commit to that. Despite identifying with the City Mouse archetype, I have lived an obnoxious amount of time in small towns, and the episode perfectly jokes about how it’s impossible to have a goddamned conversation with people like that.

It feels like there’s no back-and-forth with a guy like Alton – no snappy repartee where you yes-and each other like a couple of, well, Seinfeld characters. God help you if you analyse anything or point out different ways of looking at a topic (even in jest) or you get that look of contempt thrown at you, and they tend to try and dominate the conversation entirely until you’re just sitting there, watching them talk to themselves. You’re basically dealing with a selfish conversation partner – you’re giving them everything and they’re giving you nothing. Jerry ends up showing us an extreme of that, destroying a thousand dollar jacket to make a brick wall comfortable. Very funny stuff!

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• Jerry and Elaine discuss how shops always seem to have stuff ‘in the back’. This is a part that has aged oddly badly – I’ve never worked retail, but most retail workers I’ve listened to on the subject have complained about customers asking them to check ‘in the back’ when, as our duo points out, if they had it it would be in the front.
• “An unblemished record of staunch heterosexuality.” = another really precisely-written line.
• George losing his mind as he escalates himself over how much Jerry paid for his jacket is some great acting from Alexander.

Biggest Laugh: An extremely rare case of George being blunt in the face of fear.

Next Week: “The Phone Message”