Elaine is editing a woman’s book, and Jerry hires the author’s boyfriend to clean his house. Soon after, Jerry loses a statue and notices it in the cleaner’s house.
Written by: Larry Charles
Directed by: Tom Cherones
Up til now, there have been two threads running through my takes on these episodes: the lack of music has caused a bit of a slow pace, and neither Elaine nor Kramer have been utilised in the plot much. Happily, both of these are being developed in this episode. I guess I can see where people are coming from when they dismiss season two even if I disagree. The delightful thing about Seinfeld music is that it’s never quite the same from one episode to another; of all things, I find myself thinking of how music is used in the Left 4 Dead video games, where it’s many different individual elements that are immediately recognisable and layered in different ways and at different speeds. There’s a musical moment I like in this episode where two scenes are linked by just the basic beat, creating a sense that we’re getting straight to the point.
Meanwhile, Kramer and Elaine are (admittedly inelegantly) moving from objects and observers to active participants. Obviously, Kramer bursts into the story like an explosion at the climax;, to the point that he ends up feeding into some interesting thought. Now, the episode never goes out of its way to explain Ray – not just a lack of psychological explanation (extreme counterexample: think of how every episode of Law & Order: SVU goes into great detail about the motivations of the villains so we can be properly aghast and outraged about it), but a total lack of interest in his motivation entirely. The only hint of Ray’s inner life that we get is an offhand comment where his Knight In Shining Armour mask slips (“Yeah, I’m coming.”). This is not a philosophical or psychological text – this is just a series of funny behaviours.
At the same time, I kept thinking of real life conmen and liars all through “The Statue”. There are a lot of conmen who get away with it by lying about things where you would look silly for questioning them. I see a connection between Ray brazenly stealing Jerry’s statue and Tommy Tallerico lying about working on Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Metroid Prime – he got away with it for so long because who would question these things? Obviously, Ray’s lie is harder to maintain, but you have a whole-ass comedy scene built out of Jerry being too weirded out to even bring it up to his face (and Elaine questioning him the entire time).
Also, there are conmen who get away with it by simply being far too much of a nuisance to deal with even if you do confront them – Jerry tries approaching him and gets straight up denial and outrage in response, and even George’s escalating (and hilarious) rage just gets escalating rage back.It’s Kramer who gets this guy back by telling an even more outrageous lie. Whether or not it would actually work, there’s very amusing poetic justice in a guy who gets by on outrageousness falling for the very same. It’s Kramer who gets this guy back by telling an even more outrageous lie. Whether or not it would actually work, there’s very amusing poetic justice in a guy who gets by on outrageousness falling for the very same.
Elsewhere in the episode, we have Elaine. She’s mostly been something of a reasonable female figure these episodes (although her desperation to get an apartment has been pretty funny), but I’m so tickled by her one scene here in which she unnecessarily loses her coveted position as editor for Rava’s book because she just can’t let go of picking at the statue situation. She has to get her two cents in and get Rava to see things her way, and she follows it all the way to the loss of income and prestige. Emotionally, it’s no different from the phrase “Someone is wrong on the internet”.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- One little thing that tickles me about Kramer is his total belief in the utility of anything he finds. This is another little trait that Always Sunny would run away with – a very Charlie Kelly attitude. I’m also amused by his unthinking entitlement to any phone ringing.
- Lots of great blocking all over the place here. The most spectacular is Kramer, Elaine, and George fighting over who gets to listen in on Jerry’s call with Ray, but we also have George’s increasing anger and disgust as he sits behind Jerry talking to Ray, Elaine filling a tub of ice cream with chocolate sauce, and even Jason’s Alexander’s little “gyip!” when he grabs the statue out of the air. There’s also the great elevator sequence, where we skip over large parts of Elaine and Rava’s argument.
- I mostly skipped over George, but much like Homer Simpson or Bender, he becomes extremely funny when pushed to the side to the point that I didn’t realise he was pushed aside until I sat down to analyse the episode. We get more of his parents hanging over him – amazing that we won’t meet either of them until season three.
Biggest Laugh:
Next Week: “The Revenge”