George quits his job in a rage, only to immediately regret it. Jerry advises him to try just going back in as if nothing happened, and when this leads to humiliating disaster, George enlists Elaine in a revenge scheme. Meanwhile, Jerry loses money at a laundrette, leading Kramer to try pulling a prank on them.
Written by: Larry David
Directed by: Tom Cherones
I’ve been defending the early episodes as lesser Seinfeld but still good TV, but I have to admit: this feels like the first real episode of the show – or at least, the first to be firing on all cylinders. “The Revenge” is famous for a behind-the-scenes story in which Jason Alexander went to Larry David and complained that neither the situation nor George’s response seemed realistic. To which David responded, “What are you talking about? This happened to me, and this is how I reacted.” Alexander found this quite profound and threw out the Woody Allen impression he’d been doing for a Larry David one. In that video, Alexander doesn’t remember exactly which episode it was, but common consensus is that it’s “The Revenge”, and I’m inclined to agree. Right from the opening tirade, his performance becomes laser focused, and he seems to become George Costanza for the first time.
The beautiful thing about David recreating his persona with Curb Your Enthusiasm is the pleasure of seeing two very different takes on the same core ideas. The fictionalised Larry David is very rich and comfortable, of course, whereas George is desperately poor and lonely, providing a very different context to the same behaviours. I think the main difference is that David as a performer is more interested in comedy craft, whereas Alexander tries to build a coherent character. David is quite literally performing improv sketches based on familiar situations whereas Alexander is conveying a psychology, and in particular an emotion.
This already has some of my favourite parts of Alexander’s performance – in particular, I enjoy his desperate attempt to barrel his way back into work. The situation is already hilarious, let alone the dialogue (with George treading on small talk in the most empty way possible), but it’s almost like George is building a brick wall with that gormless smile and squint. Nothing’s wrong! Everything’s fine! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! But the same episode has George at his meekest and quietest (when he’s almost mumbling through potential jobs, knowing how foolish he sounds) and his most self-aggrandising, convinced slipping a mickey is the funniest thing ever. Just within this twenty minutes, we have the schlemiel.
The other reason this episode works is because it more effectively incorporates Elaine and Kramer. I’m not normally a fan of jokes about all men being horndogs, but this works for me not just because I figure the approach of saying the word ‘naked’ as often as possible would probably work, but because Julia Louis-Dreyfuss leans so hard on every beat pretending to be an idiot; she comes off like an American tourist trying to communicate with non-English speakers by talkign louder. Meanwhile, the concrete prank is a chance for Michael Richards to demonstrate his fundamental comedy acting philosophy: take every single chance to do something funny. It isn’t just that he gets dust all over himself or misses the machine the first time, it’s the little details – my favourite being the way he nearly knocks a few chairs over on his way to the machine in the first place.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- That opening monologue is a great example of Seinfeld taking an observation that’s wrongheaded on the face of it – criminals who cover their faces are simply embarrassed in that particular moment – and genuinely builds a funny conclusion out of it with sheer persistence (“He should be in bill collection.”).
- We also get our first appearance of Newman, played by Larry David.
- The real Kramer was the one to advise David to simply go back into work like it never happened, but I think the show’s decision to have Jerry do it for George is the funnier option. Jerry’s reserved sympathy is way funnier than how it would play out with Richardson’s Kramer.
- The characters getting caught on the word ‘mickey’ is some great Seinfeldian dialogue, riffing on the one word in a bunch of different contexts.
Biggest Laugh:
Next Week: “The Heart Attack”