George convinces Elaine to cheat on an IQ test to impress his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Jerry gives advice to a new cafe owner across the street from his house.

Written by: Tom Leopold

Directed by: Tom Cherones

I notice this episode is somewhat contentious amongst fans. I don’t think anyone has said it’s a bad episodes and certainly not an unfunny one, but I’ve seen more than one fan ask why Jerry was so upset by Babu tore into him at the end when this was nothing but Babu’s own fault. Whether or not that’s true – as Jerry points out, it doesn’t seem like any store is doing well at that location – focusing on it is missing the point.

This is a show about how we’re living in a society; most critics and fans focus on the petty slights the characters commit and receive, but this is one of those weirder, smaller situations that arise from Living, and in a Society at that. When you’re in a society, you’re supposed to help other people when they’re in trouble. You may have heard of unenlightened self-interest; this is unenlightened civilising, where Jerry puts the minimum effort into helping someone with inexpert advice, and figures it’ll just work straight away.

The point isn’t whether Jerry could or should have helped; the point is setting someone try and do the decent thing and see it blow up in their face, because we have all done this at some point and had the same result. In fact, it’s easier than ever to witness it, what with having a while internet of people giving short-sighted and simplistic advice to people they’ve never met. It’s rather silly to think you can fix a complex situation with a few sentences.

Meanwhile, we have a classic Costanza situation happening in the other plot (in the same way that The Beatles only ever had double A-sides, Seinfeld only has A-plots). His name isn’t on the script, but this has the fingerprints of Larry David all over it – the idea of cheating on an IQ test by passing it out if a window is too insane a sitcom plot to attribute to anyone other than someone who actually did it.

I enjoy the way Elaine moves through this story because she almost makes this seem rational; I enjoy that she buys into it as soon as it’s made it to be a caper. We’re about five years away from NewsRadio, eleven years away from Always Sunny, and seventeen years away from Community all gleefully embracing the idea of characters gleefully embracing the idea of acting like a sitcom character pulling off a caper, so it’s a low-key but very funny expression of that.

It’s George, of course, who gets the lion’s share of the focus. His absolute 100% commitment to whatever lie he’s telling is what makes him so funny; there are used car salesmen who have put less effort into selling a Honda Civic than George puts into going out the window, and the fact that such a thing cannot be rationalised is what makes it so funny.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• I don’t keep track of the iconic lines because I didn’t grow up watching the show, so I don’t think I have a good sense of which lines actually are famous. That said, I counted six separate lines that I see fans use a lot: “People think I’m smart, but I’m not smart.” | “This I take to the grave.” | “Let me just be! Let me live!” | “Oh, I really think you’re wrong.” | “Why would I go out the door? The window is right there.” | “You see people?! Where are people?!”
• Really great moment of blocking: Jerry stepping over both George and Elaine to get to a chair. There’s also Kramer’s incredible flip off the chair when he’s handed a steaming towel.
• Given his stand-up at the end of this episode, I wonder what Seinfeld thought of The Incredibles.

Biggest Laugh: this scene a classic in escalating comic tension.

Next Week: “The Tape”.