Jerry falls for a woman, only for her boyfriend to fall into a coma. When Jerry begins dating her, Kramer’s friend Newman schemes to tattle on him. George plans on taking a trip to the Cayman Islands only for a psychic to warn him not to go. Elaine fasts for a medical procedure and slowly loses her mind.

Written by: Tom Leopold
Directed by: Tom Cherones

I know from personal experience in creative collaboration that it’s silly to try and quantify exactly who contributed what – even aside from the fact that you can try and throw ideas at someone that you know they’ll respond to, the process of editing together means an idea can be overwritten with the flavour of the other person until a third voice emerges. I also know that it’s incredibly satisfying, fun, and fruitful to do it as a critic, because an observer is always going to see the blind spots of a person better than they can by definition. In this case, I enjoy that we have a very obvious Jerry Seinfeld idea for a plot right next to an obvious Larry David idea for a plot.

Specifically, the idea of Coma Etiquette feels like a very Jerry Seinfeld thought experiment. Unfrosted was released only a week ago at time of writing, and that had a lot of scenes that felt like two people acting out a Seinfeld monologue – taking a basic (or absurd) situation and breaking down how to navigate it and what the rules might be. The scene of Jerry and Kramer talking about dating a coma guy’s girlfriend also has that feel, with Kramer obviously taking the more selfish and socially destructive path (“Loot the coma victim?”).

It leads to an interesting idea that drives much of the series: Jerry and George are not very masculine men. Not only has Jerry never gotten into a fight in his life, he doesn’t see the sense of it. He’s certainly not feminine, but he’s not very aggressive or hands-on or any of the things we ‘traditionally’ associate with masculinity – he makes jokes, analyses, and hangs out. You could think of it as a scholarly masculinity as opposed to a warrior or hunter one. I have nowhere interesting to take this in the moment, but it’s worth holding onto for later.

Meanwhile, George obsessed with the psychic is very obviously something that actually happened to Larry David, and I say that because not only is George completely insane here, but because it’s filled with the specific details of something that happened in reality. I think especially of the psychic telling her daughter off for sticking her finger in her nose. I know this is taken from real life because it happens exactly once and has no effect on the story, and if I’d written this story and had come up with this independently, I’d have certainly threaded it throughout the story, and I know if some less insane more traditionally structured writer had used it, there’d be setup and payoff in a clearer way, and it would be blocked off and underlined more – as if to say, “get a load of this weirdo!”. Here, it has the suddenness of reality.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• Jerry is completely correct in his observation that we really do want to pass physicals with flying colours and discover a superpower.
• I’m with Elaine – fasting before a medical procedure is awful and I hate every second of it.
• Jerry’s little schemes to get out of taking the garbage are brilliant, particularly his savvy use of Kramer.
• We get references to George’s parents that radically contradict what we see later, though admittedly both could be wearing hairpieces.
• Jerry arguing over whether or not to get a robe in the middle of a crisis feels like a strong influence on Always Sunny. I’m having a lot of fun spotting scenes that Always Sunny clearly ran away with.
• Elaine is outraged by the psychic smoking when pregnant, and it only occurred to me now how consistent moral outrage is with her character. Jerry is generally more curious than outraged and George can get outraged but will have it pass almost immediately. Elaine will genuinely get angry with strangers over their actions.
• Our first appearance of Wayne Knight as Newman! He’s such a great creative idea from this show, and in some ways a pure expression of it – he is at once a cackling supervillain and a banal, tedious little man, and Knight plays him so sincerely.
• Love Jerry slapping George as Kramer tells his story of the Cayman Islands. “NUDE BACKGAMMON WITH SWIMSUIT MODELS!”

Biggest Laugh: As a man who has spent almost half his adult life unemployed, I found this extra funny.

Next Week: “The Fix-Up”.