Jerry dates an artist who paints a portrait of Kramer. After they have an argument, she writes him a letter so moving that he takes her back, only to discover later that she stole it from a movie. George tries to avoid an awkward encounter with her by buying one of her paintings and then discovers it costs far more than he can afford. Elaine skips her boss’s son’s bris to go to a baseball game, then causes a scene when she wears a Oriole’s cap in the Yankee’s owner’s box.

Written by: Larry David
Directed by: Tom Cherones

There’s so much good stuff in this episode, I hardly know where to start. The most interesting thing to me is Jerry’s outrage over his girlfriend plagiarising her letter to him from a movie, especially in a script written by Larry David. Jerry Seinfeld is a Comedian – in big, capital letters – and comedians are as fiercely concerned with originality as almost any other artist; your job is to make up new jokes. I forget which comedian it was who said you could tell who would be the next big thing in a crop of new standups because they’d be doing their own thing while the lesser comedians would be imitating whoever was big most recently. For better and worse, you can see that in Seinfeld’s work – the way he finds strange ways of expressing himself. You could see why he in particular would be offended by plagiarism, even in stakes as low as this.

On the other hand, the fascinating thing about Larry David as an artist is that he has the sensibility of a plagiarist, but with the wisdom to steal only from his own life. I’ve been fascinated by plagiarists and hacks my whole life, because I fundamentally cannot be one of them. I have tried weaving together familiar elements into a cohesive whole and I’ve tried just doing a list of cliches, and it’s like my brain won’t let me do it. You may recall Harris Brewis’s video on Youtube plagiarists – I was one of those people asking “Isn’t it much harder to do all that ripping off than it would be to provide original commentary?” Larry David, on the other hand, can apparently see he needs to fill twenty-odd pages with funny things and grab twenty funny things that happened to him without even thinking about it.

Meanwhile, Elaine’s whole story is a great example of this show’s sense of farce. On “The Limo”, beloved commentor Raven Wilder remarked how funny it was to see George and that guy both making so much more work for themselves by not giving in to the other, and we see that play out again here. What’s funny is that neither side seems unreasonable here; it makes sense that someone would be offended by wearing an opposing team’s baseball cap in an owner’s box – but also, it’s just a hat. Watching people escalate these simple conflicts is a core theme of David’s works over the years, as if society depends on us letting go of these little principles we hold.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• In his opening standup, Jerry analyses the role of the security guard. I’m friends with a security guard who explained to me that his job is less about stopping conflict or violence than it is about documenting conflicts that happen and enforcing basic politeness and safety.
• George remarks that, when meeting Jerry’s girlfriend, he feels like he’s being fixed up for a new friendship. This has often driven my romantic entanglements; considering the whole new social group I’d have to take on.
• Elaine trying to explain away her holding onto her boss’s newspaper with “That’s the third time today I’ve done that!” is so funny to me, because if you did it right it would work.
• Strangers describing Kramer is inherently funny. “He’s a loathsome, offensive brute, yet I cannot look away.”
• We’re starting to get into the real Seinfeldian approach to language when the characters play with the words ‘posse’, ‘pop-in’, and ‘clicker’.

Biggest Laugh:

Next Week: “The Parking Space”