Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer have a contest to see who can go the longest without masturbating.
Written by: Larry David
Directed by: Tom Cherones
Note: Apologies for the late post.
Man, you probably couldn’t pick a more famous episode of Seinfeld than this one. There’s a line I like about Seinfeld that I wish I’d come up with: it’s a show that can be obscene without being profane and profane without being obscene*, and you probably couldn’t pick a better example of that than this episode. This isn’t just jokes about masturbation, it’s almost an exploration of what it means spiritually, which is of course a very funny concept.
*It was in the context of complaining about fan memes that use the show to talk about ass-fisting and such.
In the context of this episode, masturbation is presented as a kind of emotional maintenance; I find myself thinking of Diogenes, when asked why he jacked off so much, remarking that he wished he could deal with hunger by rubbing his belly. The characters have always been presented as motivated by wanting to feel good all the time, and nothing symbolises ‘pleasure for its own sake’ quite like sex. Take away their ability to pleasure themselves and they become almost obsessed with their failures to secure other people; desperate, angry people.
Once again, I want to stress that I don’t think this is deliberate commentary – rather, it’s just Larry David writing something funny. Kramer is the highlight of all of this; I love that the audience knows exactly what he’s doing when he walks out after seeing the naked woman, and Michael Richards gives him this weird little flourish as he says “I’m out of the contest!” It’s a moment so big and broad that people misremember him as shouting “I’M OUT!!!” when he actually says it quite calmly.
And the episode is covered with these moments; my favourite is the first time we see the group struggling to sleep, ending with Kramer sleeping like a baby. “Master of your domain” ended up one of the strongest Seinfeldisms – which makes sense, given they repeat it the most out of all the references, they definitely knew what they had there. It’s trite to say that everybody masturbates; Seinfeld managed to make something as profound as it is funny to look at why that happens.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- “You’ll be out before we get the cheque!”
- I used to be friends with a proud ‘naked lady across the street with her blinds open’. Mostly she just enjoyed being naked and wished other people would be too.
- We finally meet George’s mother, Estelle, this episode, and I love that we get George/Alexander’s impression of her first. She’s very much cut from the same cloth as Jerry’s mother, though significantly more neurotic.
- Interesting fact: this episode about people denying themselves masturbation first aired… in November.
Biggest Laugh:
Next Week: “The Airport”