Jerry and Elaine catch a flight, only to be bumped to different classes. George and Kramer go to pick them up; Kramer recognises a man who owes him money.
Written by: Larry Charles
Directed by: Tom Cherones
The funky structure of Seinfeld is one of its more famous elements, and “The Airport” gives us one of our more spectacular examples, and delightfully it’s actually made up of a few smaller and simpler structural elements. We have discussed how Seinfeld presents an anxiety-ridden view of the world in which the worst case scenario happens as a result of a simple action, and here we get a few of those weaved together into a single narrative in unexpected ways.
There are two very obvious ones: George taunting a violent criminal only to run into him later and get attacked (and thus trapped on the plane), and Elaine failing to tip the bag guy properly and thus losing her baggage. There are smaller, subtler examples of this sprinkled throughout the narrative, like George and Kramer continually getting caught flatfooted trying to catch up to Jerry and Elaine, and even cases where it creates absurdity without anything bad actually happening (like Jerry looking out his window to see Kramer).
On top of this, we have a simple Goofus/Gallant structure that any other sitcom would make the whole point of the exercise, with Jerry and Elaine having the exact same beats play out in exact opposite ways. I think it’s a savvy move to only have this be one small part of the narrative; it’s too simple an idea to really carry twenty minutes, and they wisely get more humour out of the dialogue (“I never met a man who knew so much about nothing.”) than the comparison itself.
Comedy is largely structure; pretty much anything can be filtered through a simple setup/punchline structure and come out at least reasonably funny, so it’s interesting how much Seinfeld relies on a kind of musical structure as it goes on. Much of its influence – especially with the initial wave of ripoffs – focused heavily on ‘having something to say’, when that was always secondary to the structure.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- Jerry’s opening standup riffing on the word ‘little’ in flights is funny, specifically in a ‘rake gag’ kind of way where the longer he keeps going the funnier it gets.
- How are Americans so mad at taxes and yet so comfortable with tipping?
- My commentary on the show’s musical sense of timing is very funny given how much of the story is about the characters trying to time things perfectly.
- “Do I still get credit for the pickup?”
- “But yeh ahhh, Blanche! Yeh ahhhh in those chains!”
- Watching the show through the lens of writing essays really reveals how hilariously whiny Elaine is when things don’t go her way, and how much worse she ends up making things for herself because of it. “You know, our goal should be a society without classes!”
Biggest Laugh:
Next Week: “The Pick”