Elaine gets Kramer to take a photo of her for a Christmas card, only to accidentally flash a nipple. Kramer, in attempting to accuse Calvin Klein of stealing his idea for a perfume that smells like the beach, goes into modelling. George goes to therapy and attempts to get back with Susan. Jerry’s girlfriend avoids him after seeing him appear to pick his nose.

Teleplay: Larry David
Story by: Larry David and Marc Jaffe
Directed by: Tom Cherones

Season four really is operating on a different level; I was struck by how many famous moments of the show come from this one episode, and I was barely halfway through it when I realised. My main point of interest here is Elaine, because I’m fascinated by how she really does carry ‘women’s issues’ into the standard Seinfeld ‘format’, as it were; the joke at the end aside, this is really something that could only happen to a woman and it’s clearly a humiliating, awkward thing. I find myself wondering – and it’s incredibly likely – if Larry David actually saw this happen at some point, and it’s interesting to me that he’d treat it so casually.

I’m also intrigued by George Costanza actually going to therapy, something I presume people were screaming at the screen for the first few seasons (I know I was thinking it my first watch). I normally hate the way therapy is parodied in media; most of them go “oh, our character is too damn wacky for therapists!”, which strikes me as a rather naïve view of therapists. The show ends up taking a much more interesting route by having George simply waste his time obsessing over his jacket, something hilariously inane enough (it happens to me all the time and I hate it) to make it plausible, and thus funny.

Jerry’s story – which gives us the title – is the weakest element, but it’s saved by two things: the Winger speech he tries giving in the climax of the story, and the sheer density of ideas we have going on. George using nose-picking to escape his relationship with Susan at the end is a wonderful punchline to both stories; the fact that he tried and the fact that it worked and the fact that both these things make sense is wonderful absurdist logic, and the interweaving and cross-pollination (or if you prefer cross-contamination) of plot points is such a big part of this show’s sensibility.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• Jerry observes the counterintuitive nature of modelling. Amusingly, in Victorian times, models were expected to be ugly specifically to keep attention on the clothes.
• “She had such a big breakfast on Sunday. I don’t know what she put in those eggs!”
• We see Jerry clearly working on his act in the first scene, even if nobody says that. I love that Jerry’s job does factor into the show more often than people think.
• Great visual gag: Jerry trying to cover up the smell of Tea’s perfume with a dust buster.
• “I’m not sure and correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I see… a nipple.” I strongly suspect the active influence of Jerry Seinfeld on this line – it has his sense of precision.
• Love Michael Richards’s delayed reaction to “That’s a nipple.”

Biggest Laugh:

Next Week: “The Movie”