Kramer starts dating a woman Jerry went out with a few times, and she ends up offending Elaine over comments about her shoes. When confronting her, Elaine inadvertently gives the NBC president the flu before he meets with Jerry and George about the pilot script, and between that and George leering at his daughter, he turns down the project, forcing the two to rely on Elaine in a scheme to fix it.
Written by: Jerry Seinfeld & Larry David
Directed by: Tom Cherones
Wow, this must be the most complicated plot this show has done up until now.
This show doesn’t generally go in for Themes; apparently, the Show About Nothing ethos was really more something people projected onto the whole thing based on George’s iconic line, but it is accurate to say that the show doesn’t really exist to Make Points. But here, we actually have some extended and oddly frank thoughts on men trying to understand women. I’ve heard people criticise this show for its whiteness, but never its female characters, so its interesting to see what’s almost vulnerability about writing women.
For a long time, I’ve taken the Dunning-Kruger effect as a guiding moral principle – if its true that people overestimate both their competence with subjects they know little about and their incompetence at subjects they’re quite good at, it’s generally best to dive into things that make you feel like you’re not good enough. You can see this in Seinfeld in how there is actually a sense of curiosity tied up in the show’s attitude; as if to say, “we don’t really know how people work so try not to take this too seriously”, which ends up allowing them to fall into really naturalistic comedy and insights.
This ends up tying into Kramer managing to land Gail through behaviours that make no sense. This is a big part of why he fits so well into the show – it’s not just that he does the ‘wrong’ thing, it’s that it always works. You know that if George tried it, it would blow up in his face (and indeed we get a story of him trying it). You go through life making what you’re certain is a sure bet, and it blows up in your face.
Actually, this does also tie into Elaine’s plot, because her behaviour is simultaneously completely deranged and yet weirdly plausible, not just in the sense that I’ve seen people do basically what she does but in that it makes sense for Elaine’s character in particular. When you get right down to it, what does Elaine actually want in this episode? I can’t even articulate exactly what offends her so much about Gail’s comments beyond a vague sense that she’d rather be left alone.
If this were a show interested in diagnosing Elaine in some way, this would come off as either sloppy writing or, at worst, a ‘women be crazy’ story, but because it’s specifically about what would be funny, it ends up reflecting real life rather strongly. Elaine really doesn’t know what she actually wants beyond being comfortable, which can lead to some truly absurd behaviour.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- There’s a lot of good comedy acting from Seinfeld in this episode. My favourite part is him turning in shock when learning Kramer is dating Gail, but he has a lot of funny line deliveries based on mock-seriousness (“I have never condoned snubbing in my administration!” and “Once he leaves the building, he’s out of my jurisdiction.”).
- I’m actually with Jerry – too many characters in one scene is hard to write without losing at least one of them.
- “I’m paying for this! She’s my employee!” / “I thought your mother’s paying for it.” / “And she slaves to earn every penny!”
- George perving on a teenager bothers a lot of people these days (especially given the real-life Seinfeld dated a high schooler), and while I disagree – the show’s detached and nonjudgemental attitude towards the characters lets me see them as idiots – I can get where that’s coming from.
- Jerry learning about the sneeze is the funniest part of all this, where it goes from a funny coincidence to the belief that there is a God, and He is fucking with you.
- I’m not normally a fan of ‘parodic sexiness’, which always comes off to me like just putting boobs in something you were already doing, but JLD’s faux-sexy moves in the background are hilarious.
Biggest Laugh:
Next Week: “The Outing”