Jerry and George accidentally convince a journalism student that they’re a gay couple.
Written by: Larry Charles
Directed by: Tom Cherones
You know, I remember this coming so much later in the show’s run. The funny thing about shows with such a high standard and little tonal variation or plot is that you can easily forget how early a lot of iconic moments come. You have something like Mad Men, which has distinct eras, you can at least get the gist of when something happened (Pete doesn’t lose his hair until season five, when they’re deep in 1965 and working at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, for a small example). I honestly thought “Not that there’s anything wrong with that!” came in season seven!
This is broadly considered one of the biggest examples of the show tackling controversial subjects without aging terribly. In fact, I have often heard people remark at how well “Not that there’s anything wrong with that!” – easily one of the show’s most memed moments in a show that got heavily memed before that was a mainstream concept – has managed to age, because they’re simultaneously entirely sincere every time they use it and also blurting it out like a boilerplate legal statements.
(There’s very similar energy to a recurring gag in the Always Sunny episode “Dennis Has A Mental Health Day”, when Dennis keeps repeating “I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at the situation,” to everyone he nearly screams at.)
Like, they really do have nothing against gay people (though typical George behaviour to blurt out “My father’s gay!” to try and win being the best at acceptance), we can just see how this is wildly inconvenient for them, especially Jerry as a public figure – “I’ve been outed, I wasn’t even in!”. The one scene that really gets me (in a funny way) is a soldier coming up to Jerry, admiring his confidence, and pledging to come out too, and now he’s ruining his life and Jerry’s gonna feel responsible for that.
Naturally, we also get classic Seinfeld and specifically classic George when he figures out how to use this situation to break up with his girlfriend. One of my favourite things about long-running media is seeing how they skip over boilerplate over time; I love that we don’t even see why George wants to break up with Alison, let alone how they dated in the first place, and then we get the pleasure of George committing 95% to looking gay; I love how Jason Alexander is just one step below sincerity when he cries out “Jerry, oh my god, what are you doing?”, and I cackle at him trying to grab Jerry’s hands when they’re ‘arguing’.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- “She threatened to kill herself.” / “Over you?”
- We get some discussion of how Jerry comes off gay because he’s single, thin, and neat. It’s weird that this was a stereotype for so long.
- Also in Jason Alexander’s masterful acting this episode is him going to from zero to a hundred the instant he clicks on that the student thinks he’s gay, and his exactly perfect level of horror delivering “You know… I could hear you on the other line.”
- Elaine is mostly to the back of this episode, so it’s great to have her set off the entire plot in the first place by being a smartass, and the detail of her being incredibly annoying by not taking off her coat is classic Seinfeld.
Biggest Laugh:
Next Week: “The Old Man”