Jerry discovers Elaine faked every single orgasm in their relationship, sending both him and George into a spiral of sexual insecurity. Meanwhile, Kramer gets banned from his favourite grocery after trying to return some used fruit.
Teleplay by: Lawrence H Levy and Larry David.
Story by: Lawrence H Levy
Directed by: Tom Cherones
I gotta say it: I think we’ve found the one context in which a character trying to pressure someone into sex is funny. I was prepared to be uncomfortable returning to this, but seeing Jerry desperately begging for a chance to get Elaine off is incredibly funny to me. We’ve often talked about how the detached approach this show takes allows it to explore controversial or touchy subjects without ever feeling offensive, and this is a totally different expression of that. In this case, we know these characters so deeply that their motivations are what’s making it funny, and the show’s typically brutally indifferent attitude towards motivations is now extended to the protagonists.
The funny thing about this episode is that Jerry actually takes things all that well, considering; most sitcoms about male failure to provide sexual pleasure spend time ruminating on the male character’s wounded masculinity (random example: M*A*S*H, “Some 38th Parallels”). Jerry’s defensive and exasperated but never in any angry, threatening way. The episode is likewise; the fact that Elaine faked all her orgasms with him is just another plot point.
What’s funny to me is that Jerry’s looking at sexual pleasure as a technical skill as opposed to sharing intimacy with another person; the scene of him begging Elaine for sex is funny because it’s like he’s a kid trying to get another kid to play a game with him so he can try and win it this one time. It’s equally funny that Elaine – and, indeed, every woman in the episode – is actually fairly indifferent about the whole thing.
I’ve known various women with various takes on sexuality; there’s always a movement of women insisting on equal sexual gratification. Much as I personally think women ought to be just as sexually satisfied as men, I think the majority of women are content with physical intimacy and it’s men who overthink sex as a game to be won (as Jerry puts it at the start, “I really think they’re happy if you just make an effort.”). Elaine’s gonna take the first opportunity to own Jerry but her getting pulled into this is her going against better instincts out of, it seems, irritated curiosity more than anything else.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- “Tub is love.”
- This has an iconic moment where Kramer claims to have faked it, and I forgot that this is actually a payoff to a line from a women not one scene before.
- Lisa Edelstein doesn’t get much to do as George’s girlfriend, but she gets one delightfully bizarre line: “If you weren’t satisfied, you’d say something, right?” / “I probably would. But then I’m an enigma.”
- “I don’t know what’s going on with the papayas!”
- Classic bizarrely successful Kramer moment when he can’t give change because he only carries hundreds.
- George being smug at the end when he thinks he’s figured things out is a classic funny George moment.
Biggest Laugh:
Next Week: “The Puffy Shirt”