Jerry buys a statue of a Native American at a cigar store to give to Elaine in order to impress her friend, only to discover she’s Native American and finds his display horribly offensive, so he tries to make it up to her. Elaine steals Frank Costanza’s TV Guide, only to lose it on the subway to a weirdo she meets. Kramer comes up with an idea for a coffee table book about coffee tables. George has sex on his parents’ bed while they’re away.

Written by: Tom Gammill & Max Pross
Directed by: Tom Cherones

People consider this episode a rare case where Seinfeld does not age well, and I consider that an example of people not so much watching TV as sitting in its general vicinity. I think the only way you could really see this as offensive is if you assume Jerry is heroic purely based on him being the protagonist, and no fan – die-hard or casual – does that, I think. Like, even Jerry considers his little stunt at the start to be genuinely offensive and thoughtless, and his actions subsequent to that are less the narrative trying to explain why he’s not a shitty and more about commenting on his character. All of this is another theme It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia would exaggerate, run away with, and set on fire.

Meanwhile, Elaine’s plot leads to a riff on the weirdo on a subway, and specifically a weirdo who’s hitting on her. I’ve heard it suggested that Elaine is a sneakily feminist character, specifically in that she’s a frumpy-looking asshole* who dresses like shit and still has men being weird at her. I particularly enjoy Sam Lloyd’s performance as Ricky because it’s a notch more creative than most actors go for on this show, finding a specific nasally voice and odd, vacant stare to sell that Ricky isn’t particularly well-socialised.

Finally, of course, there’s George essentially becoming a kid in the Costanza house again, with the episode milking this for all the humiliation it can. It’s entirely possible – frequent, even – for people to have a perfectly comfortable relationship living with their parents as adults, and that requires mutual respect, proper conflict resolution, and not fucking in their bed, and collectively the Costanzas simply cannot maintain that standard. George obviously has his own particular psychology we’ve well gone over; I deeply enjoy that Jason Alexander sells us on the exact point he realises he can get laid (“I didn’t think any cool guys lived in this neighbourhood.” / “Well, they do now.”), and the whole scene of George trying to cover up the fact that he lvies with his parents is a classic case of the writers putting down every single idea that can from one scene – it’s a very 30 Rock scene.

It’s Frank that gets the viewer’s attention here, though. I enjoy how he’s somehow very weird and very banal at the same time; the fact that he’s not only collecting TV Guides but remembers the specific issue he’s missing is so funny to me, admittedly as someone with bits of both Frank and Ricky in his mentality (I am, after all, writing about a three-decade old sitcom). If Seinfeld is about the parts of life that don’t really matter – liminal spaces between the actual important stuff – Frank has found a specific niche, extrapolating from the most banal ideas and building something out of them. And that’s a really funny, stupid thing to do.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• “Did you use these?! These are guest soaps!”
• I skipped right over the whole aspect of Kramer’s idea for a coffee table book about coffee tables, a classic example of the writers taking the first idea that pops into their head and letting Kramer run away with it.
• “If somebody asks me which way is Israel, I don’t fly off the handle!”
• I love that Frank and Ricky bond for a short time over the TV Guides before turning on each other. From a comedic standpoint, it’s a simple case of riffing on something until it gets boring and then riffing on something else.
• Great moments in blocking: Elaine goes to react disdainfully to Kramer’s idea before her boss embraces it.
• I also love how the final act of the episode is simply showing one thing going wrong after another; just cascading consequences all the way up to the stunning final shot.
• “You mean like an Indian Giver?!” / “I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with that term.”

Biggest Laugh:

Next Week: “The Conversion”