Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer are all invited to a dinner party; Jerry and Elaine stop by a bakery to pick up a cake while George and Kramer go to a bottleshop to buy wine. Chaos ensues.

Written by: Larry David

Directed by: Tom Cherones

This episode is rich pickings. Out of all the ideas it presents, I’m first drawn to the general character of Elaine Benes. When I make fun of her, I worry that I come off as not liking her when this essay series has made me realize what a magnificent comic creation she is, and it’s all down to a simple combination of her inability to endure any kind of suffering and her inability to engage in any kind of introspection. In a lot of ways, she’s an American symbol; speaking as an Australian, Americans often come off as whiny and entitled to non-Americans, and Elaine is how they tend to look.

What really gets me is how much this comes from Julia Louis-Dreyfuss’s performance too. Some of it is in the writing; one can compare her to George, who is just as prone to righteous ranting when he doesn’t get his way – see this very episode, when he gets increasingly frustrated with bringing something to a dinner party but equally prone to neurotically dismissing himself afterwards. With Elaine, not once does she consider that perhaps she should have been a bit more on the ball, or that she might not have grounds to cut in line just because she wants to, nor does JLD take any space for her to.

(You can also compare both to Jerry, who is effectively always killing time between gigs – his rants are less righteous and more thoughts bouncing around his head that must be let out)

And this is all before we even look at the basic theme! Being frustrated by the etiquette of bringing something to a dinner party is such a Larry David obsession. George’s exasperation that just showing up to a thing he was invited to is apparently rude borders on a neurodivergent complaint; these arbitrary, unwritten rules that people just assume are true. On the other hand, I would easily fall down Elaine’s overthinking here and look for the highest quality came I could bring over I set my mind to the subject. I’m curious: if you threw a dinner party, how offended would you be if a guest didn’t bring anything?

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• Jerry’s opening stand-up made me laugh. Probably his funniest yet.
• “You like saying Gortex, don’t you?” The writers have figured out now that putting George in funny clothes is easy comedy.
• “You. Whatever your name is.” / “Jerry.”
• “You know, I often wonder what you’ll be like senile.” / “I’m looking forward to it.” / “Yeah, I’m thinking it’ll be a smooth transition.”
• Kramer ‘getting by’ without his wallet is such a funny thought.
• “Napoleon? Who’s he to have a cookie?” I feel I ought to be offended.
• George and Kramer is a great pairing, with the latter earnestly struggling to take the former seriously.
• Classic Seinfeld ending in that they get there, but give up.

Biggest Laugh:

Next Week: “The Marine Biologist”. Oh hell yeah.