Jerry has his parents over before they go on holiday, making it difficult for him to be alone with his girlfriend. Kramer buys a used coat and Morty recognises it as one he designed, inspiring him to get his neighbour to mail them to Jerry’s so he can sell them. George sells his father’s old clothes to the used clothes store. The Costanzas realise the Seinfelds don’t like them. George tries fleeing to Paris to get out of being involved in the Big Brother program. Elaine’s new boyfriend is both a Close-Talker and absurdly nice to the Seinfelds.

Written by: Tom Gammill & Max Pross and Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld
Directed by: Tom Cherones

We’ve done a few double-episodes now, and I gotta say, it exasperates me every time it comes up. It’s strange – I’ll happily marathon multiple episodes of a comedy, and I’ll happily watch a good comedy movie, but double-episodes of a comedy show tend to bug me. I’d imagine it’s mostly a rhythm thing; writers get used to writing to a particular rhythm that comes with a particular mode; even the best TV writers tend to struggle with the pacing that comes to switching to features. This two-parter in particular feels weirdly bloated; I like drawing multiple stories out of the same plot in theory, but it felt like there were a few too many unfunny scenes that were mainly there to get the plot moving.

But naturally, there is a lot of great stuff here. One underrated smaller element of Seinfeld is the brilliant comedy it wrings out of old people – specifically, finding angles on them no other show does. The Simpsons finds the high bar in the regular kind of humour you get; old bodies being revolting, old people being bigoted or irritable, and old people being from another time. The old people on Seinfeld, conversely, find a different angle of humour in how weirdly stubborn an older person can be. Usually, it’s less about the idea of an older person and more about their bizarre behaviour, and any kind of commentary is secondary. This is especially something we see in Morty and his coats; I could spin a thought about how he’s a working class guy who absolutely must get the better of any deal, no matter how much it inconveniences his ostensible holiday plans, but honestly this is an attitude we see across the series.

On the other hand, we get a great new angle on Elaine when we find she does kind of see them as ‘old people’. I absolutely love the whole thread of her not comprehending why her boyfriend would enjoy showing them around the city and being nice for no reward; admittedly, him going full Schindler’s List is weird, but he’s also just enjoying somebody’s company, and it’s so funny to me that this is a genuine puzzle for her. One thing that brings Jerry, George, and Elaine together is that just being alive is such a burden for all of them, and pleasure is something they always have to compromise for and sometimes have to justify.

The Costanzas carry a lot of the Old People Humour as well. Jerry Stiller observed later that he wasn’t really doing a lot of acting on this show and that The King Of Queens would tax his abilities a lot further, and I believe that; a lot of his performance does come off as him just reading the lines as he remembers them. Obviously, he has the advantage that the lines are funny, but it also gives Frank this weird internal life, mostly closed off to what’s happening around him; here is a man who has been swimming in his own mind for decades, seized by sudden desires and furious by any obstacle daring to exist. I suddenly wonder if Frank could be seen as a probably future version of Elaine, when her patience has been ground down into a fine powder.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• George hopes living with your parents will become cool. It took twenty years of a miserable economy that died at least twice, but it happened, kind of.
• “When the aliens come, who do you think they’re gonna relate to?” / “The baldies.”
• “He wants this guy to think he’s in Paris.” / “Why?” / “Coz George is a deeply disturbed individual.” Seinfeld (comedian) finds the perfect delivery of this.
• I do enjoy George spinning multiple schemes at once, like a man spinning plates.
• Judge Reinhold has a sweet presence as an actor that works perfectly for Aaron. He’s a big enough name – having effectively just come off the Beverly Hills Cop III set for this episode – that I wonder if this was a turning point where big names were coming to the show a la The Simpsons.
• Morty correctly guesses that Monet was shortsighted, which is commonly seen as the driving force behind his Impressionist style.
• “You… had fun with Mr and Mrs Seinfeld?” / “Yeah! They bought me a Coke.”
• Great moments in blocking: George takes a few seconds to figure out where Jerry is when he triumphantly walks in going “AAAAAHHHHH!”, and later he and Estelle gesture identically while she rants. Newman steals some of Jerry’s condiments.
• This is also the one where Jerry makes out during Schindler’s List. You people get irritable when I don’t mention the iconic jokes.
• Helen Seinfeld gets to do the “Hello, Newman” gag!
• “And a more offensive spectacle I cannot recall!”

Biggest Laugh: Seinfeld (comedian) manages to find the single funniest way to deliver this line.

Next Week: “The Fire”.