Kramer’s editor accompanies him to one of Jerry’s performances and heckles him, so Jerry goes to her workplace to heckle her, which inadvertently causes her to get her pinky toe severed and getting her a promotion ahead of Elaine. Meanwhile, George pushes over old ladies and children to escape a small fire.

Written by: Larry Charles
Directed by: Tom Cherones

Every now and again, a show settles on a perfect episode premise. This arguably has two intertwined great ideas: Jerry heckles a heckler, and George pushes over old women and children to get out of a fire. I especially love that neither is particularly original in and of themselves; I do find both compelling because they’re both extreme actions that demand some kind of response, but it’s really about how both are contextualised in the narrative. Jason Alexander’s performance is absolutely killer throughout this – his sincere panic as he throws the old lady aside, of course, but his puffing himself up when confronted about it and putting his full intelligence into justifying an unjustifiable act is hilarious, and his weak, humiliated admission right at the very end (“How do you live with yourself?” / “It’s not easy.”) is the icing on the cake.

That is to say, it’s the consequences that really make these ideas work. It isn’t just some guy pushing over old ladies and children; it’s George Costanza, a man who is impossible to embarrass and easy to shame, and he’s going to use any tool he can think of to protect a glass ego. Like, one underlying thing that makes George’s scene being confronted by the clown so funny is that this truly is George’s full intelligence on display, and even if it was much – which it ain’t – there’s nothing he could possibly do to dig himself out here. Meanwhile, Jerry’s confrontation of the heckler isn’t all that dramatic, but it has a typically Seinfeld escalation in how it directly leads to her getting her pinky toe severed, which itself leads to the spectacular comic scene of Kramer explaining how he got it on a bus.

In a lot of ways, what makes Seinfeld great isn’t just imagination, it’s discipline. The work is always done to situate its ideas in a larger farcical plot, in which absurd escalation is used to give each scene an extra edge. The great thing about the Seinfeld ethos is that while individual scenes can be extraordinary extravaganzas, the work is done to make each scene funny, if not because it’s inherently funny, then at least to give each scene unique one-liners and situations. If this can’t be funny on its own, it can at least be said in the funniest way possible.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• Kramer’s idea for a coffee table book about coffee tables comes up again, and indeed gets escalated when he comes up with the idea for it to turn into a coffee table itself. I love that Elaine seems so disgusted at the fact this idea is working.
• “I swear, this is like working with a contestant from The Price Is Right!
• I love the scene of Jerry running a bit past Elaine. I think this show delves into the work of a standup much more than it’s given credit for, right down to how one bad review fucks up Jerry’s career a bit.
• Veanne Cox gives Toby the perfect energy of someone who, if she thinks about the volume of her voice at all, thinks it’s endearing, right down to her specific annoying laugh.
• “I have a good time, I swear.”
• I’ve done some standup myself and had people overenthusiastically step on the energy, though it was great when I told a filthy joke and got a “You’re fucked!” in response. I also have a friend who has a habit of answering everything a stage performer says, and I’m working out how to tell her she doesn’t have to do that.
• “You’re living in the past, man! You’re hung up on some clown from the Seventies, man!”
• It’s great to me that George talks Jerry into going to heckle Toby. It’s what George would have done!
• “Seemingly. Seemingly. To the untrained eye.”
• “Now I’m driving the bus!”
• Elaine falling over is another real Kramer move from her.

Biggest Laugh: This was a real easy pick.

Next Week: “The Hamptons”