Jerry begins dating a woman named Lois and discovers her boss is a man he went to high school with who holds a grudge against Jerry for cheating at a race. Elaine is dating a communist, causing George to try dating a communist. Kramer becomes a mall Santa alongside Mickey.
Teleplay by: Tom Gammill & Max Ross and Larry David
Story by: Tom Gammill & Max Ross and Larry David
Directed by: Andy Ackerman
As we often note, Seinfeld has a fairly indifferent attitude towards philosophies and identities, being more concerned with funny behaviours. This ends up pushing that to a certain extreme with the most Larry David idea ever: what if people treated communism like it was a sports team a guy followed? This, of course, is an oversimplification; that really only describes Elaine’s relationship to Ned’s communism, and I find it hysterical that the writers manage to zig instead of zag. It initially seems like Elaine will get sick of the practical aspects of dating a communist, when it actually seems like Ned will be the one to get sick of her first. It’s great that they open with Elaine managing to ruin her relationship with a Chinese fast food delivery service, baffled as to how that could happen.
The other characters act predictably; it’s incredibly funny to me that George will immediately buy into any principles that will get him laid, and again, the writers manage to zig instead of zag by having the mere act of applying have an unexpected consequence when he looks like a communist, and then have that actually work out for him. Kramer’s arc is a little more predictable, though I do enjoy his idiosyncratic take on communism as it relates to deli meats. It’s Jerry who gets the meatiest story here; I enjoy that he basically gets two arcs, between the Lois jokes, and trying to weasel out of the race.
One way of looking at Jerry is that he’s quite a boring guy – he’s often accused as such by fans who find George, Kramer, and Elaine more interesting, but his complete peace with that is so funny to me. Jerry has a comfortable, cool job and absolutely no ambition to improve his situation beyond looking for a girlfriend. I think he works as the everyone quite effectively in this regard; most of us have interests and skills but not flashy expertise, and most of us don’t do things that are dramatically interesting, nor do we want to. From this perspective, holding onto a high school memory makes a lot of sense; he doesn’t exactly have a few years in the Peace Corp to draw his identity on. It’s a very funny hook to build a plot around; a riff on the idea of peaking in high school.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- “Why, I’d have to be Superman to do that, Lois.”
- “Appearance not important! This is great! Finally, an ideology I can embrace!”
- Great blocking: George gesturing to Jerry whenever he says “I choose not to run!”, as well as the careful shot of him taking a shot of cider like he’s downing whiskey and George accidentally spilling Elaine’s drink.
- “Where’s a nice little boy like you learn a word like that?” The fact that Mickey takes his job incredibly seriously is so funny.
- “I assure you, if I had not been a dictator, I would not have been able to get away with that one!”
Biggest Laugh: This is honestly one of the most spectacular scenes in the whole show – I honestly think the entirety of Always Sunny was drawn from this one scene of George and Jerry immediately taking the chance to roast each other and make up exploits to brag about.
Next Week: “The Switch”.