Jerry dates a woman who doesn’t laugh at his jokes; he discovers her roommate does, and enlists George in a scheme to switch girlfriends. Elaine lends out her boss’s tennis racket, only to struggle to get it back. George schemes to figure out if his girlfriend is bulimic, and in the process, learns Kramer’s first name.

Written by: Bruce Kirschbaum and Sam Kass
Directed by: Andy Ackerman

Man, the title plot here has some layers. A distinct advantage of Seinfeld burning through plot points so fast is that it can end up exploring multiple interesting ideas; this is secondary, obviously, to it stuffing an episode with so many funny ideas, but still. Firstly, it’s very funny that Jerry doesn’t want to date someone who won’t laugh at his jokes; a few episodes back, I pondered how Jerry assumes a dentist will nitpick how you brush your teeth because he projects his own nitpicking tendencies on them, and this feels like a payoff of that – he’s always a comedian, wherever he goes. The really funny thing about Jerry – and this even comes up explicitly in the episode – is that he’s a shallow asshole, but he’s completely aware of this and at peace with it. The closest character to him on television is Bender, and Bender lacks Jerry’s obsessive introspection.

This then moves onto the eponymous switch, a fantastic concept for a Seinfeld episode and masterfully executed. The whole show is people attempting these little social maneuvers and seeing them blow up in their faces, and this has the advantage of a problem simple to express and complex to execute; I love that it’s not really something with a simple solution, like Elaine’s problem that could have been resolved one way or the other by a simple explanation. I wouldn’t quite call Jerry’s problem sympathetic, but there is a clear logic running along here. George’s solution is incredibly funny because, while risky, it does make a lot of sense that they’d think this is how it would play out, and the payoff that the whole set of dominos fails to fall from the first drop is so fucking funny.

This is a rare case where the story climaxes not in a farce – again, Elaine’s plot pulls this off alongside Kramer’s – but in Jerry giving something like a Winger speech. Beloved commentor RavenWilder has remarked that Seinfeld episodes can sometimes just end without showing all the consequences for something – again, this episode does that! – and this takes that even further, where it’s almost an anti-climax that’s made to work through sheer dedication to verbiage. And it’s funny partly because this pulls Jerry’s analytical side and self-awareness into somewhere almost surreal, where he sees engaging in a menage menaige threeway not as a physical act of affection, nor even as a way to get his rocks off, but as a violation of his identity, as if one simply cannot have sex with two people at the same time without also doing all that other stuff.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• “Oh, George, you’re becoming one of the glitteratti.” / “What’s that?” / “You know, people who glitter.”
• I love it when George is obsessed with something and ends up riffing on it hard, especially when he’s trying to convey how little he cares about something needling at him. He keeps hitting on one concept like he’s trying to beat the listener into believing him. It’s also great that his whole objection to his girlfriend’s possible bulimia is that he’s paying for a meal that is apparently being wasted.
• This also has the iconic reveal of Kramer’s first name. I deeply love that he is apparently oblivious to the others making fun of him for it; his shame about it was entirely disconnected to how strange it is.
• My favourite acting moment from Jason Alexander this episode is his initial sincere rage that Jerry is even considering a roommate switch.
• Great one-scene character with the guy who fights Elaine for the racket.
• “ARE YOU CRAZY?! THIS IS LIKE DISCOVERING PLUTONIUM BY ACCIDENT!” / “Don’t you know what it means to become an orgy guy? It changes everything, I’d have to dress different, I’d have to act different! I’d have to grow a moustache and wear all kinds of robes and lotions! I’d have to get new beadspreads and curtains, I’d have to get carpenting and weird old lighting! Course I’d have to get new friends – I’d have to get orgy friends! No, I’m not ready for it.”

Biggest Laugh: This is a line that surely must have had the guiding hand of Jerry Seinfeld pass over it., rendering it as precise and absurd as possible.

Next Week: “The Label Maker”