Elaine ends up in a relationship with a wake-up call guy. She introduces Jerry to her cousin, whose meat-heavy diet makes him uncomfortable; in the process of hiding the meat she feeds him, he ends up stealing her napkins. Meanwhile, George accidentally makes his coworker look bad with a mistimed wink, and Kramer borrowing a birthday card passed around the office makes it worse.

Written by: Tom Gammill & Max Pross
Directed by: Andy Ackerman

Seinfeld goes with The Simpsons and Community in the annals of great American sitcoms where every episode for several season is capital-G Great; what separates it from those two is its much lower ambition. Each episode of those shows is grappling with some dense and new idea; because Seinfeld is not doing this, it’s easier to highs and lulls in the craft – not that any episode past season two is bad, but sometimes you can see the rocks smash together and spark fire instantly. “The Wink” is definitely in the upper echelon; the plots weave together hilariously elegantly, the absurdity is a little more there, and even Jerry’s one-liners are funnier than usual.

George’s plot is the most interesting to me; we often talk about how the characters are just as inclined to try to be selfless as selfish and have that blow up in their face anyway (last week had a great example), and this is a rare case of a character being wildly successful about something instead of failing, and hating that for multiple reasons. Part of the subtext here is that Morgan really doesn’t deserve to get screwed over and George feels kind of bad about that; of course, more important is that George doesn’t want to be hated, and textually his motivation is to avoid doing more work.

In a way, I would argue even their selfless acts are rooted in selfishness – we’ve talked frequently about how the guys are motivated less by consequentialism and more by wanting to be the kind of person who does good things, and ideally what they really want is everyone celebrating them being a good person. It’s less about being good and more about face, which in a way is the most ancient idea in the show; there was a time when face was what a human being needed to survive, and one thing about modern cities is that you don’t actually need people to like you to get by anymore. One way of looking at Seinfeld is that it’s about how our most ancient instincts keep showing up in a modern context that doesn’t need them.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• “At least I’ve spoken to my guy, you’re going on a deaf date.” / “I think I’d rather a blind date than a deaf date.”
• “You’re going by sound? What are we, whales?”
• “So what are you saying is, ninety-five percent of the population is undateable?” / “UNDATEABLE!” This is one of the most famous pieces of dialogue in the show, in my experience.
• Great moments in blocking: a scene opens with Jerry and Elaine packing up Scrabble.
• “Women don’t respect salad-eaters!” / “You got that right.”
• “Salad’s got nuttin’ on this mutton!” / “That’s so funny, did you just make that up?” / “I wish I could take credit for it. It’s actually a line my butcher uses when we’re chewing the fat.” Classic Jerry.
• “I’m not calling him a liar but he wasn’t stupid enough to promise two!”
• Amazing that Kramer reaches automatically for someone’s food as he always does and only the child takes it out of his reach.
• “You’ll finally get the recognition you deserve.” / “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Biggest Laugh: This is a real classic example of Jerry being able to go along with a lie because it amuses him.

Next Week: “The Hot Tub”