Elaine is hosting a man from Trinidad and Tobago who is entering a race for the first time since missing the Olympics due to oversleeping, and Jerry quickly becomes sceptical of her ability to wake him up in time. Kramer gets a hot tub and loses his ability to feel heat. George tries to look busy at work, causing his boss to worry about him. Elaine also has writer’s block.

Written by: Gregg Kavet & Andy Robin
Directed by: Andy Ackerman

Most farces usually inspire the audience to ask “Why didn’t you just not be an idiot?” The classic criticism is that characters could have avoided their situation by simply having a conversation instead of jumping to conclusions. Seinfeld often avoids this with behaviour so extreme that only Larry David could have done it; George’s behaviour is often so absurd that you have no option but to buy into it. However, in episodes like this, it goes in the other direction: it is impossible to calculate all the angles because our world is so big and so absurd that you really have no idea what’s coming.

It’s really funny how this plot manages to have its cake and eat it too – Jerry looks absurd for obsessing so much over a stranger’s ability to wake up on time, and yet his behaviour 100% makes sense. One of the most powerful youthful instincts in human consciousness – one so powerful it often survives in people well into old age – is the belief that the universe is obligated to make sense. Disorder and chaos is repulsive. Jerry goes out of his way to make it so the guy who slept in won’t sleep in, but there’s a part of us that gets this when watching. And I think Jerry actually mostly does everything right – he has multiple redundant solutions to this problem, with one ready in case the other fails.

Which makes it hilarious that the consequences come from outside his perspective. Seinfeld obviously isn’t a Thematic show where everything ties together based on an idea, but you can see matchup with the George story, where his actions have completely unpredictable consequences. I’ve said before that this is a show about having anxiety, where the mind jumps to whatever could possibly go wrong; this episode works off the idea that things could go wrong in ways you’ll never dream of.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• “This catalogue is all about how to score in a foreign country.”
• “I always look annoyed. When you look annoyed all the time people think that you’re busy.”
• Of course Kramer has a ‘mental alarm’. Though I will admit my ability to sleep and wake up on time has become uncanny in my thirties.
• “Isn’t that the same temperature of the coffee that scalded you?”
• “He, uh, doesn’t have any running water?” / “I don’t ask those kind of questions anymore.”
• Kramer shivering in a cold hot tub is great setup for Richards’s physical comedy.
• Elaine’s writer’s block is very funny to me as a guy who has a professional writer’s ethos, if not a professional writer’s income.
• “I’ll stay with Elaine. It would be rude!” / “Hey, you bastards.”
• Elaine says “Jerry!” the way Jerry says “Newman”

Biggest Laugh: Apologies for the Youtube Shorts here, but I needed to show the entire scene with Jerry drenched in relatable anxiety.

Next week: “The Soup Nazi”. Oh hell yeah.