George must choose a student to receive a scholarship from the Susan Ross Foundation, and settles on a boy who reminds him of himself. Kramer falls in trouble with a gang called the Van Buren Boys. Jerry is in love with a woman and is mystified that everyone thinks she’s pathetic. Elaine ghostwrites J Peterman’s autobiography and is aggravated when he decides to buy Kramer’s life story to tell as his own.
Written by: Darin Henry
Directed by: Andy Ackerman
Jerry’s plot here in particular amuses because it’s, somehow, a completely different take on the show’s minimalism. I’ve been banging the drum that the show puts no more effort into the action than it absolutely has to for a while; at the same time, popular perception is that the show becomes wackier and least realistic or plausible in its later post-David seasons. Jerry loving a woman and everyone feeling sorry for her feels like something out of a magic realist novel or possibly a Japanese short story, but it also feels like the absolute minimum you can step out of reality and still be in it – not even a foot out of reality, just a toe. It’s only a little stranger than the woman Jerry met who was always wearing the same dress! It definitely feels like something that should happen in reality at some point; as one scene observes, it’s only the joke about everyone thinking Jerry’s career is on the skids pumped up a little. The punchline of Jerry changing his mind about her after his parents love her is obvious and obviously correct.
Meanwhile, Elaine’s plot amuses me because, as a writer, it’s incredibly relatable. This is before the writers explicitly start referencing their real world with Kramer’s real life Kramer tour, but it definitely feels like it lifts from their actual process; certainly, this feels like a reference to the fact that many of George’s stories are lifted straight from Larry David’s life, and we all know that the writers took this cue to lift from their own situation. Now, of course, while Kramer’s life is very strange, his actual focus tends to be even stranger; as a character, his real basis isn’t so much what he does or wants as the fact that he always does the exact wrong thing, especially when you’re counting on him to do that.
The punchline that Elaine actually starts to get excited about the idea and tries coming up with her own ideas only to see them shot down is beautiful. Obviously I’m not working on the professional basis she is, but I’ve been writing essays for nearly ten years now – not just here, but elsewhere – as well as working on creative projects, and the number one thing I’ve learned is that the number one thing that excites you about a project is not what anyone’s going to actually respond to. There have been a number of times when the response to an essay has sparked me to think either “Did you read a single word I said?!” or, more often, “That was the sum total of your thoughts on me pouring my guts out?!”. Of course, I’ve gotten used to it, and even find it somewhat valuable; after all, it’s just as much about me hearing different points of view as it is providing my own. It’s just very funny seeing Elaine discover this; I figure it would be so much more soul-crushing if you were doing it as a job as opposed to for passion, like me.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- “The presidency attracts the badly-named. Their ambition is based on personal insecurity.”
- “I’m fine with it! Fi-i-i-ine, I say!”
- “Quick, what’s your favourite animal?”
- Great blocking: George is facing away from the camera until he hears Steven wants to be an architect, at which point he swivels around without otherwise moving.
- “He’s gonna let me ghostwrite it.” / “Wow, that’s great, when it comes out I’m gonna have to get someone to ghostread it.” Elaine has a great expression back.
- “Every group has someone that they all make fun of. Like us with Elaine.” You watch Jerry actively choose not to respond to that.
- “He knows how to read! He also knows that finishing an entire book doesn’t prove anything.”
- “That’s my dream.” / “I had a dream last night that a hamburger was eating me!”
- The initial scenes of Elaine at Peterman’s apartment are funny specifically because seeing him engage in typical Seinfeld behaviour with his larger-than-life way of speaking are so absurd.
- “You know, the stupidest guy in my fraternity became an architect after he flunked out of dental school!” This guy has so much fun saying exactly what would needle George the most.
- “I like to work in the evenings…”
- “You know, this is like that Twilight Zone where the guy wakes up, and he’s the same and everybody else is different!” / “Which one?” / “They were all like that.”
- “Some of these aren’t even stories! This one’s just a list of things in his apartment!” / “Is my toaster oven on there?”
- “But that’s when the story takes a most unappealing turn.”
- “The very pants I was returning.”
Biggest Laugh: To use a Jerry line, the understated stupidity of this is what kills me.
Next week: “The Susie”