Jerry accidentally knocks his girlfriend’s toothbrush in the toilet and fails to prevent her from using it, causing chaos in their relationship. George accidentally drops his keys in a pothole and it gets filled up. Elaine struggles to order food from a restaurant that doesn’t deliver to her area. Kramer adopts a highway.

Written by: Steve O’Donnell & Dan O’Keefe
Directed by: Andy Ackerman

It’s often remarked that many of Seinfeld‘s plots have been undone by shifts in technology; within this episode alone, Elaine’s plot has been made redundant by delivery apps with dedicated drivers. I think the case for making them unwatchable by young people is vastly overstated; the number of people actually dumb enough to ask why Humphrey Bogart didn’t simply call in CSI for The Big Sleep is vanishingly small, and I know I managed to pick up from context what records were before they came back into style. This is interesting because it also has something of a cultural shift; Jerry’s fastidiousness is mocked here, but I think a lot of his complaints would actually be taken as pretty straightforward at this point, especially post-COVID, even if his fear of kissing his girlfriend is taking it a bit far.

This is also interesting because it’s the first time a character has really been ‘diagnosed’. I’ve been saying this whole time that the show is a little bit meta, and this is the first time it’s really taken shape in a way that actually resembles the shows that came after. Elaine’s little dissection of Jerry’s psychology is something Community (which has a lot of Seinfeld in its DNA – Jeff in particular carries Jerry’s attitudes, assumptions, and general sense of superiority into a more serious context) was doing from its first episode. I imagine this is at least partially a result of fans coming onto the show, having made observations of the characters themselves and bringing those into the show.

A big difference here is that there are central solid aspects of the characters as opposed to observation being almost entirely their makeup. In particular, there’s a core of confidence to Jerry and Seinfeld’s performance of him; him both taking the criticism and doing nothing about it are a) entirely in character, b) the funniest possible direction to take that, and c) continues to make it unique in the television landscape. Again, this is something Always Sunny ran away with; it contribute to the way those characters mutate and shift over the decades. Here in Seinfeld, it’s just another joke.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• “Yeah, I’m part of the solution now, Jerry!”
• “Aw, looks just like you.”
• I’ve seen an observation that if a new technology destroys a Seinfeld plot, it’s good, and if it creates one, it’s bad. This is an oversimplification, and I know this because just based on this episode, we have UberEats and Door dash, both of which have numerous anti-worker practices.
• “By the time I’m finished with her mouth, she’ll be able to eat off it.”
• “So now you’re finding fault on a subatomic level.”
• Jer, do you see where this is going?” / “Being really clean and happy?”
• “I just roll ’em into the woods.” / “Yeah, those things are all-natural anyway.”
• “If the real Phil Rizzuto were down there, this wouldn’t be happening!” / “Hard to say.”
• “When were you gonna tell me this?” / “Obviously never.”
• “Are you just screwin’ with me?” / “Yeah.”
• Elaine’s plot pushes the ridiculousness a bit, because it’s a very silly thing to do but I also totally believe Elaine feels entitled to the fish enough to go to this much effort for it. “It’s better than eating it alone in the restaurant like some loser!” also says a lot about her view of the world.
• “Now. Where’s that toolshed of yours?”
• “Kind of a hard labour fantasy camp.”
• “That car is my last germ-free sanctuary! I slept in it last night!”
• Toilet brush is definitely the funniest solution to the mystery (“Alright, I can replace that.”).

Biggest Laugh:

Next Week: “The English Patient”