An old friend of the group is going through AA and is apologising to people for past misdeeds; George expects an apology and is outraged not to get one. Elaine’s coworker offends her by seeming sensitive to her germs. Jerry’s girlfriend is a nudist, and Jerry discovers ‘good naked’ and ‘bad naked’. Kramer begins to spend his life in the shower.

Written by: Jennifer Crittenden
Directed by: Andy Ackerman

Jerry’s plot is really about the way men sexualise women. I continue to be fascinated by how the show’s neutral stance leaves it wide open for interpretation like this; really, it’s something that separates it from its closest non-Larry David descendent, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. That show wears its thoughts on its sleeve; the Gang is stupid and evil and whatever they believe is, whether right or wrong, the immediate dumb thought anyone has. The cosmic indifference of Seinfeld opens it up a little more (which is itself a morally neutral creative choice). There are two specific complaints from women I think of when I think of this episode: men who sexualise everything women do, and men who express revulsion to anything non-sexual that women do (these usually being the same man). Fundamentally, Jerry wants a woman to be beautiful at all times, or at least to not have to think of everyday aspects of her that he finds gross.

(On the other hand, the issue in general seems fair enough in his own home)

Kramer’s plot is also fascinating, because it reflects something I definitely see all the time on social media: a preoccupation with doing an every-day task with the most effectiveness. Every day on The Websites, some random detail about life will preoccupy everybody; at the time of writing, it’s whether or not you can bring an iced coffee to a job interview, but other things that often make the rounds include whether or not you clean a cast-iron pan or if you should put the lid down before flushing the toilet*. Kramer pedantically surveying people at community showers is a great illustration of this thinking (very Kramer with how cheerful he is about it all).

(*It doesn’t matter and it doesn’t matter – soap is no longer made in a way that destroys cast iron pans and unless you literally vacuum seal your toilet lid, the germs from flushing are gonna spread anyway)

The Wikipedia page for this episode notes that social scientist Eric Horowitz used George’s plot to illustrate different human needs; that people seek apologies for reassurance and people give apologies out of regret, and the conflict between George and Jason escalates because of these differences in motivation. This is interesting stuff, or at least it sounds like something I would say so I approve of it. Normally I don’t note guest stars, but it’s very funny to have James Spader playing a character on this show; he always finds the most beautiful way of expressing a line of dialogue, and the writers find wonderful ways to give him journeys to go on (my favourite is “I’m so sorry that I didn’t want your rather bulbous head struggling to find its way through the normal-sized neckhole of my finely-knit sweater.”). His whole story feels like setup for his work on Boston Legal, and I particularly enjoy that he goes out of his way to convey Jason slowly crumbling over the episode.

Elaine’s story, while fun, has less to say about it. It does feel like a classic Seinfeld idea of taking an everyday, even banal observation – someone avoiding the risk of germs around you – and blowing it out of proportion. Much like other post-David episodes, it blows it up into more absurdity, but I think it works really well here. One thing I do note is that there’s a typical bit of late-era Seinfeld self-awareness in that the reason Peggy is disdainful of Elaine is because she has so many boyfriends; the show never got to the point of pointing out that Jerry and George, despite their looks and personalities, manage to have 135 girlfriends between them over the course of the show, which makes this look a little one-sided but is still pretty funny – particularly because of the presence of Puddy.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• “She ate breakfast naked?” / “She didn’t want a napkin!”
• “Did she frolic?” / “I didn’t have enough room.”
• “You’re back together again?” / “His apartment was being fumigated, we decided to give it another shot.”
• “I’d accuse you of cheating, but I don’t know where you’d hide the tiles.”
• “When you cough, there are thousands of unseen muscles that suddenly spring into action. It’s like watching a fat guy catch that cannonball on his chest in slow motion.”
• “Spoiled, spoiled man. Do you know how much energy I spend just trying to picture women naked?”
• “You promise you’ll never come in here again?” / “Oh Jerry, you know I can’t do that!” It’s the chuckle Michael Richards puts into the line that kills me here – a completely original delivery.
• “Well this has all been one big tease!”
• “I can’t look anymore! I’ve seen too much!”
• “He was beboppin’ and scattin’ all over me!”
• Elaine dismisses the male body as ultilitarian (“It’s like a Jeep!”). Obviously, this is just my experience, but I tend to find most heterosexual women see the AMAB body as an inconvenience at best; bisexual women tend to be much more appreciative of it, for whatever reason.
• Oh man, classic moment of Puddy sitting on his couch staring into space when Kramer calls him.
• Only Puddy could say “Talk to me, babe,” and it be funny.
• “What’s this symbol?” / “It’s a germ.”
• “Okay. We’re broken up for the rest of the day.”
• “I prepared it as I bathed!”

Biggest Laugh:

Next Week: “The Strike”. That’s the one with Festivus, by the way.