The Puffy Shirt (season five, episode two) It’s the little details that make it: George’s terse in-car phone call with his mother, his willingness to embrace fascism if it means getting the girl and Kramer’s swivel-eyed conspiracy theory about Jerry’s real identity.
One of the show’s most high-concept conceits involves George conning his way into a limo by pretending to be the real occupant – who turns out to be a neo-Nazi leader. Hamstrung by dinner party etiquette, driven to distraction by bakery bureaucracy, poisoned by a cookie (breaking Jerry’s 14-year no-vomit streak) and blocked in by Saddam Hussein (maybe), the friends’ scream-inducing outing makes going to a dinner party seem like a living nightmare. There is a strand of Seinfeld episodes that deal exclusively in mind-bending exasperation: this is one of them. The Dinner Party (season five, episode 13) But this is Seinfeld, so instead of the usual wisecracking, we have a profound meditation on death, a throwaway subplot involving Scientology and absolutely zero consolation by the episode’s end, when Kramer car fails to start. Misplacing a car at a multistorey car park is a premise that could fuel many a sitcom. The Parking Garage (season three, episode six) As a character, the Pakistani restaurant owner Babu Bhatt is uncomfortably cartoonish, but what saves this episode (and makes it a classic) is that the joke is squarely on Jerry and his self-congratulatory interior monologue. George’s plan to fake an IQ test goes awry, while Jerry provides business advice to the owner of a failing eatery in the smuggest – and most misguided – way possible. A subplot in which Elaine calls out sexism is a rare jaunt into progressive territory. The show had more than its fair share of great guest stars, and the season eight finale sees three collide: Amanda Peet plays Jerry’s demanding new girlfriend, Molly Shannon is Elaine’s stiff-armed colleague and Raquel Welch appears as a terrifyingly aggressive version of herself. Photograph: NBC/NBCUniversal/Getty Images Michael Richards as Cosmo Kramer and Raquel Welch as herself in The Summer of George.
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