OPINION

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By Tyler Brand

“I’m not an investor. People always tell me, you should have your money working for you. I’ve decided I’ll do the work. I’m gonna’ let the money relax.” – Jerry Seinfeld in “The Stock Tip” episode of Seinfeld.

Witty remarks such as this one fill the 172 episodes of Seinfeld, an extraordinarily popular sitcom that aired from 1989 to 1998 on NBC and is now available on Netflix. The show was created by comedians and friends Larry David, who wrote many of the episodes, and Jerry Seinfeld, and it centers around the life of a comedian (named Jerry Seinfeld) and is consequently a “show about nothing.” This means that, according to Seinfeld, “nothing happens on the show. It’s just like life. You eat and read and go shopping.” There’s no true plot carried from one episode to the next other than the relationships between characters, as well as inside jokes. Each episode is merely different twists in routine days to add comedic effect. Jerry and his friends—George Costanza (Jason Alexander), Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and (Cosmo) Kramer (Michael Richards)—are the primary sources of comedy and entertainment throughout the show through their incredible acting and relatable actions, based on clever and snappy writing.

Seinfeld cast. Photo credit: National Broadcasting Company (NBC). 

Over the years, the show developed into much more than entertainment. It became a cultural phenomenon by creating popular sayings and influencing viewers’ lives on a personal level. Seinfeld received so much attention that its finale, which aired on May 14, 1998, is the sixth-most viewed entertainment television event, outside of sports, of all time. A whopping 76.3 million viewers tuned in for the final episode of Seinfeld. Although there are without a doubt many incredibly amusing and entertaining episodes, three stand out: “The Contest,” “The Opposite,” and “The Outing.” 

“The Contest,” the 11th episode of the fourth season, which originally aired on Nov. 18, 1992, is arguably the peak of the sitcom. The episode begins with George telling a story of how he got “caught” by his mother during a rather personal moment. He says, “I was alone,” and there was a Glamour magazine nearby. His mother falls from shock and gets injured, so George exclaims that he will never do “that” again.

Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer completely doubt this. Jerry confidently says, “I know I could hold out longer than you,” to which George replies by proposing a bet of $100 to see who can last the longest. Kramer quickly joins in, and they reluctantly let Elaine join in for a steeper $150 bet, because they claim that it’s easier for a woman to hold out longer.

Unfortunately for the boys, there is a woman who is walking around her apartment completely nude with her window open across the street from Jerry’s apartment, which quickly eliminates Kramer from the “contest.” Elaine is tempted by having John F. Kennedy, Jr., in her gym class. “John-John,” as he was nicknamed, was considered New York City’s most famous and handsome eligible bachelor in the 1990s. By the end of the episode, all of them finally sleep peacefully, although it is not known who held out longer to “win” the “contest.”

“The Contest” is the most comical Seinfeld episode due to the use of innuendos and euphemisms to discuss an uncomfortable topic. In other words, we, as viewers, are laughing at what they aren’t saying. Rather than using profane language or words of a sexual nature, they use phrases such as, “master of your domain,” a saying that gained widespread popularity due to its use in this episode, when referring to masturbation. On top of that, Kramer’s emphatic slam down of the $100 bill on the counter and exclaiming “I’m out” is arguably the funniest moment in the whole series, due to Richard’s unparalleled physical comedy, as well as the underlying significance of the act.

The characters in their usual coffee shop. Photo credit: NBC. 

The second-best episode of the series, “The Opposite,” aired as the final episode of season five on May 19, 1994. In this episode, George is at an all-time low, and nothing is working out for him. He decides that every decision he’s ever made and every instinct he’s ever had have been wrong, so he decides that he will begin to do the opposite of every one of his instincts. He starts by ordering the opposite meal from what he always has ordered at the coffee shop. His next move is approaching an attractive woman sitting across the coffee shop who keeps eyeing him. At first, his instinct—as a bald, poor, jobless man who lives with his parents—was to stay seated, but he is determined to do the exact opposite and thus approaches her. 

George and this woman end up going on a date, where he continues to say and do the opposite of all of his instincts, and he ends up getting set up for an interview by the woman’s uncle for a front-office job with the New York Yankees, a dream of George’s. At the interview, rather than being polite and sucking up to the interviewer, George acts arrogantly, moderately rude, and disrespectful to both the interviewer and the famously difficult owner of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner (voiced off-camera by Larry David), yet he is hired right on the spot for his straightforwardness. By the end of the episode, George’s life is going better than ever. Elaine, whose life was nearly perfect, has now fallen apart, as she has lost her boyfriend, apartment, and job, and Jerry remains where he was. In other words, he broke even, proving Kramer’s claim that Jerry is “even Steven.”

“The Opposite” is one of the funniest episodes in the series, as the plot is completely ridiculous. The idea that George could act opposite of how he always has, and in some cases defy social conduct, to somehow go from rock bottom to thriving is absurd. However, that is what makes it so amusing. This, paired with the idea that Elaine’s life falls apart while she acts normal, as well as the idea that Jerry always breaks even, really sets this episode apart, in terms of humor, from almost every other Seinfeld episode. In addition, the fact that none of the characters have any significant redeemable qualities makes Seinfeld, in a sense, the opposite of other shows at the time. This ultimately adds to the comedic effect of this episode and the series as a whole, as the characters are far more intriguing than the typical role model families of other popular sitcoms of that era, like Full House or Growing Pains.

The third-best Seinfeld episode, “The Outing,” aired as the 17th episode of season four. In this episode, Jerry, Elaine, and George are eating in the coffee shop when Elaine notices the women in the booth next to them eavesdropping on their conversation. At this point, she loudly claims that Jerry and George should come out of the closet already as gay. This woman ends up being an NYU student that is supposed to interview Jerry to write an article about him. Later, this woman comes over to Jerry’s apartment to interview Jerry and assumes that Jerry and George are gay, and everything George says while she’s in the apartment does not help to convince her of anything else. When Jerry realizes where the woman is familiar from, he advocates that he is not, in fact, gay, although he adds that there is nothing wrong with that. However, the woman doesn’t believe him. After several attempts to convince her otherwise, the woman ends up writing the article saying that Jerry and George are a couple, and although they are not happy about this, every time they say that they’re not gay, they add, “not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

Social acceptance of homosexuality during the 90s was slowly evolving, and Larry David and the producers of Seinfeld most likely decided to play it safe when talking about homosexuality by emphasizing that nothing is wrong about it. However, they were able to do this in such a way that made it comical at the same time. Rather than homosexuality being the target of the humor in the episode, it is the confusion and miscommunication between the characters that is responsible for much of the humor. This was a relatively progressive idea when the show originally aired on Feb. 11, 1993, as many comedy shows of that era would have made homosexuality the joke. At this time, homosexuality did not have the same acceptance as it has today. Gay marriage was a far-fetched concept, and homosexual conduct was even illegal in many states. However, “The Outing” won a GLAAD Media Award for its remarkably normal depiction of homosexuality. It normalized homosexuality to an extent and helped paved the way for a more inclusive culture in the 21st century. This significance, paired with the silly yet chaotic plot, makes “The Outing” one of the best Seinfeld episodes of the series.