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Kel Varnsen

By Kel Varnsen
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Biff Tannen
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They really should be using a medical dictionary

Cheeseweasel
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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28929

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On 7/15/2021 at 4:42 PM, Biff Tannen said:

Since we're apparently having this conversation.  Favorite season.  Go.

Mine is probably actually Season 9.  I know most people disagree, but pretty much every episode is great.  Yes Ohio, even the Puerto Rican Day Parade.  Granted that is on the lower end.

But out of the gate you have The Butter Shave, The Voice, The Serenity Now, The Blood, The Junk Mail, and The Merv Griffin Show.  That is fucking STRONG.

Season 4. That’s when it really took off.

But as long as we’re talking about season 9, notice something the next time you watch The Maid. In the second scene where we see the maid (played by Angela Featherstone, underrated as Seinfeld girlfriends go), when she’s leaving Jerry’s apartment and they kiss just as Elaine arrives, she’s wearing a sleeveless top. You can see her vaccination scar on her upper arm. She’s not much older than I am but mine disappeared years ago.

Also, while Alec Berg was mostly listed as an executive producer, he had a writing credit on that episode (along with four others). He’s one of three of the writers who do the commentary for that episode on the DVD. They joke about how that’s more people than who will actually listen to the commentary. They also comment on how The Maid was the last “regular” episode of the show since The Puerto Rican Day was all shot on location and didn’t include scenes in Jerry’s apartment or the cafe. I thought The Maid was better than The Puerto Rican Day but they weren’t even very complimentary about the penultimate regular season episode.

There’s no commentary for The Puerto Rican Day. But in the Inside Look special feature, they spend a little time with obligatory praise for the episode then spend most of the time talking about the backlash against the episode. I agree that the backlash was unwarranted. But I will steadfastly stand behind my position that it’s the least funny episode of the series and that if you think otherwise then I think it calls your sense of humor into question. Or that maybe you’re just taking up a position of opposition arbitrarily strictly for the purpose of contradiction. It’s just not that funny.

Also, the guy Elaine kissed under the bleachers was a casting director and that kiss was improvised during the shoot. It was more of an inside joke. Har har. Good one.

You know, calling out the least funny episode of the funniest sitcom ever isn’t exactly an insult.

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WhatTheBuck

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On 7/17/2021 at 12:28 AM, Biff Tannen said:

So you don’t like the Puerto Rican Day episode.  Noted. 

It’s not that I don’t like it. I just think it’s the least funny episode of the funniest sitcom of all time. How is that so hard to grasp? It’s definitely not funnier than The Old Man.

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Guest Lobo

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On 7/19/2021 at 11:31 AM, Cheeseweasel said:

He's got a good John Houseman name. Alex Beeeeerg.

It's not Alex, it's Alec.  That's a big part of what makes it a good John Houseman name.  

this morning, wife was talking to me about dental appts for the kids before school starts.  And I shouted, "HEY, DENTY!"  She laughed but then we both talked about how weird that line must have been for the Standards & Practices guy.  In and of itself, it means nothing.  But you could say that about a lot of things that they won't let through.  In the context, it's obviously a stand-in for other ethnic slurs.  Of all the shit seinfeld writers had to get through S&P, I just think that one would have been the most awkward.  

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Biff Tannen

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4 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

I was reminded the other night watching an episode that somewhat epitomized the unsurpassed greatness of this show - the ability to take Jerry, and Newman and a shared romantic interest and roll them into one story.   He ended it.

Pure gold. 

 

 

She wasn’t my type. 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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The most brilliant part of that scene happens only in hindsight.  We know that Newman ended it even though she was way outta his league.  But when he realizes it's her, she turns her head around, and Newman quickly places the chocolate in his pocket out of embarrassment.  So many layers.  Of candy, intrigue, and comedy.  

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Biff Tannen

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58 minutes ago, Lobo said:

The most brilliant part of that scene happens only in hindsight.  We know that Newman ended it even though she was way outta his league.  But when he realizes it's her, she turns her head around, and Newman quickly places the chocolate in his pocket out of embarrassment.  So many layers.  Of candy, intrigue, and comedy.  

Never noticed that 

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WhatTheBuck

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So I move into the center lane. Now I get ahead of this woman who felt, for some reason I guess, that she thought that I cut her off. So she pulls up along side of me, gives me the finger. It seems like such an arbitrary, ridiculous thing to just pick a finger and you show it to the person. It’s a finger, what does it mean? Someone shows me one of their fingers and I’m supposed to feel bad. Is that the way it’s supposed to work? I mean, you could just give someone the toe, really, couldn’t you? I would feel worse if I got the toe than if I got the finger. ‘Cause it’s not easy to give someone the toe. You’ve got to get the shoe off, the sock off, and drive, get it up in the...”Look at that toe, buddy!” I mean, that’s really insulting to get the toe, isn’t it?

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futureman

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28 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

I can't believe we let this thread slip so far.  I blame no streaming service having Seinfeld right now.  C'mon Netflix.  Get your shit together.  This is bush league!

you’re probably gettin’ an ulcer. this thread is killing you. it’s killing us. 

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NorthLoop

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2 hours ago, Dr Fear said:
2 hours ago, McCroskey said:
Where do you all put the Sniffing Accountant in the episode rankings?

IDK about the whole episode, but Kramer in the bar with the accountant is a top 10 scene in the series for me.

Chugging the beer with the cigarette was comedy gold 

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WhatTheBuck

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On 8/12/2021 at 6:17 PM, McCroskey said:

Where do you all put the Sniffing Accountant in the episode rankings?

Michael Richards’ physical comedy at its best, right up there with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. When Kramer chugs the beer while smoking a cigarette, that just kills. That whole scene is comedy gold. Definitely a must see episode.

Edit: I see NorthLoop already used “comedy gold.” Well, he was right. I mean, that was up there with John Candy dressed as the devil while driving between two semis in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles or when the Cowardly Lion runs down the hall and jumps out the window in The Wizard of Oz. 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Of all the funny physical comedy scenes Michael Richards did, and he is perhaps one of the 5 or so all-time greatest...his very best moment in unspoken comedy was just him sitting in the coffee shop booth.  He was used to having to delay his first line in some episodes after entering Jerry's apartment because of the long audience applause breaks (we all know the story behind them having to ask the studio audience to truncate the applause because it would throw off Jerry and Julia's timing).  But...

When George is delivering that monologue about the whale/golf ball...everybody's reactions are great.  But watch Michael Richards, it is the absolutely pitch-perfect blend of holding his line for a quiet moment, but also subtly smirking as if he knows where George is going with the story, while also maintaining some humiliation, and peppered on top of that a bit of pride about his errant---but very long---golf shot.  His squirming, and what he does with his shoulders, never mind his brilliant facial expression oscillation...it's the best physical comedy moment in Seinfeld history and it all takes place in one quarter of a 4-person booth---not exactly a funny bones playground.  Watch Kramer as Julia enters, Kramer's demeanor is already deadly serious but also fucking hilarious.  

For a comedic actor that was always willing to go over the top, it was a masterclass in "less is more" physical comedy that cannot be taught.  His most discrete movements playing off George's cadence, and then his perfect patience of silence....it's just a fucking stroke of genius.  You can't teach that, you can't even get that from a Buster Keaton.  It's something that was always in your bones, you're just remembering how to do in real time.  It was his finest hour.  

Close second-him falling with the garden hose--------serenity now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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