Episode Diary 2-5: The Jacket

Storylines: Jerry buys a really expensive suede jacket. Kramer tries to get someone to watch his car while it’s double parked so he can pick up some doves. Elaine invites Jerry and George to have dinner with her father, who’s an intimidating alcoholic writer, but Elaine is late, leaving George and Jerry to fend for themselves against Mr. Benes.

Personal Take: This episode gives us a good insight to one facet of Kramer’s psyche. After Jerry buys his new, expensive jacket, Kramer kind of haggles Jerry into taking his old jacket. Not only does he rarely have a job on the series (or maybe because of that fact), but Kramer often times is a freeloader. The show also gives us the first of several pieces of evidence that Kramer has no concept of time. He tells Elaine to watch his car for two minutes while it’s double-parked, but it ends up being more than 20 minutes. All of this leaves us to wonder, “What exactly does Kramer do with his time?” One of many reasons why Kramer is the oddball of the group.

Other notes:

I think it’s funny that Jerry feels totally comfortable wearing a pink-striped jacket when he flips it inside out….

Gaps in Society: First off, why the heck do jackets cost so freakin’ much? At least Jerry isn’t getting it for some sense of societal status. He certainly isn’t conscious about the jacket when he decides to turn it inside out, putting the pink and white stripes on full display (again with pink!). Apparently, Elaine’s father thinks highly enough of himself to not want to be seen with someone who looks like a fool. That’s pretty ridiculous, but I’m sure there plenty of people in real life who are just like that.

Jerry’s bits: He starts by saying how he doesn’t like putting together outfits every day, but it doesn’t matter, because at some point in the future, we’re all going to decide to wear the same outfit since that’s how people the future or other planets are. His second bit is about how intimidating fathers can be. He ends the episode with a bit wondering why suede gets ruined in the rain, but cows don’t, since suede is made of cow skin.

Best Lines:

Elaine: I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Where’s dad?

George: He’s in the baaa-troom (bathroom; when George says this line, he imitates Elaine’s dad’s scraggly voice).

Tidbits: The tile of the book that Elaine’s father wrote is titled “King’s Road,” which is the same name as a street Jerry once lived on in Hollywood….There’s a little blooper in this episode. While George is putting on his jacket, he’s wearing his glasses, but in the next shot when he turns to look at Jerry, his glasses are off, then are back on in the very next shot.

Running jokes/references/connections:

Elaine watches Kramer’s birds, which Kramer talks about a few episodes later in “The Stranded.”…While waiting for him, the car gets towed because Kramer has thousands of unpaid tickets, which he goes to pay in “The Subway” in season 3….This is the second reference to Elaine being from Maryland, the first being in “The Stakeout”. The show’s co-creator Larry David attended the University of Maryland.