100th Post (Thought I would point that out)

Well here I am sitting at home putting off studying for my Spanish final tomorrow when Mandy calls me and tells me to do a post. This whole month of June thing is proving to be harder than we thought. I'm figuring out that our life isn't all that exciting enough to constitute a blog with frequent posts but we will try.

I just finished re-watching all of the Seinfeld episodes on DVD. I have seen every episode numerous times but this time I decided to watch it all the way through and with the Spanish subtitles on to practice (two birds...). Before I started this "project" I read Steven Johnson's wonderful book Everything Bad is Good For You. Johnson makes the argument that today's popular culture can actually make you smarter because it is forcing your brain to follow multiple threads as well as following different social networks. Anyway, he says that if you pay attention while watching Seinfeld you can notice numerous times where there are recalls to previous episodes. So I was able to do that and brush up on my Spanish at the same time!

Close talker, low talker, shrinkage, yada yada yada, sponge worthy, serenity now..., there are many nuggets in this show that influenced our popular culture conversation over its 9 season run. I thought I would share with anyone who would listen, my 5 favorite Seinfeld episodes.

Ben's Top 5 Seinfeld Episodes

#5. The Race (Episode 96, Season 6): Jerry is forced to face the consequences of a lie he perpetrated about his speed that dates back to Jr. High School. He has George play along with a yarn that confirms his story. George decides to build himself up while he's helping Jerry, classic. Also, this episode is full of many Superman references that became a hallmark of the series.

(It's a little long but well worth it)

#4. The Yada Yada Yada (Episode 153, Season 8): It's not the obvious catchphrase that I love in this episode it's the side story involving Jerry and his dentist Tim Whatley. See Jerry is concerned that Whatley has only converted to Judaism for the jokes. This doesn't offend Jerry as a Jewish man, it offends him as a comedian.



#3. The Voice (Episode 158, Season 9): While Jerry is obsessed with a little voice he has been saying with his friends (long story) George is being pressured by his boss to quit his new job because they found out he was faking a disability (longer story). It's a battle of wits between George and Play Now.



#2. The Cadillac (Episode 124/125, Season 7): One name Marissa Tomei. As soon as George finds out that Marissa Tomei is into short, bald, bawdy men he immediately obsesses over the possibility of being with her. The only problem is George is engaged to marry Susan. So George makes many attempts to get her to call off the wedding, including picking up smoking. The best part of this episode is when George and Elaine sit down to come up with a lie to tell Susan. I couldn't find a video of it so here is the next best thing...




#1. The Apology (Episode 165, Season 9): Hands down my favorite episode and it is all because of George. He hears that the gangs mutual friend Jason Hanky is in AA and approaching the 9th step of the program, the one where you make amends. George is anxiously awaiting an apology from Hanky for a remark he made years earlier about George's rather large neck. Hanky won't apologize because he felt that his remark was more of a fact than an insult, this drives George nuts. There is also a funny side conversation involving Jerry and the fine line between good naked and bad naked. This episode is the entire crew at their neurotic best. I love it!



Oh and P.S. Mandy's favorite is absolutely episode 74 from Season 5: The Cigar Store Indian




OK now I really need to get back to studying for my finals...