Baseball, spitting, the JFK assassination: those are just a few of the ingredients that make two-part episode The Boyfriend an essential dish in Seinfeld's third year. On my personal list, it ranks right after The Parking Garage and The Fix Up as the absolute best of the entire season. It's silly, inspired and downright hilarious. Translation: a classic.
Premise: Jerry has a casual run-in with Mets player Keith Hernandez and the two become friends, quite unexpectedly. The situation takes an ugly turn, however, when Keith shows an interest in Elaine. George, on the other hand, has to come up with a scheme in order to keep collecting his unemployment checks, and tells the concerned people he has found a job at a latex-manufacturing firm, Vandelay Industries (what else?). Oh, and Kramer and Newman claim Hernandez spat at them once after a game.
This episode marks the first time that a celebrity appears as himself in a slightly self- spoofing mode, something that has since become a tradition of sorts in NBC sitcoms. Hernandez, whom I had never heard of before watching the show (partly because I'm not into sports, partly because I'm not American), does a superb job, especially when he shares scenes with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Jason Alexander is equally memorable in the now immortal Vandelay scene, which involves a phone, Kramer, underwear and an iconic ad-lib on Jerry's part.
The real gem, though, is the Simpsons-worth parody of JFK's "magic bullet" moment, with Jerry reconstructing and subsequently destroying Kramer and Newman's recollection of the spit incident. The whole thing is made exponentially funnier by the fact Wayne Knight jokingly recreates his own role from Oliver Stone's movie. Proof, if any was ever needed (probably, given crap like Scary Movie has branded the genre in a bad way), that when a spoof is done correctly, with intelligence and wit, no film is too sacred.
Premise: Jerry has a casual run-in with Mets player Keith Hernandez and the two become friends, quite unexpectedly. The situation takes an ugly turn, however, when Keith shows an interest in Elaine. George, on the other hand, has to come up with a scheme in order to keep collecting his unemployment checks, and tells the concerned people he has found a job at a latex-manufacturing firm, Vandelay Industries (what else?). Oh, and Kramer and Newman claim Hernandez spat at them once after a game.
This episode marks the first time that a celebrity appears as himself in a slightly self- spoofing mode, something that has since become a tradition of sorts in NBC sitcoms. Hernandez, whom I had never heard of before watching the show (partly because I'm not into sports, partly because I'm not American), does a superb job, especially when he shares scenes with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Jason Alexander is equally memorable in the now immortal Vandelay scene, which involves a phone, Kramer, underwear and an iconic ad-lib on Jerry's part.
The real gem, though, is the Simpsons-worth parody of JFK's "magic bullet" moment, with Jerry reconstructing and subsequently destroying Kramer and Newman's recollection of the spit incident. The whole thing is made exponentially funnier by the fact Wayne Knight jokingly recreates his own role from Oliver Stone's movie. Proof, if any was ever needed (probably, given crap like Scary Movie has branded the genre in a bad way), that when a spoof is done correctly, with intelligence and wit, no film is too sacred.