Over the course of its 180 episodes, Seinfeld generally went to some fairly bizarre locations for comedy. A few of its darkest episodes, like “The Limo,” wherein George (Jason Alexander) unwittingly poses as a well-known white supremacist, and “The Opera,” which sees the return of “Loopy” Joe Davola, had been written by the identical man, Larry Charles. Charles additionally penned the Season 5 episode, “The Bris,” which covers all the pieces from suicide, the ethics of circumcision, and one among Seinfeld’s most weird plot strains, Kramer’s (Michael Richards) discovery of the so-called pig-man. Whereas visiting buddies who lately had a child, Kramer unintentionally barges into the fallacious hospital room and is horrified to seek out what he refers to as a “pig man.” As lately revealed by Charles in his memoir Comedy Samurai: Forty Years of Blood, Guts and Laughter, the pig-man was truly impressed by the 1973 British satirical drama O Fortunate Man! starring Malcolm McDowell.
Larry Charles Was Answerable for A few of ‘Seinfeld’s Weirdest Episodes
Described as “a present about nothing,” a lot of Seinfeld’s comedy revolves round mundane conditions and petty relationship battle, however will generally enterprise into darkish and absurd territory. Although the sequence had a proficient workforce of writers, together with Larry David himself, Charles was the person behind a number of the present’s most memorable episodes. Together with the groundbreaking Season 4 episode, “The Outing,” Charles additionally introduced the present to a few of its darkest locations, comedically. Within the Season 2 episode, “The Child Bathe,” Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) is shot and killed throughout a dream sequence. In his Season 5 episode, “The Fireplace,” George reaches a brand new low when he pushes kids and an outdated lady out of the way in which to flee a home fireplace throughout a toddler’s birthday celebration. “The Opera” from Season 4 appears like a mini-horror film when “Loopy” Joe Davola (Peter B. Crombie) stalks Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) dressed as Pagliacci the clown.
Seinfeld can be recognized for incorporating references to films and different tv sequence – each actual and fictional – into its episodes and plot strains. There are references to and parodies of flicks like Midnight Cowboy, Apocalypse Now, The English Affected person, JFK, and extra. Charles did so in a few episodes as nicely, making a Dragnet-style plot line within the Season 3 episode, “The Library,” that includes Philip Baker Corridor in one of many present’s greatest visitor roles. And for one among Seinfeld’s darkest and most weird episodes, Season 5’s “The Bris,” Charles made reference to Lindsay Anderson’s O Fortunate Man! when Kramer discovers what he believes to be a pig-man on the hospital.
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The Pig-Man in “The Bris” Was Impressed by a Scene From ‘O Fortunate Man!’
All three plot strains of “The Bris” cowl some fairly darkish territory. The episode revolves round Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer’s buddies Stan (Tom Alan Robbins) and Myra (Jeannie Elias), who’ve simply had their first child. Whereas visiting them within the hospital after the start, George gloats about his excellent parking spot proper in entrance of the hospital doorways, however issues shortly take a darkish flip when a affected person takes his personal life by leaping off the hospital roof and touchdown on George’s automotive. On his means as much as see the child, Kramer misremembers the room quantity and walks into the fallacious room, the place he finds a pig-man (half pig, half man). He quickly launches right into a conspiracy in regards to the authorities performing genetic mutation experiments on people to create pig-men armies.
Later, Stan and Myra ask Jerry and Elaine to be their son’s godparents, leaving it as much as Elaine to rearrange the bris and rent a mohel, and tasking Jerry with holding the child through the circumcision. This episode pushed the envelope in a number of methods. Although it wasn’t the primary episode to make gentle of suicide, Jason Alexander took difficulty with the way in which the mohel was portrayed, threatening to boycott the episode if Larry David didn’t tone down the character, which he discovered to be anti-Semitic, and David finally acquiesced.
Charles took some massive swings for this episode, and by far one of many weirdest plot strains within the historical past of the sequence surrounds Kramer’s pig-man conspiracy. In a latest interview with NPR, Charles discusses how he was the author who additional developed Kramer’s character and gave him his conspiratorial tendencies, so it is sensible that he can be the one to write down Kramer as a believer within the existence of human-animal hybrids developed by the federal government. Kramer “frees” the pig-man in the long run, giving him a piggyback trip out of the hospital, although Seinfeld by no means totally exhibits us what the pig-man seems to be like. However if you happen to had been imagining one thing just like the docs from the “Eye of the Beholder” episode of The Twilight Zone, the truth of what this character is predicated on is much more disturbing.
The pig-man is definitely based mostly on a scene from the 1973 surreal comedy drama O Fortunate Man!, the second movie within the Mick Travis Trilogy. O Fortunate Man! includes a sequence of outlandish vignettes within the picaresque adventures of Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), together with one wherein he indicators as much as endure mysterious medical experiments. Whereas exploring the medical analysis facility, he comes throughout one other man in a hospital mattress and asks him how a lot they’re paying him. When he doesn’t reply, Mick pulls the sheets again to find, nicely, a pig-man. Solely his head is human, whereas his physique is that of a big pig.
It’s a disturbing picture to make certain, however, just like the pig-man in Seinfeld, it’s performed for laughs. Horrified, Mick screams bloody homicide, runs by the halls of the hospital, and smashes by a second-story window to flee. It’s secure to say that wouldn’t fly on NBC.
After all, there was by no means truly a pig-man in Seinfeld, with Kramer finally admitting he was only a “fats little psychological affected person.” However, this unhinged scene from O Fortunate Man! helped flip “The Bris” into an iconic episode, for higher or for worse, inspiring a type of weird plot strains that makes Seinfeld stand out as such a singular present.
All episodes of Seinfeld could be streamed on Netflix within the U.S.
