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While these certainly are not positive traits, they are traits that many people have and are ashamed to admit. Seinfeld succeeded in giving a voice to the imperfect, ordinary, and questionable people in society.

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The mental challenges Jerry, Elaine, and George face (and Kramer immediately fails at) provides a telling test of their character: in the end, the gang truly are just average, unremarkable people. They succumb to their desires, judge others, and try and fail to change themselves.

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The subtle and careful handling of its risky subject matter not only adds to the writers’ merit, but makes the episode even funnier.

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“The Contest” endures as the most impactful, acclaimed, and remembered 22 minutes of the show’s history.

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Regardless, “The Contest” is certainly one of the most important episodes due to, once again, its groundbreaking subject matter.

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Despite its importance and cleverness, “The Contest” is not the best Seinfeld episode. Several others have more interesting plots and characters, and funnier moments. While “The Contest” showcases the grating relatability of Seinfeld, one of the show’s best qualities, it lacks other factors that make a great episode. Other great episodes had more interactions with annoying or irrational members of society, more complex intersecting plots, and more involvement from recurring characters.

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The message of “The Contest” is that masturbation is a normal and healthy thing to do. As was stated earlier, the episode makes a great effort to normalize masturbation and sexual frustration; the subject matter was not selected for the episode for the sake of being crude and funny. “The Contest” would not seem like anything inappropriate for anyone who views modern sitcoms.

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George’s mother Estelle’s irrational rambling about George being mentally ill for masturbation is another highlight of the comedy in the episode. The most memorable moment by far would be the silhouettes of the nurse and patient’s sponge bath, and George’s obsession with it.

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“The Contest” is a very funny episode of Seinfeld. A great deal of humor is derived from the fact that masturbation is never directly referred to by the characters, but it is obvious what they are talking about. It gives the sense that they are too ashamed to even mention something they also admit is normal. Perhaps the most famous line from “The Contest” is “master of my domain,” which means that someone has abstained from masturbation.

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To assess the quality of “The Contest” one must consider how well it executed what it set out to do: make the audience laugh, and deliver a memorable and effective message. The audience should also find the characters likable (regardless of whether or not they are good people), the plot interesting, and the script well written.

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In “The Serenity Now,” Jerry is in a state of empathy, compassion, and openness, all traits entirely opposite from his usual self. When he tells George that he loves him, George becomes uncomfortable. After George opens up to Jerry about his darkest fears and secrets, Jerry reverts back to his uncaring self. Their lack of faith in each other, founded on their knowledge of each other, is shown in “The Contest” when Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer scoff at George when he swears not to masturbate again.

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Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer are all good friends. Jerry and George are best friends, Jerry and Elaine once dated, and Kramer is Jerry’s neighbor who always pops into his house. They all became friends through Jerry, and have come to know each other well. This, however, does not mean that they show that they care for each other; this is rarely present in the show, and only for brief moments.

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One of the major ideas behind Seinfeld is the lack of character development. From the first episode all the way to the last, the characters have hardly changed at all. Despite all the experiences they go through, they never learn from their mistakes, make a change in their lives, or open up to each other. In many episodes, a character (most often George) decides that they are going to make a change in their life, and by the end have given up, either because misfortune has beaten them down, or they have lost interest. This is especially present in “The Contest,” an episode in which George declares he will never masturbate again, only to turn it into a contest for money, and eventually giving up.

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Not only is masturbation presented and normalized in “The Contest,” so is sexual frustration in general. Jerry, George, and Elaine start to lose their minds after only a few days without sexual pleasure. They become obsessed with sex, so much to the point that George visits his mother in the hospital every day to watch the nurse give the patient a sponge bath, and Elaine shares a taxi with John F. Kennedy, Jr. to the other side of Manhattan and walks the long way back to her apartment. Jerry distracts himself from thinking about sex by watching children’s TV programs. While humor is derived from the characters’ desperation for sex, it is never presented as unnatural or immoral. Though most people would be too ashamed to admit it, many can relate to the sexual frustration depicted in “The Contest.”

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The characters in Seinfeld, despite being morally corrupt and selfish, are often the voice of reason against society. In “The Contest,” masturbation is not only presented as normal, but those who are against are depicted as irrational. George’s mother Estelle rants about how George was “treating his body like an amusement park” and demands that he see a psychiatrist; George later remarks that it would be ridiculous for everyone who masturbated to see a psychiatrist. This is Estelle’s first appearance in the show, and she is consistently portrayed as an overly sensitive and angry woman, constantly chastising and complaining about George.

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Consider the social and personal issues presented by “The Contest,” the most prominent of course being sexual desire, frustration, and masturbation. An entire TV episode centered around masturbation was unprecedented before “The Contest.” The show normalizes the act, acknowledging it as something everyone does, that they even “have to do it” as part of their lifestyle. However, Jerry says that this only applies to men. When Elaine objects to this, joins the contest and eventually loses it, she breaks the social norm that only men are constantly thinking about sex.

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Lastly, a character says the complete opposite of what they’re actually thinking to appease someone: when Marla tells Jerry that she’s not ready for sex, Jerry says, “Yeah, yeah, of course. What, do you think I care about the sex? What kind of person do you think I am?”

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As mentioned earlier, there is the common gag that Kramer is the only member of the four who is successful, despite being the most bizarre, abrasive, and dimwitted of all of them.

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Elaine learns from George that, after Marla left Jerry’s apartment, she ran into John F. Kennedy, Jr. and got into a cab with him. At the end of the episode, she is seen lying next to John in bed, indicating that she lost her virginity to him.

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Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

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Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

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The gang constantly finds themselves in the least convenient incidents, as in this episode they ran into situations that aroused them.

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Several common tropes of Seinfeld are present in “The Contest.”

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Jerry, George and Elaine struggle on individual plotlines. Some scenes are dedicated to the three meeting at Jerry’s apartment to talk about their experiences, but all other scenes are about them individually. The plotlines only intersect when Marla meets John F. Kennedy, Jr., and Kramer sleeps with the naked woman.

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“The Contest” gets its story going in the first scene. George provides the exposition: his mother caught him pleasuring himself, so now he does not want to do “that” again. Jerry doubts that George can abstain from it, so the contest begins, and drives the plot of the whole show. The enigma of the show is who will win the contest and how will the others lose. The episode contains no individual subplots: every scene and story line is related to the central conflict of the contest.

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At the end of the episode, Jerry, George, and Elaine see Kramer with the naked woman across from Jerry’s apartment. Throughout the series, Kramer seems to be the only one that gets what he wants: he is a womanizer, a con artist, a man with many connections, and a man who is always unemployed but never runs out of money. Kramer happily waves to his friends as they look in awe, and at the end of the episode is seen sleeping next to the woman. The rest of the gang are also seen sleeping, indicating that the contest is over, yet we do now know whether Jerry or George won.

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Elaine gives up on the contest after seeing John F. Kennedy, Jr. at the fitness center and sharing a cab with him. Jerry struggles with the contest because he is dating a virgin, Marla. When Marla tells him that she is ready to have sex, he says that it is a great relief, and explains the contest. She becomes disgusted and leaves Jerry’s apartment, putting him under more stress than before.

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George, while visiting his mother in the hospital for her broken back, watches the silhouettes of a beautiful nurse giving a sponge bath to an equally beautiful patient. He begins to go every day, faking sympathy by justifying that it's “for my mother.”

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After each person quits, they are later depicted sleeping peacefully in bed, while those who are still in the contest fail to fall asleep.

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Jerry, George and Kramer begin to watch a woman walk around naked in her apartment every day (she is visible from Jerry's window), causing Kramer to give up on the contest not two days after it started.

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Throughout the episode, the characters run into situations that sexually arouse them, threatening their willpower.

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When Elaine wants to join in, the others claim that it would be too easy for a woman, but for a man, masturbation is part of his “lifestyle.” She convinces them to let her in by agreeing to pay $150 if she loses.

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“The Contest” begins with Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine eating lunch in Monk’s Diner, a frequent setting for scenes in Seinfeld. George describes how he had recently been in his parents’ house alone, and began to enjoy himself while flipping through a copy of Glamour. George does not explicitly say that he was masturbating, but it is heavily implied. George’s mother walks in and catches him in the act, causing her to become shocked, fall, and hurt her back. When George swears to never pleasure himself again, Jerry, Elaine and Kramer laugh in contempt, saying that he would never be able to hold off. This prompts the three men to start a contest to see how long they could last without masturbating; the losers must pay 100 dollars each.
Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=jze7b5cG8dw

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Larry David won an Emmy and Writers Guild of America Award for his writing on the episode, and director Tom Cherones won a Directors Guild of America Award and was nominated for an Emmy for directing. The episode was also ranked #1 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time (IMDB).

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“The Contest” received a 13/19 Nielsen rating (13% of households and 19% of TV sets watched it) when it first aired, and its first repeat earned a 20.1/30 rating (Seinfeld Season 4: Notes about Nothing).

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“The Contest” is aimed at both men and women 18 to 49 years of age. The content of the episode would apply mostly to people who are sexually active and of similar age to Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine, who are in their 30s. Elaine’s inclusion in the contest helps to broaden the demographic, giving representation to women. These characters, who are selfish, weak-willed citizens of New York City, are relatable to those who constantly struggle between what they want and what is right in the modern world. The four friends represent the type of people not to be, causing the audience to find humor in them; not only in their ridiculous and reprehensible antics, but in their portrayal of the weaknesses and vices of society.

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The humor is most often derived from the awkward, inconvenient, and unusual situations that the characters find themselves. The characters insult each other, other people, and make observations of society, usually about irony (which is the real Jerry Seinfeld’s most common topic in his stand-up comedy). There is also slapstick (almost always from Kramer’s clumsiness) and jokes from Jerry.

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Seinfeld is characterized by its rejection of sitcom norms: the characters have bland conversations, aren’t connected by family or work, and aren’t even very interesting. Despite Jerry being a comedian and Kramer being a very odd person, there is nothing very special about any of the main characters. This is what makes them most relatable to the audience: they are average people dealing with relationships, jobs, and society.

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Seinfeld is a situational comedy, with each episode being around 22 minutes. The four main characters are normal people, living in the modern world of New York City.

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The plot of “The Contest” was based off of an actual competition Larry David had with his friends (Chaney 1).

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The writers of Seinfeld were unsure if NBC was willing to air “The Contest” due to its lewd subject matter. To make the episode more appropriate, the word “masturbation” is never used; the act is instead implied (George: “My mother caught me. You know. I was alone.”) or referred to by euphemism (George’s mother Estelle: “treating his body like it was an amusement park!”) Larry David was so enthusiastic about “The Contest” that he says he would have quit had NBC rejected it (New York Post). He was shocked when the executives loved the script and agreed to air the episode.

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Seinfeld began as a 22-minute pilot titled “The Seinfeld Chronicles,” which aired on NBC on July 5, 1989. Although the character of George Costanza was based off of Seinfeld and David’s conversations, the latter only wanted to write for the show, not act. Jason Alexander was considered perfect for the role, so he was cast as George. Michael Richards was cast as Jerry’s odd neighbor, Kramer, who was based off of one of David’s neighbors. NBC required that Seinfeld include a woman in the show’s main cast, so Julia-Louis Dreyfus was cast as Jerry’s ex-girlfriend-turned-friend Elaine Benes. (Seinfeld: How It Began).

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The purpose of this critique is to discuss and analyze the humor, social context, implications of Seinfeld, specifically “The Contest.” What situations, character traits, and social implications and issues create humor for Seinfeld’s viewers? How do the characters interact with and view each other/the world? What does the episode have to say about society, and is it said effectively? How is the episode structured? How controversial was the episode at the time of its release? “The Contest,” like most Seinfeld episodes, aims to say a lot about ordinary people and how society views them.

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Seinfeld ran for nine successful seasons on NBC from 1989 to 1998. “The Contest,” season 4, episode 11, is probably the show’s most acclaimed, well known, and controversial episode. Its main plot follows the four pals in a competition with each other to see who can go the longest without masturbating. “The Contest” is so critically acclaimed because of its unprecendented edgy subject matter and the clever way it is presented, and how shamefully relatable the episode is for many people.

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Seinfeld was a 90s American sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. The TV show starred Jerry Seinfeld as a fictional version of himself, Jason Alexander as George Costanza, Julia-Louis Dreyfus as Elaine Benes, and Michael Richards as Cosmo Kramer. The four friends, living in Manhattan, run into awkward and strange situations with others, usually due to their own foolishness and selfishness.

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Austerlitz, Saul. “How ‘Seinfeld’ Revolutionized The Sitcom.” Indie Wire, 28 Feb. 2014,

www.indiewire.com/2014/02/how-seinfeld-revolutionized-the-sitcom-29472/.

Bonos, Lisa. “Female Orgasms Are Having a Moment on TV.” Chicago Tribune, 9 Nov. 2017, www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-female-orgasms-are-having-a-moment-on-tv-20171109-story.html.

Chaney, Jen. “The Oral History of Seinfeld's 'The Contest'.” Vulture, 25 Oct. 2017,

www.vulture.com/2017/10/seinfeld-the-contest-oral-history-larry-david.html.

Fetters, Ashley. “Masturbation on TV: Yet Another Lasting 'Seinfeld' Innovation.” The Atlantic,

19 Nov. 2012, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/11/masturbation-on-tv-yet-another-lasting-seinfeld-innovation/265412/.

“Larry David Would’ve Quit ‘Seinfeld’ If ‘The Contest’ Episode Didn’t Air.” New York Post, 26

Oct. 2017, nypost.com/2017/10/26/larry-david-wouldve-quit-seinfeld-if-the-contest-episode-didnt-air/.

Morgan, Chris. “Unpacking The Significance of Seinfeld's ‘The Contest’.” Paste Magazine, 1

Mar. 2016,

www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/03/unpacking-the-meaning-of-seinfelds-the-contest-20.html.

“Seinfeld: How It Began.” Columbia, 2004.

“The Contest” IMDB, 2017. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697679/

“The Contest.” Seinfeld Season 4: Notes about Nothing, Sony, 2005. DVD.

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But why give a voice to such problematic characters? It’s because all humans have their flaws, and they’re not like the dark, morally ambiguous hero in a drama; they’re Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer: flawed, questionable people in a flawed, questionable world.

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"Seinfeld is, in essence, 'a long, boring story with no point to it,' at least as we generally understand 'points.' Its plots don’t arc; its characters do not develop."

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Nine out of ten advertisers removed their ads from "The Contest" before it aired, and the episode received 62 complaints by phone call (Fetters 1).

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"Today, masturbation on TV draws only a small kerfuffle, if that. Neither Sally Draper's prepubescent self-exploration on Mad Men nor her mom's passionate encounter with a washing machine caused much of a commotion."

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"Today, people talk about masturbation on network television with impunity... This article has used the word “masturbation” a dozen times already, and you probably didn’t even blink at it. So it’s not surprising that “The Contest” no longer feels edgy, or dangerous, or iconoclastic."

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"A generation ago, it was groundbreaking to acknowledge that women and men took control of their own sexual pleasure if there was no one around to help. (Remember how Elaine had to convince the guys that she should be part of the contest?)"

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Talent manager George Shapiro became a fan of Jerry Seinfeld after seeing his stand-up comedy, so he wrote a letter to NBC recommending him for a TV series. Jerry Seinfeld soon met comedian and writer Larry David, and the two bonded over their similar senses of humor. As the two had meaningless conversations about everyday things, David realized that such dialogue was not often heard on television. For example, at the beginning of the pilot episode of Seinfeld, Jerry talks about how the second button on George’s shirt is too high, saying that “the second button literally makes or breaks the shirt.” David decided to base a future TV show about such minor things, thus creating the common description of Seinfeld as a “show about nothing.” (Seinfeld: How It Began).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8_2hPjljag

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This essay analyzes and critiques the plot. meaning, and humor of Seinfeld's controversial and groundbreaking episode, "The Contest."