Ah, George Costanza, what a lovely TV creation: constantly insecure, awkward, selfish and cheap, incapable of having a lasting relationship with any woman and, finally, "Lord of the idiots" (his own words). Many of Seinfeld's best moments derive from his missteps, and The Phone Message is one of four Season 2 episodes (the others being The Ex-Girlfriend, The Apartment and The Revenge) where the character, played to endearing perfection by Jason Alexander, completely steals the show.
As suggested by the title, this episode has a lot to do with phones. Before that part, though, comes one of the most absurd conversations ever heard on mainstream television: Jerry and George go out on separate dates, and while the former doesn't seem to have that many difficulties, the latter "elegantly" turns down his lady companion's offer to come up to her apartment and "have coffee" by saying: "Oh, no thanks, I can't drink coffee late at night, it keeps me up". Realizing his mistake, he later tries to atone by leaving a message, only to decide to steal the tape because what he said over the telephone is, naturally, a load of garbage.
Of course, the story isn't all about George: Jerry, Elaine and Kramer appear as well, and everyone of them is memorable, but because of the script and the opportunities it gives the actor in terms of physical and verbal comedy, The Phone Message is best remembered for Alexander's zany antics, which range from discussing the significance of the word "coffee" to using an answering machine in the worst possible way. Perhaps the reason this episode made me laugh really hard was the fact that it constituted a reversal within the series: in the very first episode, The Seinfeld Chronicles, an unusually confident George chastised Jerry for not understanding the signals a woman conveys ("What do you need, a flag?"); this time it is Mr. Costanza himself who misinterprets the simplest of clues, spinning comedy gold out of what could have been an average, boring romance scene.
Overall, as fantastic as previous shows. For the real George-related comic triumph, however, there was one more episode to go...
As suggested by the title, this episode has a lot to do with phones. Before that part, though, comes one of the most absurd conversations ever heard on mainstream television: Jerry and George go out on separate dates, and while the former doesn't seem to have that many difficulties, the latter "elegantly" turns down his lady companion's offer to come up to her apartment and "have coffee" by saying: "Oh, no thanks, I can't drink coffee late at night, it keeps me up". Realizing his mistake, he later tries to atone by leaving a message, only to decide to steal the tape because what he said over the telephone is, naturally, a load of garbage.
Of course, the story isn't all about George: Jerry, Elaine and Kramer appear as well, and everyone of them is memorable, but because of the script and the opportunities it gives the actor in terms of physical and verbal comedy, The Phone Message is best remembered for Alexander's zany antics, which range from discussing the significance of the word "coffee" to using an answering machine in the worst possible way. Perhaps the reason this episode made me laugh really hard was the fact that it constituted a reversal within the series: in the very first episode, The Seinfeld Chronicles, an unusually confident George chastised Jerry for not understanding the signals a woman conveys ("What do you need, a flag?"); this time it is Mr. Costanza himself who misinterprets the simplest of clues, spinning comedy gold out of what could have been an average, boring romance scene.
Overall, as fantastic as previous shows. For the real George-related comic triumph, however, there was one more episode to go...