S06E10 - The Race

No: 96  |   Season: 6   Episode: 10  |   Air Date: 15-Dec-1994  |   Production #612

Fine, you want to be a communist, be a communist. Can't you at least look like a successful communist?

Summary

Through his current girlfriend, Lois, Jerry meets an old rival, who suspects that he cheated in a high school race and he wants a rematch with Jerry to prove he was faster. Elaine is put on a "blacklist" for Chinese food delivery and finds out her boyfriend is a Communist. George responds to a personal ad in a Communist newspaper while at work, when Steinbrenner hears about it, he wants to see George in his office. Through his friend Mickey, Kramer becomes a department store Santa, who later spouts out Communist propaganda.

Director and Writers

Director: Andy Ackerman
Writers: Tom Gammill, Max Pross and Larry David

Quotes

George: (trying to get a date with a communist) Yes, this is a business office, but I'm not a businessman per se. I'm here working for the people. I'm causing dissent, stirring the pot, getting people to question the whole rotten system.

Kramer: There are no delicatessens under communism.
Mickey: Whoa! Why not?
Kramer: Well, because the meats are divided into a class system. You've got pastrami and corned beef in one class and salami and bologna in another. That's not right.

George: (about communist personal ad) 'Appearance not important!' This is unbelievable. Finally, this is an ideology I can embrace!

Kramer: (working as a department store Santa Claus) Eight hours of jingle-belling and ho-ho-hoing. Boy, I am ho'd out.

George: I can't believe you're really going out with a woman named Lois.
Jerry: I know. Finally!

Jerry: I didn't hit puberty until the 9th grade...that's what gave me my speed.

Lew: I knew it was you! You tried to trick Hop Sing! You are on our list; Elaine Benes! And now you are on our list; Ned Isakoff.
Ned: You got me blacklisted from Hop Sing's?!
Lew: She named name!

Kid: Santa's a commie!
Mickey: How did a kid like you learn such a bad word like that?

Jerry: Why, I'd have to be Superman to do that, Lois.

Lois: So you were the fastest kid in school?
Jerry: Faster than a speeding bullet, Lois.

Elaine: Well, I'm dating a communist!

Jerry: I choose not to run!

Elaine: Just because you're a Communist, does that mean you can't wear anything nice? You look like Trotsky.
Ned: Good!

George: So what have you been doing with yourself?
Jerry: I'm a comedian.
George: So what do you do, a lot of that "did you ever notice," this kind of stuff?
Jerry: Yeah, yeah.
George: It strikes me a lot of guys are doing that kind of humor now.
Jerry: Yeah, yeah. Well, you really got bald there, didn't you?

Elaine: (to her boyfriend) Fine, you want to be a communist, be a communist. Can't you at least look like a successful communist?

George: (about personal ad) It says appearance not important!
Jerry: Yours or hers?

Elaine: Ned's very well read.
George: Or, maybe he's just very well...red.

Notes and Trivia

Jerry wears red and blue clothes throughout the episode (representative of Superman's colors).

When Elaine calls Hop Sing's from Ned's apartment, her name appears on a "blacklist" posted on the wall. The other names on the list are some of the crew members.

There is a deleted scene where Kramer takes George down to the Cuban embassy. It was cut due to time constraints.

Elaine's address is 16 W. 75th St., #2-G.

The original airdate, December 15, 1994, was 16 years to the day after the general release date for "Superman: The Movie" (Dec. 15, 1978) whose theme music is featured in the final race scene.

On this episode, Mark Christopher Lawrence plays Kramer's boss. In "The Airport", he played the luggage valet working at the airport when Jerry and Elaine ask him how much they should give him for tip.

When Kramer attempts to speak to the child in her own language, it is a reference to the 1947 film "Miracle on 34th Street" in which Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle responds to a little Dutch girl in her own language. The difference being, Kramer does it very poorly.

The Chinese food delivery man's insistence that Elaine should "name names" is a reference to the hunt for/prosecution of communists in the 1950/60s.

Many lines throughout the episode, such as "Faster than a speeding bullet, Lois," "Jimmy's in trouble, Lois," "Why, I'd have to be Superman to do that, Lois," and several others are clear references to Jerry's favorite comic book character, Superman.

When Jerry says, "I choose not to run," he is making a reference to Calvin Coolidge, who's only given reason for not running for President of the United States was: "I choose not to run for President in 1928."

Goofs

The Daily Worker had long ceased publication by the time of this episode, though it still works as a gag.

When the little girl sits on Kramer's lap, her mother places her hand on the girl's left shoulder. In the next shot the hand is on her right shoulder.

When Jerry tells Elaine about the race in her apartment, Elaine puts her glass on the front edge of the coffee-table. In the next shot it is far on the other side of the table.

Cast

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