The Strike (Seinfeld)

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Strike
Series = Seinfeld


Caption = Cosmo Kramer and Frank Constanza, ready to celebrate Festivus.
Season = 9
Episode = 166
Airdate = December 18, 1997
Production =
Writer = Alec Berg & Jeff Schaffer & Dan O'Keefe
Director = Andy Ackerman
Guests = Kevin McDonald & Daniel Von Bargen
Episode list = List of "Seinfeld" episodes
Season list = Infobox Seinfeld season 9 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"The Strike" is the 166th episode of the NBC sitcom "Seinfeld". This was the tenth episode of the 9th and final season. It aired on December 18, 1997. This episode is notable for popularizing the concept of a "two-face": someone who looks attractive sometimes and looks bad at other times, depending on exterior conditions, such as lighting. More notably, however, this episode also popularized the (actual) holiday of Festivus.

Plot

George, Elaine and Jerry attend Dr. Tim Whatley's Hanukkah party (Elaine is surprised Tim is still Jewish, but Jerry points out it's a breeze to keep the faith when both your parents are deceased) where each receive cards notifying them that a donation has been made by Whatley to "The Children's Alliance" in their name. Jerry meets an attractive woman with whom he sets up a date. Elaine meets a man in a bad denim vest (Kevin McDonald) and gives him her fake number. George is offended by Whatley's gift to him, a donation in his name to a charity. George is also reminded of the Festivus holiday his father created many years ago. Elaine's quest to become a "Submarine Captain" at a local shop in order to get a free submarine sandwich and a captain's hat is ruined when she realizes she used her punch card at the party to give her fake number to the denim vested guy. Kramer gets word he can return to his job at H&H Bagels; it seems he has been on strike for the past 12 years. Elaine goes to the place that her fake number reaches: an off-track betting parlor. She wanted to give them her real number, so when the denim vest guy calls, she can connect with him. The men at the parlor are interested in connecting with her, so she gives the number for H&H where Kramer is working. Jerry meets his date, Gwen, at a party, but it turns out she is two-faced. Sometimes Gwen looks great, other times she's plain; it all depends on the viewer's angle and the lighting. George decides to use the Whatley approach when giving out Christmas gifts at Kruger Industrial Smoothing; however, he makes up his own charity called the "The Human Fund". Kramer is intrigued by the concept of the Festivus holiday and contacts Frank, who becomes excited at the prospect of rekindling "Festivus for the rest-of-us." Kramer asks to get the 23rd of December off; when he can't get it, he resumes the strike. Meanwhile Elaine waits at H&H for a phone call from the denim vest guy. The look of Jerry's girlfriend keeps changing.

Jerry decides that Gwen looks best in the back booth at Monk's, something she grows to dislike. George passes out his gifts at Kruger's and reaps great rewards. Kramer warns Elaine about the sabotage he committed; the bagel place becomes very steamy and makes Elaine look ugly. George's boss, Mr. Kruger, gives George a check for $20,000 to "The Human Fund" and later accounting informs him the charity doesn't exist. Gwen finds out from Kramer that Jerry is seeing another woman; Kramer has seen her and she's not Gwen. Gwen thinks Jerry is two-timing her with an ugly woman. George tries to convince Kruger that he passed out the fake gift cards because he didn't want to be ridiculed for the holiday his family traditionally celebrates, Festivus. To prove it, George brings Kruger to his father's Festivus dinner, where everyone comes together, including Gwen and the two guys at the off-track betting parlor.

Quotes

* Frank Costanza: Requires no decoration. I find tinsel distracting.
* George's Christmas Cards: The Human Fund. Money for People.
* Seinfeld, on the Cards' Slogan: It has a certain understated stupidity.
* Kramer: It's a Festivus Miracle!
* Sleazy Guy: (To Elaine) You make a lot of man friends. You know who's a man? Charlie here, he's a man. You know who else is a man? Me, I'm a man.
* Charlie: (To Elaine, somewhat effeminately) I'm a man.
* George: I think I could be a philanthropist. A kick ass philanthropist! I would have all this money and people would love me. Then they would come to me and beg! And if I felt like it, I would help them out and then they would owe me big time! The first thing I'm going to need is a driver.
* Kramer: Yama hama, it's fright night.
* Elaine: H & H Elaine.

Continuity

* At the Festivus dinner, Kruger refers to Kramer as "Dr. Van Nostrand", a callback to The Slicer. In that episode, Kramer pretends to be a dermatologist and screens Kruger for cancer. Kramer also faked being Dr. Van Nostrand in the episode The Package only this time, he was a doctor (most likely a physician) for Elaine.

The Human Fund

Due to his unconscionable cheapness, George Constanza found yet another way to save money after receiving a gift donation certificate from Tim Watley. Instead of exchanging Christmas gifts (per normal custom) with his co-workers, when George was given a gift he in turn gave his co-worker a card stating that a donation had been made in their name to a charity called "The Human Fund" (with the slogan "Money For People"), when in fact this organization didn't exist. George had fabricated The Human Fund to get out of having to spend money on gifts. Kruger (played by Daniel von Bargen), is told by his accounting department that his company needed to donate some money (for tax purposes). Kruger subsequently gives George a company check for $20,000 and tells him to give it to The Human Fund. The accounting department, after doing some research, later learns that The Human Fund indeed does not exist. Kruger—who is more angry at the fact that George gave him a fake Christmas present and less concerned with the possibility that George could have been embezzling money from the company—calls George on this. When he does so, George becomes flustered and begins to babble on about how he made it up because he didn't celebrate Christmas and was embarrassed to tell anyone. He insists that his family instead celebrates 'Festivus' ("They drove my family out of Bayside!"). Unconvinced, Kruger accepts George's invitation to the Festivus celebration at George's house to see if his story adds up.

This is not to be confused with [http://www.the-human-fund.org/ The Human Fund] , a legitimate organization based in Cleveland, Ohio. From their [http://www.the-human-fund.org/mission.php mission statement] :

The Human Fund effectively supports arts education programs for the under-served youth of the city of Cleveland, providing ongoing involvement and a commitment to funding several arts programs annually.

We are a non-traditional foundation taking a fresh approach to fund-raising. Our foundation takes arts education seriously and as a friend of the arts, The Human Fund is committed to long-term relationships and financial support for youth arts programming.

External links

* [http://www.festivusweb.com/festivus-episode-the-strike-script.htm Script of "The Strike"]