George invites Elaine and Jerry to go with him to his girlfriend's piano recital. In the middle of the performance however, Jerry places a Pez dispenser on Elaine's lap and she breaks out laughing. George's girlfriend doesn't know who laughed and George doesn't tell her. He's sure she is now going to break up with him however and Kramer advises that he stage a preemptive break up before she gets the chance.
Tropes:
- Addiction Displacement: The result of the intervention:Jerry: He's doing great in rehab. He's hooked on Pez! He's eating them like there's no tomorrow!
- Flipping the Bird: Noel does this subtly to George. When she tells she's breaking up with him, she points at him with her middle finger.
- Ironic Echo: When George goes to break up with Noel, he does so by telling her "I am breaking up with you." When she decides to end things herself near the end of the episode, she repeats the phrase and the tone.
- Signature Laugh: Unfortunately for George and Elaine, Noel is able to remember how the latter's laugh sounds and recognizes it immediately when she hears Elaine crack up before the intervention.
- Staging an Intervention: Jerry grudgingly hosts an intervention for an old friend.
- Start X to Stop X: George suspects Noel is getting ready to break up with him. So on Kramer's advice, he decides to break up with her pre-emptively to give him the upper hand in the relationship, putting her on the defensive and thus making her less willing to break up with him.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- When Jerry puts his pez dispenser on Elaine's lap, he sets off a domino effect over the course of the episode that trashes George's relationship with his girlfriend. It's zigzagged though because the incident also leads to Richie's rehabilitation.
- Kramer convinced Richie to pour Gatorade on Coach Marty Benson's head after he won a baseball game. Shortly afterward, the coach caught pnemonia and died, and Richie in turn developed a drug problem out of guilt believing he was responsible.
