History Seinfeld / TropesAToH

* BeefBandage: The trope image.

** In "The Bookstore", George takes a book from the shelf at a bookstore into the bathroom with him and is forced to purchase it. He can't return it at any of the locations in town because it's been "flagged" as having been in the bathroom. He tries to give it to Goodwill, only for the woman at the counter to immediately recognize that the book is flagged because she used to work there. She calls George a sick and evil man for trying to give the flagged book to the less fortunate.

*** A similar example, a doorman assumes everything Jerry says to him is some kind of prejudiced jab against his job and/or social class. Of course, he's a pretty big {{troll}}, so he may have just been doing it to mess with Jerry.

** George unwittingly offends Mr. Morgan at work by saying he looks like Sugar Ray Leonard, to which Morgan remarks, "I suppose we all look alike to you, right Costanza?" George spends the rest of the episode trying to buddy up to another black person to prove he's not racist. At the end of the episode, a black guy mistakes Morgan for Sugar Ray. Of course, Morgan had just left mere seconds ago, much to George's frustration.

** In "The Butter Shave," George raves to Jerry about the private handicap bathroom Play Now gave him, remarking how much he enjoys the high toilet, "[[Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame I feel like a gargoyle perched on the ledge of a building!]]"

* BiTheWay: Apparently this runs in the Ross family. Susan's father apparently once had a torrid love affair with author John Cheever (himself bi) and late in season 4 Susan is seen dating another woman, although in her case it's implied that it's a result of dating George, since at the end of the episode she starts dating the woman George dated after her.
* BitterWeddingSpeech: George's curse toast in "The Opera".

* CaughtOnTheJumbotron: In one episode, George eats very sloppily on the Jumbotron, and the commentators mock him for not using a napkin.

* CigarChomper: The gang occasionally treats themselves to a cigar when they're celebrating, and which typucally segues into them acting smug with each other. Elaine clenches a cigar between her teeth as temporary boss of the J. Peterman Company in "The Foundation". Cuban dictator UsefulNotes/FidelCastro naturally smokes and gestures expansively with one of Cuba's famous cigars in "The Race".

* CigarChomper: The gang occasionally treats themselves to a cigar when they're celebrating, and it often inevitably segues into them acting smug with each other. Elaine clenches a cigar between her teeth as temporary boss of the J. Peterman Company in "The Foundation". Cuban dictator UsefulNotes/FidelCastro naturally smokes and gestures expansively with one of Cuba's famous cigars in "The Race".

** In "The Burning", Elaine learns that boyfriend Puddy is religious, and believes that she's going to Hell. While the religious stations preset on his car radio sound born-again Protestant, the couple wind up being counseled by his priest. The same priest, Father Curtis, is also the one Jerry consults (in a {{confession|al}} booth, no less) when he thinks Tim Whatley has converted to Judaism [[NWordPrivileges purely for the jokes]] in "The Yada Yada".
*** Puddy's religion doesn't stop him from painting himself up as the devil and terrorizing an elderly El Salvadoran priest in "The Face Painter", but it's entirely possible his born-again faith was a recent development or a passing phase.

*** ...at least until Jerry breaks up with his latest girlfriend because she looks terrible under certain lighting ("She's a two-face!") and Kramer has to leave to work a double shift at the bagel place where he's been on strike for the last twelve years. Elaine handing out fake phone numbers to interested guys also catches up to her when a bookie and his henchman show up as well.
* CigarChomper: Elaine adopts a cigar as temporary boss of the J. Peterman Company in "The Foundation".

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Somewhat justified by this being New York, which is in fact noticeably more Catholic than the rest of the United States. None of the main characters are religious and Jerry and George are both clearly Jewish, but when Christianity appears, Catholicism is the default.

** Elaine attends her office Christmas party in "The Red Dot", and sends out annual Christmas cards, including a memorable {{nip|pledAndDimed}} [[WardrobeMalfunction slip]], in "The Pick".

** The closest thing to an actual Christmas episode is the full-on CrappyHolidays episode "The Strike": George pretends his family doesn't celebrate Christmas to get out of his office's gift exchange. Which is technically true: Frank got so fed up with the commercialism of Christmas after a fight over a doll in a store one year that he washed his hands of Christmas and decided to [[StartMyOwn start his own holiday]]: Festivus ("A Festivus for the rest of us!"). Kramer takes an interest; George's boss Mr. Kruger invites himself along. The made-up holiday includes such events as the Airing of Grievances (telling people all the ways they've ticked you off and failed you during the past year) and the Feats of Strength (the head of the household, in this case Frank, choosing someone to wrestle -- [[ButtMonkey George]], naturally). There's no hugging, no learning, and no tree (Frank finds tinsel distracting, so it's just a featureless aluminum pole instead), but it does bring everyone together.

*** ...at least until Jerry breaks up with his latest girlfriend because she looks terrible under a certain light ("She's a two-face!") and Kramer has to leave to work a double shift at the bagel place where he's been on strike for the last twelve years. Elaine handing out fake numbers to interested guys also catches up to her when a bookie and his henchman show up as well.
* CigarChomper: Elaine becomes one as temporary boss of J. Peterman's company in "The Foundation".

** Averted in "The Conversion", however, where the church in question is specifically [[UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity Latvian Orthodox]].[[note]]Although the writer of the episode didn't know there actually was such a church and largely based it on the Russian Orthodox instead. The show received thank you letters for including it anyway.[[/note]]

** Costanza is an Italian name and Frank belongs to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Columbus the Knights of Columbus]], a Catholic organization, but Estelle is a very stereotypical JewishMother.

** The closest thing to an actual Christmas episode is the full-on CrappyHolidays episode "The Strike": George pretends his family doesn't celebrate Christmas to get out of his office's gift exchange. Which is technically true: Frank got so fed up with the commercialism of Christmas after a fight over a doll in a store one year that he washed his hands of Christmas and decided to [[StartMyOwn start his own holiday]], Festivus, instead ("A Festivus for the rest of us!"). The made-up holiday includes such events as the Airing of Grievances (telling people all the ways they've ticked you off and failed you during the past year) and the Feats of Strength (the head of the household, in this case Frank, choosing someone to wrestle -- [[ButtMonkey George]], naturally). There's no hugging, no learning, and no tree (Frank finds tinsel distracting, so it's just a featureless aluminum pole instead), but it does bring everyone together.

*** ...at least until Jerry breaks up with his latest girlfriend because she looks terrible under a certain light ("She's a two-face!") and Kramer has to leave to work a double shift at the bagel place where he's been on strike for the last twelve years. Elaine handing out fake numbers to interested guys also catches up to her when a bookie and his henchman also show up at the Costanzas'.

*** Puddy's religion doesn't stop him from painting his face and terrorizing an elderly El Salvadoran priest in "The Face Painter", but it's entirely possible it was a recent development or a passing phase.

* ChristmasEpisode: "The Pick" and "The Strike".

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Elaine learns that boyfriend Puddy is religious, and believes that she's going to Hell. While the religious stations preset on his car radio sound born-again Protestant, the couple wind up being counseled by his priest. The same priest is also present in a couple other episodes. He's the only Christian clergy member ever seen.

* HollywoodDateless: George.

* EarWorm: In-universe example, George can't get "Master of the House" from ''Franchise/LesMiserables'' out of his head. Jerry warns him that getting a song stuck in your head can drive you insane, like how Schumann kept humming an "A" over and over. His randomly singing snippets of the song causes it to get stuck in Elaine's father's head as well.

* GraveRobbing: In "The Strongbox", Kramer and Jerry have to dig up a neighbor's pet bird because Kramer's apartment key is still in it's stomach after it was buried.

* ArtisticLicenseCars: There is a good deal wrong with Jerry's Saab in ''The Bottle Deposit''. First, he mentions the AAA guy said "I was this close to sucking a muffin down the carburator." -- the Saab 900 was fuel injected. In the warehouse, the detective refers to the turbocharger and angle of the V6, which Jerry says can't be his because his isn't a turbo. The Saab 900 and 9000 were never offered with a turbocharged V6. Jerry then says his car is a 900S, but the car Kramer chases is a 900SE, the higher up model.

** George's realization that to be successful he needs to just do the opposite of whatever his intuition tells him to do is [[AesopAmnesia ignored for the rest of the series]], likely because that would [[StatusQuoIsGod ruin]] [[ButtMonkey George's character]].

*** Elaine was introduced in the [[SecondEpisodeIntroduction second episode]] [[ExecutiveMeddling after NBC requested a female character be added]] and was also absent from the two part VacationEpisode that started season 4.

** Plus the woman who robbed George in the episode "The Subway." [[TropesAreTools On the other hand]], it was worth it to hear George say "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint Will I see you again?]]"