History Seinfeld / TropesAToH

* BlindWithoutEm: George. Although he can apparently squint down to 20/20 vision without glasses.
** A subversion occurs with Jerry, who doesn't wear glasses; in "The Gum", he wears glasses to fool Lloyd Braun (long story) and stumbles around because the prescription makes things extremely blurry.

* AnAesop: Frequently subverted.
-->'''Kramer:''' The important thing is that you learned something.
-->'''Jerry:''' (smirking) No I didn't.
** Interestingly, the show ''does'' deliver aesops, even if incidentally. For instance, the main characters frequently lie, and in pretty much every instance, the lie comes back to bite them in the ass by the episode's end. So the aesop? Don't lie, it only makes things worse.
** A great many plots that are not powered by a SnowballLie are set off by small violations of the unwritten rules of society -- laughing in a concert hall, refusing junk mail, and so on. This never, ''ever'' ends well for the protagonists.
** The final episode repeatedly drives home the message that all four of the main characters are cynical, selfish {{jerkass}}es.

* BileFascination: In "The Letter", a couple named the Arms is fascinated by the Kramer portrait. Mr. Arm is repulsed by it:

* BiTheWay: Apparently runs in the Ross family. Susan's father apparently once had a torrid love affair with author John Cheever 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.

* CharacterDevelopment: Completely averted, by design. "No hugging, no learning".

* EmbarrassingNickname: In "The Pick", Elaine is given the nickname "Nip" after she accidentally exposes her nipple in a Christmas card.

* AnnoyingLaugh: Naomi from "The Wallet", "The Watch", and "The Bubble Boy". Her laugh is described as "Elmer Fudd sitting on a juicer".

** Jon Voight, DavidLetterman, Jay Leno, George Wendt, Corbin Bernsen, Roudolph Guliani, Bryant Gumble, Regis Philbin, Kathy Lee Gifford, Mel Torme...

-->'''Jerry:''' Is this guy a dentist or Caligula??

--> '''Jerry''': Oh no, I'll tell you what you did, [[EmperorCaligula Caligula]]... you combined food and sex into one disgusting, uncontrollable urge!

* UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler: In, "The Gymnast", Elaine's pen breaks, smearing ink everywhere; Mr. Pitt ends up having ink smeared on the lapels of his suit, as well as unknowingly dabbing a smear on his upper lip, resembling Hitler's mustache. Later still, Mr. Pitt gives a speech at a merger meeting he was attending:
-->'''Mr. Pitt''': I have been accused of wrong doing! We ''will'' annex Poland [Springs Water Company] by the spring! ''And'', our stocks will rise ''high'' (Raises hand in a similar fashion to the Nazi Party salute).

* AdolfHitler: In, "The Gymnast", Elaine's pen breaks, smearing ink everywhere; Mr. Pitt ends up having ink smeared on the lapels of his suit, as well as unknowingly dabbing a smear on his upper lip, resembling Hitler's mustache. Later still, Mr. Pitt gives a speech at a merger meeting he was attending:

* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
** The series finale; Good Samaritan laws do not work that way. There is so much wrong here we made a list:
*** They're to ensure someone who helps an obviously ill or injured person cannot be sued later for unintentional injury or death, as is the case in Massachusetts. Even the compulsory good Samaritan laws only apply to people who are injured or ill, not being threatened by a mugger. If anything, the Seinfeld cast should have been commended for getting pictorial evidence of the crime.
*** The punishment for violating a compulsary good Samaritan law is a small fine ($100-$300) with no jail time, and, as already explained, stopping a mugging is not covered by any real Good Samaritan law. In fact, the arresting officer states "within reason". Random strangers stopping any crime, much less a mugging, is not reasonable, ''especially'' when a police officer is at the scene the entire time.
*** Regardless of how the Good Samaritan law itself is written, bringing in dozens of "character witnesses" to recount every misdeed the defendants have ever committed is still ''incredibly'' illegal under U.S. law. [[note]]Character witnesses can only called in if the defence tries to use the defendant's character as a defense, which is not the case here.[[/note]] The writers probably knew this and simply exaggerated the idea and played it for laughs.
*** The police officer that arrested them only did so by watching the entire robbery, '''doing nothing about it''', and then arresting four bystanders/witnesses to a violent crime with video evidence, for not doing '''his''' job, even with a completely fictional representation and gross exaggeration of actual laws.
** Interestingly, Massachussetts has a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty_to_rescue "Duty to Rescue"]] law (often incorrectly referred to as Good Samaritan Law despite being completely unrelated), '''''but''''' it is ''explicitely'' a duty to ''report'', not a duty to aid. [[note]]Chapter 268, section 40 provides "Whoever knows that another person is a victim of aggravated rape, murder, manslaughter or armed robbery and is at the scene of said crime shall, to the extent that said person can do so without danger or peril to himself or others, report said crime to an appropriate law enforcement official as soon as reasonably practicable." [[/note]] Since a police officer was at the scene almost immediately, they are not responsible to do anything. On top of this, Duty to Rescue laws are often ignored by lawmakers, law enforcers, courts and the general public, so any conviction for violating one is extremely unlikely.
** In ''The Bottle Deposit'', Newman and Kramer try to return bottles in Michigan for the higher deposit. Michigan prohibits out of state bottle returns, and limits returns to $25 a piece, though this is probably justified since Kramer and Newman weren't thinking beyond getting the bottles there.
** Also in "The Bottle Deposit", Jerry's insurance company refuses to acknowledge his car was stolen on the basis that he willingly surrendered the keys, meaning he has no financial recourse if his car is not recovered. The police investigating it certainly think it's a theft. Then again, insurance companies are infamous for making up the most ridiculous reasons to avoid paying out a claim.
** In "The Bris", after a suicidal mental patient jumps off the roof and lands on George's car, the Hospital Administrator refuses to pay for repairs and even chastises him for trying to "profit from a tragedy". The hospital is entirely at fault for the accident (roof access should be restricted just like razor blades should be confiscated), and George is well within his rights to demand they pay, even filing a lawsuit. In fact, he could provide testimony in court for the patient's family should they file a lawsuit. Of course, in this case, the administrator could have just been trying to weasel her way out of paying, and George was cowardly enough to buckle under her intimidation and not attempt an actual lawsuit, especially since she gave him the impression that doing so would make people see him as a heartless monster.

* ArtisticLawMedicine: In "The Blood," an accident with a scalpel to the neck causes Jerry to lose at least three pints of blood, which Kramer happily donates to him since coincidentally had taken his supply out of the blood bank and was storing it at Newman's. In the end, another accident results in Jerry being dragged along the road from behind his car as it was being driven by Izzy Mandelbaum's son (who accelerated in panic due to Kramer's blood leaking out of the engine), losing more blood, and this time receive some from Newman. So, unless any kind of checking of records and such happened off camera, are we to assume that both Kramer and Newman just happen to have the same blood type as Jerry?

** In "The Bris", after a suicidal mental patient jumps off the roof and lands on George's car, the Hospital Administrator refuses to pay for repairs and even chastises him for trying to "profit from a tragedy". The hospital is entirely at fault for the accident (roof access should be restricted just like razor blades should be confiscated), and George is well within his rights to demand they pay, even filing a lawsuit. In fact, he could provide testimony in court for the patient's family should they file a lawsuit.

'''George:''' I once told a woman I ''[[AFateWorseThenDeath enjoy spending time with my family]]''.

'''George:''' I once told a woman I ''[[FateWorseThenDeath enjoy spending time with my family]]''.

** Men in the ''Seinfeld'' universe become super-intelligent after they stop having sex for a period of time, because [[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain the majority of their brainpower]] is normally focused solely towards obtaining sex, so a celibate man frees up his brain to think about other things.

--> '''George:''' I once told a woman I coined the phrase "Pardon my French".
--> '''Jerry:''' I once told a woman I don't eat ice cream because it goes straight to my thighs.
--> '''George:''' I once told a woman I ''enjoy spending time with my family''.
--> The two men sip their coffee triumphantly while Elaine sits there looking shocked.

** Men in the Seinfeld universe receive a significant boost in intelligence once they stop having sex, because 99% of a man's brain (or at least George's brain, the numbers may vary depending on the man) is constantly obsessed with sex, and starts to function properly once sex is no longer a factor in the man's life. George, for example, becomes an OmnidisciplinaryScientist able to effortlessly hit several consecutive home runs in baseball using nothing but his newly acquired knowledge of physics, and also becomes fluent in Portuguese without even ''trying'' to learn it ("My cleaning lady is Portuguese. I must have picked it up."). Later on Elaine stops having sex with her boyfriend so that he can pass his licensing exam and become a doctor. However, going without sex has the opposite effect on Elaine. She becomes progressively dumber. Strangely enough, this is ''also'' because AllMenArePerverts.
---> '''Jerry:''' To a woman, sex is like the garbage man. You just take for granted the fact that any time you put some trash out on the street, a guy in a jumpsuit's gonna come along and pick it up. But now, it's like a garbage strike. The bags are piling up in your head! The sidewalk is blocked! Nothing's getting through! ...You're stupid!

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: "The Phone Message" is, in many ways, this for Jerry. It's the first time we see Jerry having an ugly debate over something as trivial as a TV commercial, a trait that would be a RunningGag in the series, where Jerry finds the most petty reasons to break up with his girlfriend-of-the-week.

(Darrin enters Kramer's apartment and they shut the door; the camera holds on their door, and a couple seconds later they open it again)