After George is caught masturbating by his mother, causing her to fall and injure her back, the gang makes a contest to see who can go the longest without masturbating. Although it becomes very hard for each of them to resist the temptation to masturbate when an attractive woman is stripping across the window from Jerry's apartment, George sees a beautiful female patient at the hospital getting a spongebath behind the curtain of his mother's room, and John F. Kennedy Jr. joins Elaine's gym.
Tropes:
- All Men Are Perverts: When Elaine enters the contest, she is given higher stakes because it's easier for women to abstain, whereas for men, as Jerry puts it, "It's part of our lifestyle. It's like shaving."Elaine: Oh, that is such bologna. I shave my legs.
Kramer: Not every day! - The Bet: The gang makes a contest on who can go the longest without masturbating.
- Callback: In "The Puffy Shirt", it is revealed that George won the contest when he talked to the photographer of his hand modeling photo shoot. However, in the series finale, George confesses that he cheated and that Jerry is the real master of his domain.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: George's mother caught him masturbating over a magazine in his parents' house and accidentally threw out her back.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Throughout the episode, the gang keeps seeing things tempting them to masturbate.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Each member of the gang suffers from this as they try to resist the temptation to masturbate: Jerry and Kramer by a beautiful naked woman across the window from Jerry's apartment in addition to the former dating Marla, who is a virgin; George by an attractive female patient taking a sponge bath from an attractive nurse behind the curtain from his mother's hospital room; and Elaine by John F. Kennedy Jr.
- Double Standard: Discussed by the gang when Elaine declares that she wants to join the contest, too. The guys claim that women have an easier time refraining from masturbating, and Elaine argues the opposite. George eventually decides that she can only participate if she agrees to pay out more, and Elaine agrees to go in for $150 as opposed to the $100 he, Jerry, and Kramer are putting up.
- The Faceless: John F. Kennedy Jr. never physically appeared in the episode from the front as he was either only mentioned and shown from the back.
- Gave Up Too Soon: Elaine misses John-John for their date by goes back up to Jerry's apartment, after just having seen a distraught Marla. She runs into George who tells her that John-John did show up, but he just left with Marla, who just broke up with Jerry.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: George's reaction to the gorgeous nurse giving her beautiful patient a sponge bath.
- Home Nudist: A female neighbor who walks around naked lives across from Jerry's building. Kramer peeks at her, and the two would hook up later on.
- I Gave My Word: The gang agrees that "the honor system" will be used to determine who wins the contest. Sure enough, both Kramer and Elaine (the only two who we see actively losing) pay up fair and square when they give in.
- I'll Be in My Bunk: When George Jerry and Kramer first see the attractive neighbor from across the window of Jerry's apartment, Kramer briefly leaves the room, then comes back and pays up, admitting defeat.
- Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: Marla breaks up with Jerry just because she found out about the contest.
- Not Using the Zed Word: Not once do the characters say "masturbation" nor any of its more common euphemisms.
- One Thing Led to Another: George describes the incident where his mother caught him as:"I came to my parents' house and there was nobody there. I picked up a magazine and started looking at pictures of hot girls. So one thing led to another and I ended up doing that..."
- Sequel Episode: One of sorts to "The Baby Shower", where Elaine's friend Leslie's husband Todd is 3rd cousin by marriage to the Kennedys, and Elaine complains about not being able to date one.
- Sexy Silhouette: The attractive female patient getting a sponge bath in George's mother's hospital room can only be seen as a shadowy figure from behind the curtain.
- Speed Sex: When Kramer can't resist the temptation of the beautiful nude woman in the apartment across from Jerry's, he leaves the room. Less than two minutes go by, and then he walks back in and slaps his money on the counter with an "I'm out."
- The Unreveal: It's never explained who won the contest in the end, though it's probably George. "The Puffy Shirt" would reveal that he did, in fact, win...and then the Grand Finale of the series confirms that he cheated, so Jerry was the true winner.
- Unusual Euphemism: The gang doesn't actually use the word "masturbate", instead referring to their resistance to it as "being the master of [their] domain".
