Within the “Seinfeld” episode “The Butter Shave” (September 25, 1997), Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), and Kramer (Michael Richards) have all determined to shave the mustaches they’ve been fostering. By some means, Kramer finds that butter proves to be a superior substitute to shaving cream. Everyone seems to be baffled by this, however Kramer loves it, claiming the butter makes his pores and skin softer. He even tries buttering up his entire physique and laying out within the solar for a spell. Sadly, he falls asleep whereas tanning, and wakes up with a crispy, turkey-skin shade.
This proves to be an issue later when Kramer goes to a diner and meets Newman (Wayne Knight). Newman thinks Kramer smells … scrumptious. Newman is baffled by his urge for food. He glances over at an entire, stuffed turkey being served on the diner, and he begins hallucinating. He sees Kramer’s head on the turkey’s physique. This sort of hallucination might have been widespread in cartoon shorts, however on “Seinfeld,” it was downright surreal. The makers of “The Butter Shave” needed to movie Richards’ head in opposition to a blue display screen after which composite it onto the turkey. For a grounded sitcom like “Seinfeld,” it was a really refined particular impact.
“The Butter Shave” was the primary episode of the present’s ninth and ultimate season, and “Seinfeld” was one of many largest TV exhibits of all time by then. The forged was getting paid hand over fist, with Seinfeld himself making $1 million per episode and his three co-stars incomes $600,000. Evidently the forged and the writers had let the power go to their heads, as the ultimate season was weirder and wilder than the eight that preceded it.
Seinfeld stated within the particular options on the “Seinfeld” DVDs that he had a brand new mantra for later seasons of the present: Ditch believability. Actuality was out the window.
Actuality is not any extra
On the “Butter Shave” particular options, Seinfeld himself famous that “NBC gave us loads of rope at that time, to do something [we] need. They might cowl any price, overruns. Yeah, we have been residing fairly excessive on the hog then.” Writer Spike Feresten, who would later go on to co-write Seinfeld’s “Unfrosted” Pop-Tart movie for Netflix, was additionally interviewed, and he recalled that the tales have been getting larger and extra formidable because the present progressed, and that they have been changing into more and more unhinged. Feresten additionally recalled that Seinfeld was typically confronted about how bizarre his present was changing into, and as Feresten quoted:
“[Jerry would say] ‘Bear in mind the episode the place George hit a golf ball, and it bought lodged within the blowhole of a whale? Is that this any much less plausible than that?’ And utilizing that rule, any story might undergo. And often did.”
This can be a reference to the fifth season episode “The Marine Biologist” (February 10, 1994), and it is solely barely mis-remembered. In that episode, Kramer was the one who was hitting golf balls into the ocean, as he had simply come into possession of 600 Titleists. On the finish of the episode, in a beforehand unconnected story, George finds a beached whale whereas strolling alongside the seaside with an outdated flame. Earlier within the episode, he lied about being a marine biologist to impress her, however now has to ply his nonexistent marine biology abilities to save lots of the whale. Would not you recognize it, the whale was ailing as a result of Kramer’s golf balls was lodged in its blowhole. George has to admit, whereas retrieving the ball, that he’s no whale physician.
It was, in fact, meant to be a comedic coincidence, the type that occur on a regular basis on “Seinfeld,” however Seinfeld felt it was too wild to disregard, and will function precedent. If Kramer might thwack a ball right into a passing whale’s blowhole, then all the pieces was on the desk. Actuality is gone, and all is permitted. Do what thou wilt shall be the entire of the regulation. Bizarre is nice, in spite of everything.
