There’s a phrase that I say every once in a while, either in my head or to a close friend, and that is, “This reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where [insert character and particular situation].” Sometimes it’s been a stretch, but there were a couple of recent instances that I can relate to situations experienced by some of my all-time favorite sitcom characters:
Circumstance #1: Due to the schedule for the field studies I’m conducting in users’ homes, I tried fitting in my gym time around the lunch hour. Although this energized me for the afternoon, I seem to share the same affliction as George; specifically, the post-workout shower “didn’t take.” During the trip back to the office, my human heat pump ability turned on. Fortunately, there weren’t any meetings during the afternoon hours.
Circumstance #2: Our work group used to share an administrative assistant who ordered supplies for the team. Unfortunately, he’s no longer with the group due to time restrictions on contracts. I made it a nearly daily ritual of shooting the shit in his office, and it worked wonders for my stress levels. Anyhow, this co-worker was quite candid when it came to his voicing opinions on some of the other employees. When someone passed by (who I don’t work with at all), I heard him remark “oh my God, he/she has B.O.!” Of course, he didn’t say, “he/she”, but I’m trying to keep this person as anonymous as possible. One of my first questions back to him was: “Do you think it’s B.O.? Or is more B.B.O.?” Although it made me a bit uncomfortable hearing about the cleansing habits of someone I hardly knew, I did feel good knowing that I was a great outlet for my friend, and in some way I relished that fact that I was one of the first people to hear his rants.
Circumstance #3: There’s been a great deal of construction on the freeway close to my apartment, and a large stretch of the road has become extremely rough. There are construction signs all through the areas undergoing maintenance, most notably two “bump” signs, one where the road goes from smooth to rough, and another where it goes back to being smooth again. For the sake of illustration, this is the sign I’m talking about:
Someone apparently thought the large, colorful, and reflective sign did not convey the message strong enough, as he or she took the liberty of adding an exclamation point after the word BUMP with electrical tape. Now, when I reach the part of the freeway where it transitions from rough to smooth (the second sign, if you paid attention), I laugh to myself as my car passes over the BUMP! on the way to work. Seinfeld fans will know where I’m going with this one:
LIPPMAN: Ah, (reads an excerpt) “It was damp and chilly afternoon, so I decided to put on my sweatshirt!”
ELAINE: Right, well…
LIPPMAN: You put exclamation point after sweatshirt?
ELAINE: That’s that’s correct, I-I felt that the character doesn’t like to be ch-ch-chilly…
LIPPMAN: I see, (reads another excerpt) “I pulled the lever on the machine, but the Clark bar didn’t come out!” Exclamation point?
ELAINE: Well, yeah, you know how frustrating that can be when you keep putting quarters and quarters in to machine and then (prrt) nothing comes out…
LIPPMAN: Get rid of the exclamation points…
ELAINE: Ok, ok ok …
Well, that’s it for this round of Seinfeld observations. I’m sure there are bound to be more in the future.
Before we part ways, I saw the new T-Mobile ad on TV the other night for their new HotSpot @Home service. I shook my head and thought, “Did they use the third person speaker angle? And not even change the name of the character?” Seems I’m not the only one, as another blogger has taken notice as well. A note to T-Mobile: GSM/Wi-Fi handoff sounds appealing, but can’t you come up with a creative way to market it instead of using a joke from a sitcom? Come on!
On second thought, I better not give the advertisers any more sitcom references in case they decide to use them. Uh oh. I’ve made a huge mistake.
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