The anti-sitcom, which peddles no schmaltzy messages and has a cast of deplorable, yet lovable characters who get what’s coming to them, was pioneered by Seinfeld. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, You’re the Worst, and Fleabag all owe it a debt. The main four characters of Seinfeld got involved in plenty of wacky schemes over the years, and as the show’s resident Abbott and Costello-like duo, Jerry and George often teamed up for theirs. So, across the course of Seinfeld’s nine hilarious seasons, here are 5 Times George Roped Jerry Into His Schemes (And 5 Times Jerry Roped George In).
George roped in Jerry: The Rye
When it was time for George’s parents to meet Susan’s parents, they all got together at the Rosses’ apartment for dinner. George was dreading it; he just wanted to get through the evening. Frank and Estelle brought a marble rye from Schnitzer’s to the dinner and the Rosses forgot to serve it, so Frank took it home with him. To prevent a rift from forming within the family before the wedding even happened, George decided to plant a new marble rye in the Rosses’ apartment. It involved Kramer taking them out in a hansom cab and Jerry bringing the bread over. Jerry ended up stealing the rye from an old lady and hooking it onto a fishing line for George.
Jerry roped in George: The Race
In “The Race,” it’s revealed that Jerry won a big race in high school after taking off before the gunshot. The only other kid who noticed was Duncan, who is now the employer of his new girlfriend, Lois. (On a side-note, diehard Superman fan Jerry is very pleased to finally be dating someone named Lois.) Duncan contests Jerry’s version of the story, so he hatches a scheme with George. George will “bump into them” at the coffee shop and say that he remembers Jerry winning the race fair and square. It leads into one of the show’s all-time funniest scenes.
George roped in Jerry: The Boyfriend
In the two-parter “The Boyfriend,” George is trying to stay on unemployment benefits for as long as possible, so he tells the unemployment office that he has interviewed with a latex manufacturer called Vandelay Industries and gives his interviewer the number for Jerry’s apartment. Then he races across the city to tell Jerry to play along.
The interviewer calls while Jerry is out of the room and George is in the bathroom, so Kramer answers the phone and blows the whole thing, telling her that there’s no such thing as Vandelay Industries and the number she called is just for an apartment.
Jerry roped in George: The Stake Out
“The Stake Out” was one of the earliest episodes of Seinfeld, and its age is shown in the fact that Jerry feels awkward flirting with other women in front of Elaine, signifying that their breakup was recent. (In a later episode, Jerry would flirt with a woman while Elaine was crushed by a bike.) Feeling unable to ask a woman out in front of Elaine, Jerry leaves the party without getting her name or number — only her workplace. So he and George wait in the office building until she comes out. This is where George coined the name Art Vandelay.
George roped in Jerry: The Lip Reader
In the episode “The Lip Reader,” Jerry starts dating a deaf lineswoman he asked out at a tennis match. George suspects that a friend of theirs, who is throwing a party, is involved with his girlfriend, and when he goes out to dinner with Jerry and the lineswoman and realizes how skilled she is at reading lips, he gets an idea: Jerry can bring her to the party, she can read George’s girlfriend’s lips, and they’ll see once and for all if he has anything to worry about. In the end, she mixes up “sweep together” with “sleep together,” and George creates a scene for no reason.
Jerry roped in George: The Merv Griffin Show
Season 9’s “The Merv Griffin Show” has one of Seinfeld’s darkest and most controversial storylines. Jerry dates a woman whose vintage toy collection he wants to play with, and since she won’t let him, he gives her pills that will make her drowsy. While she’s out, he plays with her toys. Then he gets George involved. George wants to play with the toys too, so he goes over to her apartment with Jerry and brings a couple of boxes of wine, which knock her out cold, allowing Jerry and George to both play with her toys. Very disturbing, very uncomfortable stuff.
George roped in Jerry: The Limo
At the beginning of Season 3’s “The Limo,” George comes to pick Jerry up from the airport. A limo driver is standing at the terminal with a sign that says, “O’Brien,” but since Jerry saw a guy named O’Brien getting thrown off of his plane, he knows that no one’s coming to claim the limo.
Then George gets the bright idea to take the limo and go out on the town, and he manages to rope Jerry in. As it turns out, O’Brien is a white supremacist leader who is delivering the keynote speech at a neo-Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden.
Jerry roped in George: The Marine Biologist
George likes nothing more than to lie. He likes to pretend he’s someone he’s not, whether it’s an architect who erroneously designs railroads or a latex manufacturer named Art Vandelay. But in the episode “The Marine Biologist,” Jerry chooses a lie for him. Since George had been telling him about a documentary he watched about marine biology, when Jerry bumped into an old friend from high school whom George used to have a crush on, Jerry tells her that George is a marine biologist. For the rest of the episode, George has to keep up this lie, culminating in a heroic effort to save a beached whale.
George roped in Jerry: The Raincoats
More accurately, George roped Jerry’s parents into this scheme, but to get to them, he had to go through Jerry, so Jerry was definitely involved. In the classic two-parter “The Raincoats,” Jerry’s parents stop off to stay with him before a big trip to Paris. George is asked by a friend to get involved with his charity, so he tells him he’s going to Paris. Then he tries to get Jerry’s parents to send postcards from Paris to prove that he’s there. As it turns out, the charity is involved with a kid whose father lives in Paris, so George ends up actually having to go to Paris with this kid.
Jerry roped in George: The Switch
In the Season 6 episode “The Switch,” Jerry finds himself dating a girl that he’s completely incompatible with, mainly because she doesn’t laugh at anything. She’ll occasionally say, “That’s funny,” but she’ll never actually laugh. And then he meets her roommate, who laughs at all of his jokes and seems to get along with him better. So he brings a proposition to George: how do you pull off “the switch?" After racking their brains for a full coffee-fueled evening, they come up with the solution: suggest a ménage à trois. The plan ends up working a little too well.