The Pony Remark

I think they should have checked her husband's closet...

This Review right here has been published on January 21 23

About: Jerry jokingly says he hated anyone who had a pony, and the lady took it too seriously. She and her went upstairs, and only the husband came back downstairs.

Story and Production: I loved the production of Seinfeld from season 1 to maybe 6. It had an awesome, sentiment feel. This episode is of no exception. It was a funny episode.

The dialogue with Jerry and Kramer is iconic.

George: Barely in it

Kramer: Decides he wants to build levels.

Elaine: Tags around with Jerome.

Uncle Leo: Discusses Jeffery, who works at the Park Department.

Morty and Helen: The actor that plays Morty debuts in this episode, and it feels like he's been on the show for ages.

Laugh Meter: 8. Solid, chilled, funny, dark episode.

What can be learned?: Don't take everything too seriously at a dinner party, and keep an eye on her husband.

Should you watch this? Yes. A great episode. They made death so funny. Though, South Park made death hilarious.

I like the bit where she made the remark about the pony

Jerry is feeling great after a semifinal softball game where he was the hero. His parents are visiting an he is excited. Kramer has one of his dreamworld plans which never come to fruition. Jerry gets dragged to a dinner party for an elderly relative and ends up ruining the evening by making disparaging remarks about ponies. Then the lady he insulted dies and he has to go to the funeral. The dialogue is priceless.

Great episode, full of great laughs and a very memorable plot line, but I wouldn't say I'm as impressed as most Seinfeld fans appear to be with it. I actually preferred the opening episode of season two, and felt it had much more laughs and interesting character development in it. Nevertheless, 'The Pony Remark' is a fine effort itself and is certainly one of the best I've seen thus far (8 episodes in to Seinfeld).

My main problem with the episode comes from the distinct lack of George, a character who I grew to love during the very first episode. Instead Larry and Jerry decide to focus this one on Elaine, hoping to maybe flesh out her character a little more. Unfortunately it still hasn't worked for me. I still don't get Elaine; don't know who she is as a character and don't really find her funny. This episode was a good chance to fix that, but ultimately it fails to do so.

Even Uncle Leo who is first introduced here, I feel I know more than Elaine. Maybe Elaine is more of subtle character than the rest featured so far, and I'm sure I'll grow to love her soon enough- but for now, her focus in this episode in place of George kind of ruined the episode in terms of laughs. Furthermore, I have the same problem with Jerry's parents, they seem like they have identity's here but it's still not clear at this point. So I had a real problem enjoying their scenes, at least until Jerry arrives to strengthen things up.

Kramer's brief involvement is humorous with Richards giving yet another amazing performance, which is always wonderful to watch. My favourite scene however comes from inside the Diner where Jerry, George and Elaine are eating whilst discussing George's sex life (briefly), the nature of spirits' travelling habits and Jerry's guilt over his relative's death. I think it's the way the dialogue is written in combination with the everyday-casual nature of the cast's tone that brings out the real comedy in this scene. Everything about it works, and it's a joy to watch, really helping to solidify the episode.

In addition to this I enjoyed the various stand-up scenes (as I always do) and thought the main plot involving the funeral being on the same day as Jerry's baseball final was pretty clever and evenly paced out. Overall, a great episode for sure, but perhaps missing the mark on some jokes here and there and failed to convince me of Elaine's character, again. Nevertheless I did get to know the rest of the characters a little bit more, so the characterisation on the whole, was good.

Having just re-watched the second season premiere a few days earlier and being pleasantly surprised by not only how much I enjoyed it but how much it felt like a Seinfeld episode, my expectations towards "The Pony Remark" this time around were heightened somewhat and despite its status as an early Seinfeld classic, my feelings on the episode have not changed too greatly.

This episode effectively introduces two of my favourite supporting characters on the show: Uncle Leo (played superbly by Len Lesser) and Morty Seinfeld (yes he appeared in "The Stakeout" but this is the first time Barney Martin took over the role) and for that alone, this episode is worthwhile. However, it lacks the laughs and solid characterization for characters who are fairly young in their screentime so far to make it as enjoyable.

One of the more upsetting elements of this episode is the almost total lack of George having given plenty of material the previous episode around. It goes back to my criticisms with season one, and in particular "The Stakeout" where the writing lacks the total fluidity to effectively introduce the core characters within each episode. George simply takes far too long to get any screentime here and Elaine is not as enjoyable as she can become during the series and I will argue, not as enjoyable as she was in the previous episode.

Kramer comes up with the idea of removing all furniture in his apartment and instead creating levels and it amusingly goes nowhere and watching him bickering over the outcome of his wager with Jerry is classic Kramer but it would have been nice to see more of him here. Michael Richards is good but he lacks the nuance at this stage that makes his performance quite remarkably in later seasons.

The gist of it is, I don't find the anniversary dinner scene particularly funny nor do I find the dialogue very engaging either. There's potential for something that I can find funny but the performance by Julia Louis Dreyfus (still in her early days, not as funny as she can be down the road) coupled with Seinfeld's always on-the-verge-of-cracking-up delivery make it a scene I find difficult to enjoy.

And no, I do not and have never owned a pony.

Ultimately, "The Pony Remark" still left me a little disappointed. The best elements of this episode for me generally involve Uncle Leo and to a lesser extent, Jerry's parents. It is unfortunately, the core group of characters and the story as it relates to them that I find disappointing.