Viewers debate whether the lip reader correctly signed "sweep" or whether Kramer's poor signing skills caused the confusion that drove the episode's humor.
Wait a second?!?! You mean the deaf woman ACTUALLY "DID" sign "sweep" correctly? This is unusual, because it kind of changes the entire concept of the show. It was Krammer's crap signing skills that caused the confusion, and not the poor lip reading skills of the deaf woman.
This kills the humour of the previous SIX and SEX mixup, and ruins the humour in George's paranoia.
I am shocked!
I *totally* disagree! I took it as Kramer messing up, the first time I watched it! To me, this was funny because it showed us a bit more of that "Cliff Claven"esque quality Kramer has (knowing everything, welllll.... not really.) Kramer's attitude is always "Suuuuure! I have that all figured out!" Most of the time, this is funny because, although we know it isn't rue, things usually *do* work out for him. I personnally think it is even *funnier* when they don't (this case is one example, his being sure about the "fat-free" yogurt is another.)
Just curious, how many others knew it was Kramer's goof right away?
-bobdog-> L \__, / \
[email] wrote:
I find it funny either way. However, it seems to make more sense that she would mess up on lip reading "sleep" instead of "sweep." That is probably an easier mistake than messing up the signs of those two words. I'm sure that the signs are completely different.
Now that I think about this again, you're right. I originally understood it that it was Kramer misinterpretting the sign the deaf woman gave him, but now I see this doesn't make sense. Why would Kramer see a sign for 'sleep' instead of one for 'sleep'? That kind of mistake could be made when lip-reading, but not signing, right? Unless the signs are similar, which I doubt (although I know no sign language).
I'm confused now...
In article , [email] wrote:
You're right, confusing "sweep" for "sleep" would be an easy lipreading error (but I wouldn't say it was due to "poor" skill--turn off the sound on your TV and try lipreading sometime. It's really a guessing game.) But, Maitlin did sign them correctly. The joke was that Kramer didn't know nearly as much as he thought he did, as often happens. For example--when explaining to Elaine and Jerry how he came to learn sign, the motions he's making don't match his speech, and actually don't say anything coherent. I thought it was less realistic that he could read Maitlin's signing at all, never mind with the errors he made.
But the sign for sweep looks like someone sweeping. How would anyone screw that up? I don't find that part funny anymore now that I understand what happened.