"SEX IS GOOD"

DA>Newsgroups: alt.tv.seinfeld DA>Subject: "SEX IS GOOD" DA>From: [email] (Dan Cramer) DA>Path: [address] DA>Distribution: world DA>Message-ID: DA>Date: Thu, 7 Apr 94 23:54:00 -0400 DA>Organization: CRS Online (Toronto, Ontario)

DA> Jerry definately wasn't saying "Six" to his deaf girlfriend, he was DA>obviously pronouncing it as "Sex", and it wasn't as funny as it was DA>intended to be.

I must disagree - think about Jerry's pronunciation, and that slightest lisp he seems to have - the way he pronounces some words COULD be mistaken for homonyms.

Then check it out in a mirror - say 'six' and 'sex' several times, and you'll see that a lip-reader, in a darkened car, at night, after a date, parked in front of her house, COULD, just possibly, make the mistake that Jerry was asking her for something else (if she didn't 'hear/see' the bit about when he might pick her up...)

Later... --- * OLX 2.1 TD * hAS ANYONE SEEN MY cAPSLOCK KEY?

-> I must disagree - think about Jerry's pronunciation, and that -> slightest lisp he seems to have - the way he pronounces some words -> COULD be mistaken for homonyms. -> -> Then check it out in a mirror - say 'six' and 'sex' several times, -> and you'll see that a lip-reader, in a darkened car, at night, after -> a date, parked in front of her house, COULD, just possibly, make the -> mistake that Jerry was asking her for something else (if she didn't -> 'hear/see' the bit about when he might pick her up...)

I disagree with the first part of your statement about Jerry's pronunciation about saying "Six" in the car. Not only did he pronounce it as "Sex", but later on in the show--he realized what had caused the misunderstanding with the girlfriend and then said "Six" properly.

There is quite a difference in the way he said it the second time around at the party. Again, I must stress that the first time he said it was for the audience's benefit in order to get a laugh out of us, but I wasn't fooled.

If you taped it, watch it again and you'll hear the difference both in and out of the car. Actually, I usually tape Seinfeld and watch it a second time, because I find it funnier the second time around.

In article [email] (Dan Cramer) writes:

I don't mean this to sound rude, but have you gotten your ears checked lately? I do have this episode on tape, and he is clearly saying "six", not "sex" in the car. The joke works because she was not looking at him when he brought up the subject of what time he would pick her up, and therefore she didn't know what context he was speaking in.

My cousin (reads lips) explained to me that context is VERY important when reading lips, as even experienced lip readers need something to help distinguish one word from another. The difference between words like "sprint" and "splint" can be determined even easier than "six" and "sex", because in most cases, sprint is a verb and splint is a noun. However, "six" and "sex" are both nouns, so full context (not just partial context) is necessary to distinguish the two.

In [email] (Davidr Turner) writes:

Totally agree with you. In fact when Jerry was talking about picking her up she wasn't looking at him. Therefore she turned around and 'read' Jerry saying "How about six ?" without knowing the context of the question.

-- I agree with Nick. I thought about it when I watched the ep. You know, to see if the joke was valid, and it's true that it would be hard to distinguish between the two, especially without the context. Now, as for wether or not Jerry _said_ "sex", I dunno- I think that it's possible that he did it for the audience, to kinda 'drive the joke home'.

--AlexJB

Just wanted to add my humble opinion to this thread . . . Personally, I think it is ok to assume that six could be mistaken for sex by a lipreader. My problem is, if you listen to the dialogue, it just doesn't ring true. "Six is good." Who would say it THAT way? How (oops, missed a quote mark) "How about six?"?!? I just can't see that as representation of normal spoken English. The same goes for "I don't want to sweep alone," etc. For these reasons, this is (and has been) my least favorite episode, even though it does have its moments. Does anyone else agree that those phrases are just not natural sounding?

---snip-----

-- Well, I agree that "I don't want to sweep alone" is _not_ natural (I think that they were probably flirting, which would mean that the lip-readers interpretation was more accurate than we assumed! ;-) ). However, I can definitely see myself saying "How 'bout six?" immediately after saying "what time shall we pick you up?". Even "six is good" is not out of the question- especially for someone who says things like "Love the Drake" or "Hate the Drake; the Drake is bad". I agree though, that Jerry's intonation of "six is good" was a little weird. But, remember "Hate the Drake" and "Look to the cookie!"

--AlexJB

I can see myself saying "six is good" quite naturally.

As for "sweeping alone," that would be said only in a comical way, but as I recall that was how it was intended by the character.

Thanks for pointing this out? And you've tried all of this. Did you test this theory?

That makes good sense. Like you said, "I don't want to sweep alone!" just does not come up in our everyday conversations. But "Six is good" although more likely to come up, still sounds strange.