Greetings:
New to posting here, but I've been lurking...
I'm surprised at the number of negative posts regarding The Barber. I've been watching since the very beginning, and I thought this episode was hip and smart and very much in the spirit of seinfelds past. Real life? No. But astute reworking of real life? YES. Were the barbers stereo- types? Maybe. But my barber is an older replica of the uncle as portrayed in this episode. The music? Stroke of genius, giving the brain-dead sitcom format a kick in the rear and using soundtrack inventively, for once. Ed Scissorhands? A perfect choice -- you know, I must hurt what I touch...what barber wouldn't cry at the tragedy of it? The product placement? Heck, it's become a self-parody...from Snapple to Lipton and, as someone pointed out, an obscured label. I get the joke. George and his job woes? Hey, the eternal loser will never work again, and it is that knowledge that makes his futile quest funnier. Only George could sit at a desk eight hours a day for a week and simply reorganize a file into an accordion folder -- without ever UNDERSTANDING what the file's about. And did everyone see the tiny noose Penske was hanging his hand with at the end, when he was telling George that there was no job because the board was being indicted? Another great example of the subtle touches still present. The aution -- not knowing whether Kramer went for peanuts or big bucks is part of the joke...if they'd told, it would have disappointed half the audience. Better to let imagination supply that ending...you know, imagination, that thing we never exercise anymore:-) Sorry to have blathered on, but I think this last was a great episode, even if not a classic...lightyears ahead of any sitcom (with the exception of The Simpsons, of course) in its intelligence and sence of the farcical.
All IMHO, of course.
Peace, Bill Marquette University Memorial Library