"Hey, McNab, Chunnel's On HBO Tonight! Why Don't You Stop By?"

Even though I got it, I never really got the “Seinfeld” Plaza Cable gag fully until I moved to New York City. In my first apartment, I remember that even getting the cable installed and trying to start to pay the cable guy real money every month felt like an epic right of passage. That 1996 episode of television — airing a decade before I even came to the city — became, like so many “Seinfeld” depictions, a crystalized experience in an ever-changing city. Watching it now nearly ten more years later, it remains pitch perfect. Just watch this and tell me you can’t relate. I dare you.

The weird 4-hour appointments, the long hold times on the phone, the grumpy dude in the van — it’s all there. Kramer as the everyman is exactly as he should be: Incredulous at a seemingly arbitrary and faceless organization, righteous in his indignation, and happy to “stick it to the man,” even when the man is of course a real person with real feelings. It is actually really elegant how the roles are flipped. The cable guy becomes the powerless person waiting around as his blood is brought slowly to boil. Kramer is what we perceive the cable company to be: Snickering behind a peephole and messing with us while taking advantage because there’s really not much we can do about it… read more >