Is there a name for this behavior?

Cafe Society
1

Maybe its just simple “uncomfortableness”, but I notice this type of behavior happening quite a bit in Seinfeld.

In the episode where Jerry and Elaine try to get together with newly separated spouses David and Beth, George accidentally breaks them up with his comment of “You could have done a lot better than him!” to Beth. They break up for a while and Jerry and Elaine move in. However, after a disheveled George escapes from Jerry’s apartment, he tells Beth that his comment was in jest, and doesn’t want to be the one to break up a marriage.

Later on, in David’s apartment, Beth comes to see him while Elaine is there trying her moves on David. They reconcile, and Elaine does something that puzzled me for years. She takes a swig of alcohol and says, to nobody “I’ll tell ya, that’s not bad”. When I was younger, I couldn’t figure out why she said that or why she didn’t just slink out of there in defeat. Her actions seems to completely ignore the making out on the other side of the room. Its like she does her best not to react.

I kind of get why she did it now, but is there a name for this kind of pretend ignorance of an uncomfortable subject? How would that be written in the script? Do they tell Julia Louis-Dreyfus to “take a drink and make a comment to nobody”? Would she even get what they were going after? Its hard to even explain the scene to someone who hasn’t seen it

2

I’m not sure what is confusing about this scene. Her behavior might be a little odd if it weren’t, you know, a TV show with an audience. Elaine is like, “Well, I’m getting ignored here, might as well drink and talk to myself.”

3

I think that it’s a callback to Hennigan’s Scotch which was introduced in the episode titled “The Red Dot”. In that episode, Jerry mentions that he has a bottle of Hennigan’s Scotch and it’s awful stuff. Kramer tries it and does a mock commercial for it touting its virtues. The scene you’re talking about is a subtle callback to that scene.

While it’s a non sequitur, it’s not out of place in the Seinfeld world. Things like this happen whenever someone’s plans fall apart. They just shrug it off (except George, who obsesses about things). Think about every time Jerry met a woman. At first she’s the perfect woman, then he finds a flaw, writes her off completely and immediately, and just goes on about his life as if nothing had happened. That’s basically what Elaine is doing in that scene.

4

Sure, in the real world, Elaine would have slunk out of there. But this is the Seinfeld universe where awkward social situations are the fuel that runs the engine, so to speak.

5

I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s considered polite in Japan. The correct thing to do is to ignore out of the ordinary situations.

6

Perhaps Gaman?