The Barber

"The Barber" is the seventy-second episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 8th episode for the 5th season. It aired on November 11, 1993.

Plot

The episode begins with George at a job interview. His future employer, Mr. Tuttle, is cut off mid-sentence by an important telephone call, and sends George away without knowing whether he has been hired or not. Mr. Tuttle told George that he can "understand everything immediately", so this leaves a puzzling situation. In Jerry's words: "If you call and ask if you have the job, you might lose the job." But if George doesn't call, he might have been hired and he will never know. George decides that the best course of action is to not call at all and to just "show up", pretending that he has been hired and start "work", all while Mr. Tuttle is out of town. The thought behind this was that if George has the job, then everything will be fine; and if George was not hired, then he will be "ensconced" in the company and hopefully not be fired.

Elaine asks Jerry to get a haircut in order to look nice for an upcoming bachelor auction. Kramer says that Jerry's normal barber, Enzo (played by Anthony Ponzini) is not working that day and recommends that Jerry see Enzo's nephew, Gino (David Ciminello). Kramer tells Jerry that he will get a better haircut from Gino. To Jerry's surprise, Enzo is willing to interrupt his day off to give his most loyal customer a haircut, which turns out to be terrible. Kramer arranges a clandestine haircut in Gino's apartment to fix the problem. Enzo again turns up unexpectedly, forcing Jerry to hide in the closet, but the damage is done: Enzo finds a familiar-looking hair on the floor. Incensed, he bribes Newman to get a sample of Jerry's hair in order to compare the two. After finding out that they match, Enzo swears revenge on Jerry, which ultimately culminates in a fight with Gino in Jerry's apartment.

Throughout the episode are times when some of the characters watch Edward Scissorhands. When Gino and Enzo are fighting in Jerry's apartment, they see Scissorhands on the television and stop to watch it, though all that's seen is the back of the TV with the sound of scissors clipping fast and Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville playing in the background.

Meanwhile, George, who has absolutely no idea of what his duties are at his new place of work, is handed the "Pensky file" and ordered to work on it. George manages to do nothing for a week. When Mr. Pensky comes to inquire about the progress of his file, he begins to make George an offer for a job at his company, but is again interrupted mid-sentence, leaving George to once again draw his own conclusions. When Mr. Tuttle arrives from a week's vacation, he reprimands but does not fire George. Instead, George quits, thinking Mr. Pensky has a space for him, much to the disbelief of Mr. Tuttle. When he visits Mr. Pensky, it turns out that the entire board of the company has been indicted and the company can't hire anyone.

In Jerry's apartment, Gino and Enzo stop fighting to watch Edward Scissorhands, and Enzo forgets his revenge on Jerry. Because Gino never fixed Jerry's hair, Kramer is sent to the bachelor auction in his place. In the end, Jerry finds Newman in the haircut shop and grabs an electric hair razor. After the Castle Rock Entertainment logo shows, there is a short scene where Kramer speaks to Newman on the phone asking, "So when you gonna be able to go out?" and the screen then shows Newman with his entire hair shaved off, and he replies, "Not for a while," though the scene is not shown in syndication.

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (December 2007)

• Even though all other Seinfeld episodes were placed in their production order for the DVD releases, "The Barber," was still placed behind "The Non-Fat Yogurt" which had been filmed after.
• Throughout this episode, the familiar Seinfeld slap-bass incidental music is replaced with selections from Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville.
• When George is informed that Arthur Pensky ("of the Pensky file") is on the way to his office, an audience member can be heard saying "Oh no!"

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