The Sniffing Accountant

"The Sniffing Accountant"
Seinfeld episode
Kramer posing as a drug user in a bar.
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 68
Written by	Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld[1]
Directed by	Tom Cherones[1]
Production no.	504[2]
Original airdate	October 7, 1993
Guest stars
Christa Miller John Kapelos Patrick Cronin
Season 5 episodes
Seinfeld – Season 5 September 1993 – May 1994
"The Mango" "The Puffy Shirt" "The Glasses" "The Sniffing Accountant" "The Bris" "The Lip Reader" "The Non-Fat Yogurt" "The Barber" "The Masseuse" "The Cigar Store Indian" "The Conversion" "The Stall" "The Dinner Party" "The Marine Biologist" "The Pie" "The Stand In" "The Wife" "The Raincoats, Part 1" "The Raincoats, Part 2" "The Fire" "The Hamptons" "The Opposite"
List of Seinfeld episodes

"The Sniffing Accountant" is the sixty-eighth episode of the sitcom Seinfeld, being the fourth episode of the series' fifth season. It aired on NBC on Thursday^[2], October 7, 1993. To research for one of this episode's reoccurring jokes where the characters feel others' shirt sleeves between their thumb and forefinger, Larry David did this himself, assessing the different kinds of material and the owners' reactions.^[3]

Plot

The episode opens with one of Jerry Seinfeld's stand-up comedy bits, centering on the government and the IRS.

The episode then jumps to Monk's Cafe, where Elaine discusses her new boyfriend, Jake Jarmel (played by Marty Rackham), who she met in her office. She explains how he approached her, and felt her gabardine jacket between his thumb and forefinger rather seductively. The conversation then jumps to Jerry’s new sweater, which he found in the back of his closet. At that point, Elaine looks out the window of the cafe and sees Barry Profit (John Kapelos), Jerry’s accountant. They invite him in, but are stunned to find him repeatedly sniffing during their conversation. The group discusses the possibilities that he could be on drugs. Jerry is panic-stricken, considering that Barry could write checks out of his account for illegal narcotics.

George goes home to his parents’ house, and his father explains how he got him an interview with Sid Farkus (Patrick Cronin), the manager of a company that sells women’s underwear, in an attempt to get George a job as a bra-salesman. Meanwhile, Jerry tells Kramer about the "Barry on drugs" situation, and Kramer is convinced he’s a drug-addict after hearing he went to the bathroom during their confrontation. At this point, Jerry gives Kramer his sweater because it was too itchy. Next, we see Elaine coming home to her apartment, where Jake is preparing dinner. Initially, they laugh and flirt with each other, but a violent fight ensues when Elaine gets surprised after finding out Jake didn’t put an exclamation point after an important phone message he wrote down. Jake gets offended at Elaine’s trivial criticism, and leaves her apartment.

To find out once and for all as to whether he’s on drugs or not, Kramer, Newman, and Jerry organize a sting. They wait inside a car in front of Barry’s workplace, and when they see him going into a bar, Kramer (wearing Jerry’s sweater) goes after him. He finds Barry sniffing in the bar, and manages to get a picture of him in a bathroom stall.

George carried through his interview with Sid Farkus, and makes a wonderful impression, resulting in him getting hired for the job. He becomes so consumed with confidence from his perfectly executed interview that he feels a random woman’s shirt between his thumb and forefinger on his way out. The woman (Christa Miller), who turns out to be Farkus’ boss, is enraged by the act, and demands that George leaves the company. Farkus obeys her order, and fires George. Jerry writes a letter to Barry Profit, stating that their relationship is officially terminated, and gives the letter to Newman to mail it. Kramer slips the picture he took of Profit in the bathroom into the letter as well. But, in an affair involving a pizza delivery man, Jerry and Kramer conclude that it was actually Jerry’s mohair sweater that caused Profit to sniff involuntarily. Jerry rushes out to stop Newman from mailing the letter.

Newman, who was remarkably confident at the time, felt a random woman’s coat between his thumb and forefinger on his way to mail the letter. The woman freaked out, and called her boyfriends to get Newman. Newman runs away in a mad panic, dropping the letter while doing so. The last scene shows Jerry announcing that Barry Profit filed for bankruptcy, and if he had terminated his relationship with him prior to the filing, he could have gotten his money back.

Aftermath

It is implied but never actually revealed that Barry Profit spent all of Jerry’s money on drugs, thus instigating him to file for bankruptcy.

Cultural references

This episode makes a number of cultural references. Jerry makes references to Leave it to Beaver in his stand-up comedy bit that opens the show.^[3] He jokes about how the government is like parents for adults; the IRS being Ward and June Cleaver, and adults being Wally and The Beaver. He also says that your accountant is like Eddie Haskell, showing you "all these neat tricks to get away with stuff." He mentions Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford and "Whitey" Whitney in there as well.

A reference to Abscam is made when Kramer, Jerry, and Newman consider organizing a sting.^[3] Jerry and Newman argue over whether Crest Glide or dentotape is the better floss in this episode as well.^[3] Crest Glide was actually a big trend in the Seinfeld production office during the early part of season five.^[3]

Reception

This episode gained a 19.1 Nielsen Rating and a 29 audience share, meaning that 19.1% of American households watched the episode, and 29% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into it.^[3] It reran on March 24, 1994, and earned the exact same numbers, which was a good sign that the show was becoming a hit.^[3] Michael Richards considers this episode to be one of his favorites.^{[citation needed]}

Production

This episode was written by series co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, and was directed by Tom Cherones.^[1] The cast first read the script for this episode on September 8, 1993, at 11:00 a.m.^[3] Filming took place on September 14, 1993, with eighteen members of the Vandelay Industries Mailing Listing (a Seinfeld fan club) among the audience.^[3]

In real life, Jerry Seinfeld's accountant stole money (about 50,000 dollars) from him to buy drugs, thus inspiring the main plotline for this episode.^[4][3]

Larry David actually worked as a bra salesman during his years as a struggling comedian.^[3] That had been many years prior to this episode though, so he had to do research in order to write dialogue pertaining to the configuration of modern bras.^[3] This was pre-internet, so the writer's assistants called bra companies to ask questions.^[3]

Kramer's impressive display of simultaneous drinking and smoking in this episode was unscripted^[4], and required two takes to get right. After the first attempt, Michael Richards let out a loud belch (with smoke) that necessitated a second try at the scene. This scene (which is pictured) helped Richards win an Emmy Award for his portrayal of the character.^[3] Though the first take was seen in Seinfeld's one-hour retrospective The Chronicle, which took place prior to the original airing of "The Finale." It is now included in the 2005 Season Five DVD set's blooper reel. Julia Louis-Dreyfus said that she was "in awe" when seeing him pull that off.^[4]

The line "barring some unforeseen incident" was first uttered in this episode by the character Sid Farkus, and the line eventually became a catchphrase around the show for years after this episode was filmed.^[3] Julia Louis-Dreyfus commented on how much she loved that line on the "Inside Look" commentary of the Seinfeld season 5 DVD set. She said that it was like a line from Foghorn Leghorn, and worked as a "precursor to chaos."^[4]

A big element to this episode was the element of private investigations. In actuality, Wayne Knight had experience with this line of work. He said, on the "Inside Look" commentary of the Seinfeld season 5 DVD set, that "before coming to Seinfeld, I’ve worked for five years in New York as a private investigator. It was after having done Broadway, I crapped out, and needed a [...] job, didn’t want to work as a waiter, and had a friend who got a job as a PI, because they liked hiring actors."^[4]

During this episode, Kramer mentions how he wants to become a professional private detective. Coincidentally, after Seinfeld had ended, Michael Richards later played a Los Angeles private detective on The Michael Richards Show.

Series continuity

• Although Elaine and her boyfriend, Jake Jarmel, break up during this episode when he doesn't put an exclamation point on a note, they briefly get back together in the season finale, "The Opposite." The exclamation point is mentioned again in "The Muffin Tops".

• Christa Miller has a brief role as Sid Farkus' boss, in which George touched her clothes briefly resulting in his firing. She would later play a different role as George's girlfriend in season 6's "The Doodle."

• The mohair sweater Kramer wears in the bar is the same sweater worn by Mrs. Sokol's daughter in Season 3's "The Boyfriend (Part 2)" on her second date with George.

• Patrick Cronin reprises his role as Sid Farkus again in The Doorman, where he is considering doing business with Frank Costanza and Kramer after they create a male bra. The line "barring some unforeseen incident" is uttered once again in that episode by Farkus.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Sniffing Accountant

• "The Sniffing Accountant" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Sniffing Accountant" on Sony Pictures
• "The Sniffing Accountant" at TV.com