Themes
The episode is widely considered to encapsulate Seinfeld's "show about nothing" concept, with The Tampa Tribune critic Walt Belcher calling it "the ultimate episode about nothing", and Lavery and Dunne describing it as "existential". Critics had a similar reaction to season three's "The Parking Garage", in which the four central characters spent the whole episode looking for their car. The structure of "The Chinese Restaurant", described as "elongation", drags a small event out over the course of an entire episode. Lavery and Dunne suggest that this structure critiques sitcoms with implied moral lessons (such as those found in so-called "very special episodes"). Vincent Brook, as part of his analysis regarding the influence of Jewish culture on Seinfeld, has said that the episode also conveys the theme of entrapment and confinement in a small space, a recurring theme on the show. The relationship between the characters and food is another recurring theme of the series. In Seinfeld, specific food items are associated with individual characters and food itself is a "signifier of social contracts".
Linda S. Ghent, Professor in the Department of Economics at Eastern Illinois University, discusses some economic issues in this episode. Just before Jerry's dare about the egg roll, Elaine says, "You know, it's not fair people are seated first come first served. It should be based on who's hungriest. I feel like just going over there and taking some food off somebody's plate." Ghent discusses the history and reasoning behind rationing mechanisms and economic efficiency, which are the bases behind how tables are seated at restaurants, rationales which are perhaps invisible to hungry or impatient customers. Elaine's attempt at bribery is an example of opportunity cost: the trio are willing to pay more than usual to get a table, if at least they can get a table. Ghent also gives Jerry's willingness to lie to his uncle as an example of opportunity cost: "Did I do a bad thing by lying to my uncle and saying I couldn't go to dinner? Plan Nine from Outer Space – one night only, the big screen! My hands are tied!"
Read more about this topic: The Chinese Restaurant
Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)