The Slicer

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Slicer
Series = Seinfeld


Caption = Kramer offering Jerry a piece of meat from his slicer.
Season = 9
Episode = 163
Airdate = November 13, 1997
Production =
Writer = Darin Henry and Gregg Kavet & Andy Robin
Director = Andy Ackerman
Guests = Marcia Cross, Daniel von Bargen, Larry B. Scott
Episode list = List of "Seinfeld" episodes
Season list = Infobox Seinfeld season 9 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"The Slicer" is the 163rd episode of the NBC sitcom "Seinfeld". This was the 7th episode of the 9th and final season. It first aired on November 13, 1997.

Plot

George applies for an interview with Kruger Industrial Smoothing and gets the job, but notices in Kruger's office a picture of Kruger and his family at the beach with a not-so-bald George in the background.

Later George tells Kramer and Jerry at Monk's Cafe about the "boombox incident" that occurred in the summer of 1989: George was at the beach and a family set down next to him. After returning from swimming in the surf, George found all his things gone. After screaming at the kids from the family, he became so angry he threw their boombox into the ocean. Moments later, he found his things in the water and realized that the tide, not the kids, had taken them out. The father (Kruger) demanded George pay for the boombox, so George evaded it by giving him a fake address.

Now, George is worried that he may get fired once Kruger recognizes him from the picture. Kramer suggests sneaking the picture out and getting George's image airbrushed out. George takes to the idea and leaves. Kramer is annoyed at the shoddy slicing of the meat in the sandwiches he eats, stating that he "hasn't had a decent sandwich in 13 years." He solves his problem by getting a meat slicer.

Elaine can't sleep because her neighbor forgot to turn off the alarm clock before leaving for Paris. Kramer tells her that the same thing happened to his friend Lomez, so he (Lomez) blew his neighbor's circuit. He and Elaine then set off to do just that. Meanwhile, Jerry begins dating a doctor, Sara Sidarides (played by Marcia Cross).

The next day, George goes to pick up the picture, but finds out Kruger was airbrushed out instead of him (due to Kruger's baldness, the clerk mistook him for George, since George in the picture still had hair. He also points this out to George, annoying him further). Elaine realizes her neighbor's cat now can't eat because shutting off the power also shut off its automatic feeder. Jerry tells Elaine his date with Dr. Sidarides didn't go well because she kept making him feel like "if I don't save lives, I'm worthless." Elaine then reveals that Sidarides is a dermatologist and Jerry gets annoyed at this, not considering a dermatologist to be a "life-saver." George convinces him to go on a "revenge date" to tell her off.

Elaine and Kramer go back to Elaine's apartment with the meat slicer and feed the cat under the door. Elaine borrows Kramer's slicer, but uses it for slicing other things, and eventually gets a piece of her heel stuck in it. Jerry's revenge date doesn't go well when a former patient of Sidarides' comes up and thanks her for saving his life. The reason: he had skin cancer. George goes back to the Foto Hut, and finds himself airbrushed out, and only a drawing of Kruger back in. He then realizes he has to get a photo of his boss without his shirt on (as he was in the picture) to put back in.

When Elaine drops by to pick up pliers to remove the heel from Kramer's slicer, she drops a helpful tip about how Sidarides goes by offices screening people for skin cancer (that's how they met). George then realizes all he has to do is set up a screening at Kruger's and he can get his picture (after Jerry apologizes to Sidarides). Kramer goes to Elaine's to pick up his slicer. She manages to get the heel out just in time, but dings up the blade in the process. When trying to get back into Elaine's apartment, he accidentally pulls off her doorknob, trapping her inside.

Jerry starts getting an allergic reaction. Kramer thinks Sidarides gave it to him when he went down to apologize to her. He decides to go down to Kruger's - where Sidarides is doing the cancer screening - and ask her. Kramer comes along to pick up with blade. Jerry insults Sidarides and causes her to leave. As Kruger comes in for his screening, Kruger mistakes Kramer for the doctor, due to the white butcher's coat he is wearing, making him look like a doctor. Kramer then checked Kruger for moles or "freckles' ugly cousin" (as Kramer puts it). He takes a picture of Kruger for George, but finds a mole on Kruger's right shoulder.

George gets the picture fixed and Kramer starts getting into dermatology. While flipping through one of Kramer's medical books, Jerry finds a section on his condition and figures out that his hives came from an allergic reaction to Benzene, commonly used as a metal cleaner. Kramer had been using Jerry's hand towel with metal cleaner to clean his slicer blade, and gave him hives. George returns to work and suggests Kruger go see another dermatologist about his mole, but finds Kruger isn't worried about it. Because the mole is visible in the picture (which he thinks was taken in 1989), he thinks it hasn't grown. Kruger then reveals to George about that day when he and his kids took this "pear-shaped loser"'s clothes and threw it all in the ocean. George gets mad and informs him that the pear-shaped loser was him to which Kruger replies, "Well I'll be, you've lost a lot of hair."

At the end of the episode, Kramer, George and Jerry camp outside Elaine's apartment, feeding her under the door until the locksmith arrives to fix the doorknob Kramer had broken earlier. Jerry sees another dermatologist and George ends up not getting fired anyway because Kruger "didn't care."

Trivia

* This episode's opening scene, featuring a memorable dream sequence where Elaine is in bed with Jerry, George, and Kramer, does not appear in syndication.
* Kramer's fear of clowns is mentioned again in this episode. It was introduced in Season 4's "The Opera".
* This episode marks the second appearance of Elaine's spastic dance from "The Little Kicks". This time, she dances to Foghat's "Slow Ride". Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is also heard in this episode.
* This episode began the storyline involving George working at Kruger Industrial Smoothing, his fourth long-term job over the course of the series. George remains at Kruger for the rest of the season.
* Kramer identifies the slicer as the SP 2000, the same name that the bomb-finding robot had in Season 8's "The Nap".
* Later in the season in "The Strike", Kruger recognizes Kramer at the Festivus dinner and calls him "Dr. Van Nostrand", Kramer's fake dermatologist name.

lip-up

* In the beginning when Elaine wakes up from the alarm, the clock shows 3:30. After the camera pans out, the clock shows 3:29.

* George claims that the picture of Mr. Kruger and his family in which he appears in the background was taken in 1989. In this same picture, George has much more hair. When the series began in 1989, George has in fact more hair, but far less hair than in the picture.