The Cafe

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Café
Series = Seinfeld


Caption = Elaine helps George cheat on an IQ test.
Season = 3
Episode = 24
Airdate = November 6, 1991
Production =
Writer = Tom Leopold
Director = Tom Cherones
Guests =
Episode list = List of "Seinfeld" episodes
Season list = Infobox Seinfeld season 3 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"The Café" was the 24th episode of "Seinfeld". The episode was the seventh episode of the show's third season. It aired on November 6, 1991.

Plot

Jerry, fascinated by an empty and failing restaurant called "The Dream Café," offers his patronage to the restaurant, and its owner (Babu Bhatt, who became a very popular character) and convinces the owner to restyle his menu and decor. He suggests that Babu make his restaurant the only authentic Pakistani eatery in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, this is a big disaster for Babu because the restaurant still lacks customers and Babu loses a lot of money. He becomes very upset with Jerry and blames him for causing his failure by yelling to Jerry, "You are a very, very bad man!"

Elaine takes an IQ test for George, who is worried that his girlfriend, Monica, who needs him to take an IQ test to pass an education course, will not be impressed with the score he receives. This plan backfires, as when Elaine enters the Dream Café (following advice offered by Jerry), she finds it very difficult to work in the distracting environment, and performs poorly on the test with an indicated IQ of 85. Elaine insists that she try again and finally, George begrudgingly agrees. This time, Elaine takes the test at Jerry's apartment and does very well, but just as she's about to leave, Kramer locks himself in with her in Jerry's apartment to escape his mother's ex-boyfriend for not returning a jacket he found. Elaine is too late to return the test to George when Monica finds out.

uperhero reference

* Jerry: (closing credits) It's tough to do a good deed. Just look at your professional good deed doers. Your Lone Rangers, your Supermen, your Batmen, your Spider-Men, your Elastic Men. They’re all wearing disguises, masks over their faces. Secret identities. Don't want people to know who they are. It's too much aggravation. "Superman, yeah, thanks for saving my life, but did you have to come through my wall? I'm rentin’ here, They got a security deposit. What am I supposed to do?"

Trivia

* First appearance of Babu Bhatt. He will reappear again, in "The Visa" and "The Finale".
* Elaine, for almost no reason, brings up the Latin phrase Casus belli.
* In this episode George reveals that he wanted to be a ventriloquist.
* In this episode, Seinfeld clearly states he has never had Pakistani food, however, in "The Jacket" Alton Benes had taken him and the group to a Pakistani restaurant.
* This is the first episode to have applause by the studio audience as Kramer entered, though interestingly, it happened when Kramer entered the Dream Café rather than Jerry's apartment.