The English Patient (Seinfeld)

Infobox Television episode
Title = The English Patient
Series = Seinfeld


Caption = Izzy Mandelbaum challenging Jerry.
Season = 8
Episode = 151
Airdate = March 13, 1997
Production =
Writer = Steve Koren
Director = Andy Ackerman
Guests = Lloyd Bridges & Chelsea Noble
Episode list = List of "Seinfeld" episodes
Season list = Infobox Seinfeld season 8 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"The English Patient" is the 151st episode of the sitcom "Seinfeld". This was the 17th episode for the 8th season. It aired on March 13, 1997.

Plot

A woman mistakes George for her boyfriend Neil, a guy who she claims looks just like George. This intrigues George; he wants to meet Neil. Jerry is going to Florida to help his parents move. Kramer asks him to pick up some Cubans for him, and gives him a pale blue T-shirt that says "#1 Dad."

Elaine and her boyfriend see "The English Patient"; she absolutely hates it and that makes her unpopular and her boyfriend dumps her. Morty finds the "#1 Dad" T-shirt and is very flattered by the "gesture", (going as far as saying that it is the nicest thing Jerry's ever done for him, much to Jerry's dismay, since he has bought him a Cadillac twice) and proudly wears his new shirt, despite its small size. At his parents' exercise room, Jerry meets Izzy Mandelbaum, an 80-year-old man who can't stand to lose; he challenges Jerry to a weightlifting competition; "It's go time!" He throws his back out again and again.

Kramer's Cubans arrive; as it turns out they're people, not cigars. George is overly obsessed with Neil, to the point where he is missing out on Danielle. Jerry is back in New York, where Izzy Mandelbaum has returned to see a back specialist. It turns out that Kramer's Cubans are really Dominicans that are trying to pass off as Cuban cigar rollers; it doesn't work.

Elaine's dislike for "The English Patient" alienates her from everyone. She lies to Peterman and says that she hasn't seen the film, and he immediately takes steps to correct the situation, by ordering the entire office to stop work and that he will pay for everyone to see the movie, in which Elaine is forced to see it again. Jerry meets the rest of the Mandelbaums, all of whom are fiercely competitive and old. Izzy's son and father also injure their backs. Jerry finds work for Kramer's "Cubans" at the diner where Izzy works, rolling crepes. Elaine still hates the movie, but Peterman decides that she must go to the Tunisian desert to live in a cave in order to save her job.

The "Cubans" roll the crepes too tightly, causing the filling to spray out, burning people. Kramer becomes afraid that his unemployed Dominicans, whom he educated about communism, are planning to revolt. George finally meets Neil in a hospital, after Neil got burned from a crepe; Danielle chooses Neil over George, but George gets the last laugh by pulling out his intravenous cord. Elaine's plane to Tunisia was supposed to play the movie "Sack Lunch" but then was hijacked by the angry Dominicans, who are all wearing pale blue "#1 Dad" T-shirts. They demand the movie be turned off; much to Elaine's chagrin.