#9 To bad they couldn't do THAT for a living...

“The Contest” was one of many ground breaking episodes for SEINFELD, the taboo topic of masturbation was brought into millions of American homes on primetime television. This particular episode was successful for a myriad of reasons, it’s playful use of vocabulary, it’s classic quotable dialog, and it’s subject matter to name a few. The writers knew a show about masturbation would be very hard to pull off, so they had to be creative with this one! They got away with it by never saying the word, but the innuendo was laid on so thickly you couldn’t “not” get it. They playfully hinted around their subject matter with the phrase “master of your domain.” The idea of four adults betting on who could abstain from masturbation the longest is reason enough for a laugh. This is the kind of plot we’d expect in a show like SOUTH PARK with a bunch of dirty mouthed adolescent boys, but not a group of near middle aged New Yorkers! Blocking also played a very important role in making the episode more memorable, the way that the losers were portrayed sleeping peacefully while the contestants were tossing and turning shows just how blocking can be used to maximize any effect.