#13: The last Hurrah

The last episode of Seinfeld was both a failure and a success, depending on how you look at it. To the hardcore, knowledgeable Seinfeld fan, it was amazing because of the self-referentiality... all of our favorite Seinfeld characters were brought back into one big episode and our past experiences were made anew in our minds. There was also self-referentiality within the subtle jokes made, the references to the show within the show, and of course the button conversation that was had at the beginning of the first pilot episode followed by the ever-so-strange background music found in every episode and Jerry doing some of his stand-up in prison.
However, the final episode of Seinfeld could have been seen as a complete failure to others who are more casual watchers because they would not understand some of the subtle mannerisms or the context in which the old characters were brought back... For instance, if you had never seen the original episode containing the soup nazi, then the part when he is brought back in the court room, or even the part where he takes the soup away during the montage while the verdict is being reached would never be funny.
I also think that this episode tells us something about the characters. Not only do we learn that if we disrespect others as a part of our daily lives will we get our commupence, but the comical message gets across that 'if disregarding others was a crime, these guys would be the first to be put in jail' (as the episode says, they are the first to be tried for that offense)