Jerry Seinfeld Struggled To Make It Through This Seinfeld Scene Without Laughing

Plenty of sitcoms have had their time in the limelight, only to disappear from the cultural consciousness because they've either aged poorly or blended in among the pack. "Seinfeld," the groundbreaking NBC comedy about a bunch of friends who bring trouble to whoever's in their orbit, is not one of those shows. Pitched as a sitcom about how a comedian gets their material, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld broke the television mold with episodes that wrung countless possible jokes out of that simple, yet fruitful idea. It was far from a show about "nothing."

"Seinfeld" stands out among the wealth of '90s sitcoms because it wasn't afraid to take risks and experiment, whether the stories would be about masturbation tolerance or double dipping a chip at a funeral reception. Some of the funniest "Seinfeld" moments, however, were whenever the show simply went for broke and just did whatever made the writers laugh. In the "Seinfeld" world, viewers grew to learn that great jokes could come from familiarity in an everyday setting or something outlandish lurking in a comedian's brain.

As is the case with other revered sitcoms like "Parks and Recreation" and the American reboot of "The Office," it usually took some time for NBC sitcoms to find their footing and build a sense of identity after their first season. But one of the series' funniest gags transpired in the season 2 episode "The Baby Shower." It was one of the first examples of the show introducing individual plots for Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards), only to have them coalesce together by the end.

The episode sees Elaine hosting a baby shower happening in Jerry's apartment and George worrying about a chocolate sauce-stained sweater from a bad date, while the funniest plotline involves Kramer selling Jerry on an illegal cable hookup. Jerry reluctantly agrees to Kramer's slobbish Russian friends installing over 56 cable channels to his television. In the next scene, however, something strange happens: Jerry gets a prompt visit from the FBI regarding the hookup. The scene is played relatively straight with no laughs present, followed by the show's namesake getting hilariously gunned down in his apartment. As an actor, Seinfeld had a hard time making it through the sequence, not because of the content itself, but because of how Richards delivered his line.

Right after the FBI agents blow Jerry away with the overblown fervor of a mob hit, Kramer runs over to his next-door neighbor, cradles him in his arms, and cries out, "What have you done to my little cable boy?!" In a DVD blooper reel for the first two seasons, you'll see this moment receive a number of takes because Jerry simply can't hold his laughter while being shaken by Richards as he says his line. 

It has to be difficult working in comedy because you're surrounded by wall-to-wall jokes, but can't directly laugh at them and ruin a good take. Sometimes the act of being professional breaks down and you simply can't stifle that laugh. To Jerry's credit, it's a very funny moment following a truly unexpected scene.

Having the FBI interrogate Jerry about the cable sounds like it would be rife with comedic potential, but the fact that they don't even hesitate to "kill" the main character without a second thought came as a shock, even though it's just a dream sequence. "Seinfeld" isn't exactly the kind of show that lends itself to the constant peril of the characters, so much as the people around them.

The episode offers an insightful glimpse into a period where stealing cable was this big taboo, as it was only a few months earlier that same year when "The Simpsons" tackled the subject with "Homer and Lisa Vs. the Eighth Commandment." I also just think it's funny that "Seinfeld" follows "The Deal," the episode in which Jerry and Elaine decide to date, by not only dashing that plot thread to pieces, but showing the lead character getting violently pumped full of lead on national television.

Every episode of "Seinfeld" is currently streaming on Netflix.