The Muffin Tops

"The Muffin Tops" is the 155th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 21st episode of the eighth season. It aired on May 8, 1997.

Plot

The Tourist

While George and Jerry are walking down the street, a stranger (Reuven Bar-Yotam) asks George to watch a bag of luggage for a minute. When the stranger doesn't return, George starts wearing some of the clothes from the bag, using the rationale that "I'm still watching them."^[1] While he walks down the street in the tourist's clothes, looking at a map, a woman who works for the New York Visitor's Center (Rena Sofer) mistakes George for a tourist and introduces herself as Mary Anne. George pretends that he is visiting from Little Rock, Arkansas, where he works as a hen supervisor for the Tyler Chicken company.

They go to Monk's Café, where George continues to lie to Mary Anne about himself. George finds her attractive, and she is interested in him, but she doesn't want to get involved, believing he will be leaving soon. To prolong the relationship, he tells her he's thinking of 'moving' to New York; she replies that the city would eat him alive. George is insulted by this and sets out to prove he can get by in New York by showing her his 'new' apartment and his office where he works for the New York Yankees. Then Steinbrenner enters George's office and Mary Anne tells him of George's alleged job with Tyler Chicken.

Steinbrenner is impressed that George is moonlighting, and he phones the CEO of Tyler Chicken named Don Tyler (who like Steinbrenner is seen from behind) to announce that he does not want to share George. They haggle and Mr. Tyler says, "How about this: you give me Costanza, I convert your concessions to all chicken, no charge. Instead of hot dogs, chicken dogs. Instead of pretzels, chicken twists. Instead of beer, alcoholic chicken."^[2] Steinbrenner then asks how alcoholic chicken is made, Don Tyler quotes "Let if ferment, just like everything else." Impressed with the alcoholic chicken, Steinbrenner agrees to give away George by having him on the next bus to Arkansas.

Eventually, the tourist returns for his clothes and is upset that George is wearing them in the bar. He takes his clothes off George, leaving him in his boxers.

Jerry

Jerry notices his chest hair is uneven and tries to straighten it out, but ends up shaving it all off. He worries what his girlfriend Alex (Melinda Clarke) will think, until he discovers she is fond of hairless dogs. He continues to shave his chest, despite Kramer's warning about hair growth. While Kramer is at the garbage dump, Jerry's chest begins itching from hair growth as Kramer searches for a dump that will take the muffin stumps. Jerry's itching makes him run into the forest to scratch his chest. When the moon comes out, he howls like a werewolf while sighing at the relief that he can itch his chest out in the woods.

Top of the Muffin to You!

While eating a muffin at J. Peterman's book signing, Elaine mentions to Mr. Lippman (Richard Fancy), her former boss who was also attending the book signing, that she only eats the tops and that a store selling just the tops would be a million dollar idea. Lippman decides to start a business called "Top of the Muffin to You!," based on Elaine's idea. Elaine is outraged that he stole her idea. When the business starts to fail, Lippman asks Elaine for advice and bribes her with 30% of the profits. She tells him that he must make the whole muffin and then pop the top from the stump;^[3] she also demands that he remove the exclamation point from his sign ("It's not top of the muffin TO YOU!" Elaine says. Lippman replies, "No, no, it is." in a recall to "The Sniffing Accountant.") This gives the business a boost, but leaves them with the problem of disposing of the muffin stumps. They initially give the stumps to the homeless shelter. But after complaints about the missing muffin tops, they have to get rid of them somewhere else.

The Peterman Reality Tour

Kramer learns from Elaine that the stories he had sold to J. Peterman in a previous episode were put into Peterman's biography. Kramer goes to the book signing, claiming he is the "real" Peterman until he is thrown out. He then starts conducting "The Peterman Reality Tour" on a school bus for $37.50 apiece. Kramer asks Jerry and his girlfriend to take the tour and, while Elaine enters, she asks Kramer to get rid of the muffin stumps on his tour in return.

Credits

During the credits, George is in the bathroom using its phone to call Jerry into getting him some clothes while mentioning that Steinbrenner traded him to Tyler Chicken. Mary Ann pops her head into the bathroom and comments that she told him that New York would "eat him alive." Elaine eventually hires a "cleaner" (Newman in a Pulp Fiction spoof) for Mr. Lippman to make the muffin stump problem go away until the store gets private garbage removal. Newman then uses a bottle of milk when consuming the muffin stumps.

Cultural references

David Sims of The A.V. Club describes this as "a spoof-heavy episode".^[4]

Newman's role as "The Cleaner" is a reference to Harvey Keitel's role as "The Wolf" in Pulp Fiction. He is seen driving an Acura NSX when he arrives at the bakery, which is the same kind of car that "The Wolf" drives. There is a character known as "The Cleaner" played by Harvey Keitel in Point of No Return. Newman uses a crate of milk bottles to help dispose of the muffin stumps, which is a reference to Jean Reno's role as "Victor the Cleaner" in the film Nikita (upon which Point of No Return is based), who uses a crate of acid bottles to dispose of murder victims. This also refers to 'The Cleaner' in Leon (a.k.a. The Professional) where he is a cleaner and he "takes care of problems" and is only ever seen consuming milk. Finally, the use of milk is a reference to a series of advertisements then running for milk, in which various characters can eat cake only when they have milk to drink on hand.

The joke was spoofed again in the 2001 B-movie Deadly Scavenger, in which Tim Sullivan plays "The Doctor," who was hired because his job is "to clean things up."

There is also a reference to the film Wolf, with Jerry Seinfeld playing the role played by Jack Nicholson.

Kramer's "Peterman Reality Tour" is a direct spoof of "Kramer's Reality Tour," conducted by the real-life Kenny Kramer, the former neighbor of Larry David and inspiration for the character Cosmo Kramer. Lippman gripes that "every half-wit and sitcom star has his own book out now," a reference to Seinfeld's own book Seinlanguage. The title of J. Peterman's autobiography, No Placket Required is a parody of the Phil Collins album No Jacket Required.

Originally, George was going to claim to be an employee of the real Tyson Chicken. However, when Seinfeld inquired about the right to use their name, executives at Tyson Chicken objected to the joke about "alcoholic chicken" and the fictional "Tyler Chicken" was used in its place. One Tyson Foods Inc. spokesman, Archie Schaffer, told business news reporter Bill Bowden, "We told them the only problem we had with the whole concept was the alcoholic chickens concept didn't make a whole lot of sense to us, and it wasn't funny. Is that something you drink or a drunk chicken?" Schaffer suggested using "chicken brewskis" instead; another spokesman, Ed Nicholson, remarked, "There were some inaccuracies. George was supposed to have worked on the hen line. Of course, there is no hen line."^[5]

The actor Reuven Bar-Yotam, who is seen on Kramer's "Peterman Reality Tours" bus, also appears as Shlomo in season nine's "The Frogger". The "Jiffy Dump" employee is the same man who was in charge of "Jiffy Park" in the 7th season episode "The Wig Master." The conversation even references that episode as George is told to "take it up with consumer affairs" in "The Wig Master" and Kramer can be heard yelling, "Maybe I will take it up with consumer affairs!" after being turned away.

Elaine's exchange with Lippman regarding the use of exclamation points is a reference to an earlier episode in which Elaine and Lippman had a related dispute while working at Pendant Publishing. In the earlier dispute, Lippman was against the use of exclamation points and Elaine was for it.

Lippman's declaration that the idea for selling muffin tops was "all in the air" is a reference to the cult horror film Body Parts, wherein a deranged painter (played by Brad Dourif) vehemently insists that the inspiration for his gruesome artwork is "in the air," and not derived from the amputated arm of a death row serial killer that had been transplanted onto him.

On the tour bus, Kramer mentions that his window is "the one that's covered with chicken wire." Later on, a scene shows the CEO's office at Tyler Chicken. There is the shadow of a window covered with chicken wire. The chicken wire is later referenced in the episode "The Voice."

References

1. ↑ "Script, Episode 155 - The Muffin Tops". Seinology.com. Retrieved July 14, 2012. 
2. ↑ Riffel, Brent E. The Feathered Kingdom: Tyson Foods and the Transformation of American Land, Labor, and Law, 1930-2005. ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing, 2011, p. 236.
3. ↑ "Top 15 Seinfeld Food Related Episodes". Eating the Road. Retrieved July 14, 2012. 
4. ↑ "The Muffin Tops". A.V. Club. Retrieved July 14, 2012. 
5. ↑ "Where the Money Is... or Isn't: Tyson Made Right Decision About "Alcoholic Chickens"". Bill Bowden. Retrieved July 14, 2012. 

External links

• The Muffin Tops at the Internet Movie Database

Seinfeld episodes Season 1 "The Seinfeld Chronicles" "The Stake Out" "The Robbery" "Male Unbonding" "The Stock Tip" Season 2 "The Ex-Girlfriend" "The Pony Remark" "The Jacket" "The Phone Message" "The Apartment" "The Statue" "The Revenge" "The Heart Attack" "The Deal" "The Baby Shower" "The Chinese Restaurant" "The Busboy" Season 3 "The Note" "The Truth" "The Pen" "The Dog" "The Library" "The Parking Garage" "The Cafe" "The Tape" "The Nose Job" "The Stranded" "The Alternate Side" "The Red Dot" "The Subway" "The Pez Dispenser" "The Suicide" "The Fix-Up" "The Boyfriend" "The Limo" "The Good Samaritan" "The Letter" "The Parking Space" "The Keys" Season 4 "The Trip" "The Pitch" "The Ticket" "The Wallet" "The Watch" "The Bubble Boy" "The Cheever Letters" "The Opera" "The Virgin" "The Contest" "The Airport" "The Pick" "The Movie" "The Visa" "The Shoes" "The Outing" "The Old Man" "The Implant" "The Junior Mint" "The Smelly Car" "The Handicap Spot" "The Pilot" Season 5 "The Mango" "The Puffy Shirt" "The Glasses" "The Sniffing Accountant" "The Bris" "The Lip Reader" "The Non-Fat Yogurt" "The Barber" "The Masseuse" "The Cigar Store Indian" "The Conversion" "The Stall" "The Dinner Party" "The Marine Biologist" "The Pie" "The Stand In" "The Wife" "The Raincoats" "The Fire" "The Hamptons" "The Opposite" Season 6 "The Chaperone" "The Big Salad" "The Pledge Drive" "The Chinese Woman" "The Couch" "The Gymnast" "The Soup" "The Mom & Pop Store" "The Secretary" "The Race" "The Switch" "The Label Maker" "The Scofflaw" "The Highlights of 100" "The Beard" "The Kiss Hello" "The Doorman" "The Jimmy" "The Doodle" "The Fusilli Jerry" "The Diplomat's Club" "The Face Painter" "The Understudy" Season 7 "The Engagement" "The Postponement" "The Maestro" "The Wink" "The Hot Tub" "The Soup Nazi" "The Secret Code" "The Pool Guy" "The Sponge" "The Gum" "The Rye" "The Caddy" "The Seven" "The Cadillac" "The Shower Head" "The Doll" "The Friar's Club" "The Wig Master" "The Calzone" "The Bottle Deposit" "The Wait Out" "The Invitations" Season 8 "The Foundation" "The Soul Mate" "The Bizarro Jerry" "The Little Kicks" "The Package" "The Fatigues" "The Checks" "The Chicken Roaster" "The Abstinence" "The Andrea Doria" "The Little Jerry" "The Money" "The Comeback" "The Van Buren Boys" "The Susie" "The Pothole" "The English Patient" "The Nap" "The Yada Yada" "The Millennium" "The Muffin Tops" "The Summer of George" Season 9 "The Butter Shave" "The Voice" "The Serenity Now" "The Blood" "The Junk Mail" "The Merv Griffin Show" "The Slicer" "The Betrayal" "The Apology" "The Strike" "The Dealership" "The Reverse Peephole" "The Cartoon" "The Strong Box" "The Wizard" "The Burning" "The Bookstore" "The Frogger" "The Maid" "The Puerto Rican Day" "The Chronicle" "The Finale" Indicates two-part episode