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dankusner · 3 months

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Seinfeld — JFK

Seinfeld: 'Back and to the Left'

Legendary sitcom’s parody of the ‘magic bullet’ reflects cultural impact of 'JFK' film

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The sad news of the great Donald Sutherland’s passing offered a reminder of the cultural — and political — impact Oliver Stone’s 1991 film “JFK” made not only at the time of its release, but currently as former and current presidents jockey between intelligence agencies and the law in regard to how much assassination information the public should know; this, more than thirty years after Stone’s film and sixty years after the assassination.

Kevin Costner, as DA Jim Garrison, and Wayne Knight as Numa Bertel.

For, the JFK Records Act of 1992 was a direct result of public outcry in the wake of Stone’s film.

“JFK” was so much in the air at the time of its release that it even intruded upon the era’s most popular television sitcom. On February 12, 1992 — less than two months after “JFK” was released, the hit NBC comedy show “Seinfeld’ made an unmistakable series of allusions to the film in an a series of episodes entitled “The Boyfriend.”

One of the more famous scenes in “JFK” is set in the courtroom as New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) lines up staff members and demonstrates to the jury the unlikely path traveled by the so-called “magic bullet,” which, according to the Warren Report, traveled through President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally, hitting bones and causing myriad wounds, yet emerged pristine.

Defies Laws of Physics

On “Seinfeld,” two beloved regulars of the show, Kramer (Michael Richards) and Newman (Wayne Knight), express their displeasure upon hearing Jerry Seinfeld had befriended New York Mets star Keith Hernandez.

They go on to describe for Jerry and Elaine (Julia Louise Dreyfus) a traumatic event they experienced after a game their beloved Mets lost.

They recount a post-game encounter with Hernandez in which they tossed insults at him for a game losing error.

“Flashback” footage then rolls as the two tell their tale, replete with jerky cuts and faded colors, reminiscent of vintage footage taken at the time of JFK’s assassination in Dealey Plaza, which Stone emulated in his film too.

There’s an “umbrella man,” and another person filming the encounter with a small camera, ala Abraham Zapruder.

Kramer and Newman say that Hernandez responded to their taunts by spitting at them.

The unit of spit, they claim, hit Kramer first before ricocheting off him and making a series of landings on Newman.

Jerry, however, takes issue with his friends’ recollection and, using a golf club, lines the two up — ala Costner —and reenacts the spitting incident, noting the unlikely trajectory of the saliva missile.

“The laws of physics contradict the whole premise of your account,” Jerry asserts. He concludes by dubbing Hernandez’s spittle, as described, as “one magic loogie.”

(Interestingly, Wayne Knight — Newman — is the same actor who portrayed Garrison staffer Numa Bertel in the JFK film; he takes up the same position he did in the “JFK” magic bullet scene.)

Upon withering cross-examination by Jerry, Kramer admits that his head moved “back and to the left” — another Costner “JFK” line — when hit by the spit.

Jerry then triumphantly contends “that the spit could not have come from behind … that there had to have been a second spitter … behind the bushes on the gravelly road.”

The controversy is somewhat resolved when Kramer and Newman later confront Hernandez in Jerry’s apartment.

Hernandez claims it wasn’t him, but rather a second spitter in the form teammate Roger McDowell who launched phlegm at Kramer and Newman (also as payback for insults) from behind a bush on a gravelly road.

Jerry, unlike the real life Garrison, is then able to revel in his correct reading of the case.

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