The Little Kicks

"The Little Kicks"
Seinfeld episode
Episode no.	Season 8 Episode 4
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Written by	Spike Feresten
Production code	804
Original air date	October 10, 1996
Guest stars
Neil Giuntoli Rebecca McFarland
Season 8 episodes
September 1996 – May 1997 "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"
List of Seinfeld episodes

"The Little Kicks" is the 138th episode of the American television sitcom Seinfeld. This was the fourth episode for the eighth season. It was originally broadcast on the NBC network on October 10, 1996.

Plot

Elaine reluctantly allows George to attend a company party. George attempts to hit on Anna (Rebecca McFarland), one of Elaine's employees, but she doesn't seem interested. George is then horrified when he sees Elaine dancing at the party, a dance which causes her staff to lose all respect for her. Elaine mistakenly attributes this lack of respect to George's presence at the party after talking to Jerry. She advises Anna to keep away from George, which causes Anna to think of George as a "bad boy", making George desirable to her. George goes on to describe the dance as "a full body dry heave set to music".

Jerry has gotten tickets to a sneak peek showing of Death Blow for himself and Kramer. However, Kramer quickly invites a friend, Brody, forcing Jerry to get another ticket. In the theater, Brody starts videotaping the film to make a bootleg version to sell on the streets. While taping, Brody becomes sick and has Kramer take him home, leaving Jerry to finish making the tape. Jerry says he won't do it, but agrees when Brody threatens him with a gun. Jerry worries about the possible consequences of the illegal act, and whether or not Brody will like his taping. However, when he sees the finished product, Brody says it's the most beautiful taping he's ever seen, and asks Jerry to do another film called Cry, Cry Again. Jerry becomes a bootlegging legend on the streets, and demands better equipment for his next film. When Brody won't agree with Jerry's demands, Jerry becomes angry and leaves.

Kramer, seeing Elaine dancing, quickly informs her that "she stinks." Jerry reluctantly confirms this, but Elaine is still not convinced. She videotapes herself over the ending of the bootleg master copy of Cry, Cry Again. Elaine apologizes to Anna and George, explaining that George really is a good person, which makes him undesirable to Anna. But after hearing Jerry has quit bootlegging, George then decides to take up the job instead, in an effort to restore his "bad boy" image, but gets arrested in the process.

When Brody comes to pick up Cry, Cry Again that Jerry was going to shoot, all they have was the bad copy Kramer did, which Elaine has recorded her dancing over. Frank comes to bail him out but instead comes into a physical confrontation with Elaine over George's incident.

Jerry and Elaine walk down the street where it's revealed that Elaine beat Frank. When Jerry and Elaine go to Elaine's apartment, everyone dances behind Elaine's back, mocking her dance that they all saw at the end of the Cry, Cry Again bootleg.

Production

At the end of the episode, when Jerry replies (to Elaine) that he has remained big, and that it was the bootlegs that got small, he is referencing a famous line uttered by Gloria Swanson in the classic film Sunset Boulevard.

The song that Elaine dances to at the beginning of the episode is "Shining Star" by Earth, Wind and Fire.

In the "Inside Look (The Little Kicks)", "The Chronicles (The Clip Show)" and "Not that there's anything wrong with that (Season 8)", it features Julia Louis Dreyfus and Jerry Stiller experiencing the longest outtakes or laughs ever recorded on Seinfeld.

"Death Blow" and "Cry, Cry Again" are made up movies, as with many other movies in the fictional world of Seinfeld.

In a conversation with Jerry, George incorrectly identifies his father's borrowed car as a 1968 GTO when it is a 1967.

Continuity

• Elaine's characteristic dance is played again in a short sequence in "The Slicer".
• Almost the same scenario with the same song "Shining Star" in "The Bookstore" except with J.Peterman doing the toast instead.
• Elaine's description of George as a "short, stocky, slow witted bald man" would be used once more in "The Andrea Doria" in which George himself tells his own stories to the tenant's of a new apartment that he wants to buy.
• In a flashback, Elaine's early hairstyle and dress is seen most prominently "The Deal", setting up "the dance".

Relations to Other Media

• In the film Shrek (2001), one of the background characters is doing the "Little Kicks Dance" at the karaoke party.
• Disney's animated feature film Home on the Range (2004) features a dance sequence of barn animals dancing to the song "Little Patch of Heaven", in which a male duck is seen dancing the "Little Kicks".
• In the videogame Guild Wars (2005-2007), the male elementalist "/dance" emote culminates in the "Little Kicks Dance".
• In the short-lived video game 1 vs. 100 (Xbox 360) (released in 2009), Avatars could do the "Little Kicks Dance".
• In an episode of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Twilight Sparkle dances in a similar fashion as Elaine. Some fans have dubbed this as "The Little Bucks".

External links

• The Little Kicks at the Internet Movie Database