The Cigar Store Indian

"The Cigar Store Indian"

"The Cigar Store Indian" is the 74th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It is the tenth episode of the fifth season, and first aired on December 9, 1993.

Plot

While Jerry helps George with a coffee table stain, Elaine must take the subway home; she takes one of Frank Costanza's many TV Guides as reading material. George meets a woman at a furniture refinishing store and takes her to his parents' home, pretending that it is his. Jerry is interested in a Native American woman named Winona (Kimberly Norris-Guerrero), but she is offended when Jerry, unaware of her ethnicity, presents Elaine with a cigar store Indian as a peace offering. Jerry further offends her by using inappropriate language which could pass for racial epithets in a note and rocking it back and forth, mimicking Native American chants in front of her. Jerry tries to make amends with Winona by going out on a date with her, during which he also obtains her copy of the TV Guide with Al Roker on the cover to give to Frank.

Jerry offers to take her out for supper where, after an argument with an Asian postal worker (Benjamin W.S. Lum), she becomes offended at Jerry's behavior and becomes even more infuriated with Jerry after Kramer, in a taxi with the cigar store Indian, screams at Jerry by mimicking native sounds. Elaine and Kramer are on the subway when Kramer stops to get a gyro, but when his arm gets stuck in the door, a patron steals it. While on the subway, Elaine forgets the TV Guide and it is obtained by a creepy patron (Sam Lloyd), who cuts it up to make a flower bouquet for her. George, having had sex with his furniture store date, leaves a condom wrapper in his parents' bed; his parents discover not only the wrapper but also the absence of Frank's TV Guide (he is a collector) and punish him by grounding him.

Jerry tries again to make amends with Winona by going on another date, but tries avoiding words like reservation and scalper, which later backfires on him when she asks for the TV Guide and they get into an argument after she accuses Jerry of trying to refer to her as an Indian giver. Elaine shows up at the Costanzas' house with Winona's copy of the TV Guide. Much to her surprise, she sees the creepy guy at the house (he obtained the Costanzas' address by reading the postal address). Elaine gives Frank the copy of the TV Guide, only to find the cover was ruined by the tzatziki sauce from the gyros she was eating. When Frank yells at Elaine about taking the TV Guide, the creepy guy comes to her defense and inadvertently knocks the refinished coffee table over.

While trying to sell the cigar store Indian to a dealer of another cigar shop, Kramer meets Elaine's boss, Mr. Lippman, who offers to buy the cigar store Indian for $500. Kramer then helps Lippman carry the Indian to his office, where Kramer then pitches his idea for a coffee table book about coffee tables. Much to Elaine's surprise, Lippman is intrigued by the idea.

Estelle takes the coffee table to the same furniture store George took it into, where she runs into the same woman George had sex with and reveals the truth about George. Elaine and Jerry are on the subway going to Queens to give Frank the same TV Guide (which they had to order) when Jerry runs to get a gyro during a brief stop. He attempts to get back on the subway in time, but gets his arm stuck in the door and has his gyro taken by none other than Al Roker himself, who then becomes interested in Elaine.

Critical reception

A critic at Siyumhaseinfeld wrote, "Every once in a while we have an episode that comes along and shows us how truly magnificently brilliant and hilarious the television show entitled Seinfeld, really is. This is one of those episodes."

David Sims of The AV Club agreed, giving the episode an A-, and writing, "I love this episode for having dovetailing plots and moving back and forth between them very nicely, even though almost everything that drives this episode is utterly, utterly, UTTERLY ridiculous." He praises Frank Costanza for being "so enraged and strange all the time" and George's "worrying about making rings on the coffee table and later brazenly having sex in the house in their [George's parents'] master bedroom." For Sims, the most ridiculous plot arc was that "Jerry's thing with the Native American girl he likes is the only thing that's just too silly for the episode, not for how he stumbles over every word possibly connected to Indians (like making a "reservation" at a restaurant) but just for the idea that she'[d] even consider going anywhere with him..."

For reviewer Nicholas Katers, what Sims sees as silly is the real point of the episode (unintended racism): "The gang's attempts to toe the line of political correctness continues in this episode of Seinfeld, when Jerry buys a cigar store Indian for a friend of Elaine's who is Native American [sic; the present was for Elaine; Winona happened to be present]. While trying to make amends, Jerry finds it difficult not to make references that are offensive to Native Americans (i.e. reservations, Indian giver)."

Essayist Peter Thoma repeated many of these observations when writing, "The playful commentary of political correctness helped connect the audience and the characters. By some accounts, the doctrine of political correctness is the 1990s' equivalent of the McCarthyism of the 1950s or the witch-hunts and heresy trials... Jerry makes insensitive impersonations of Native Americans in front of a woman (Winona) he is trying to impress (who, unbeknownst to Jerry, is a Native American). He makes these comments as he is giving Elaine a cigar-store Indian statue. Larry David specifically told the writers to have Jerry give a gift that would offend someone... Jerry makes a concerted effort to practice political correctness by avoiding words and phrases that (in his eyes) could be considered insensitive toward Native Americans. When talking about dinner plans, he avoids using the word 'reservation,' and when Winona asks how he acquired tickets to an event, Jerry dances around the term 'scalper.' Toward the end of the episode, after giving Jerry a TV Guide, Winona asks for it back, prompting him to nearly call her an 'Indian-giver.'"

Trivia

• Kimberly Norris Guerrero, who played the role of Winona, claims her heritage as part Colville tribe, Salish-Kootenai, and Cherokee.

• To illustrate the episode's themes, Jerry's awkward comments to Winona are included here:

JERRY: It's a cigar store Indian. (to Elaine) Read the card.
ELAINE: (examines card; embarrassed) That's very nice. Thank you very much.
JERRY: Read it out loud.
ELAINE: I, I don't think so.
JERRY: (takes the card from Elaine) We had a little fight this afternoon. (reading from card) Let's bury the hatchet. We smoke um peace pipe.
WINONA: (gathering her stuff) Hey, you know, it's late. I really should go.
ELAINE: I, uh, I don't blame you Winona. I, uh...
(Jerry begins rocking the Indian back and forth, making the stereotypical movie Indian chant.)
JERRY: Hey-yah, ho-ah, hey-yah, ho-ah.
(Winona leaves, looking offended.)
ELAINE: Are you out of your mind?!
JERRY: ...ho-ah. It's, it's, it's kitschy.
ELAINE: Winona is a Native American.
JERRY: She is?

JERRY: You like Chinese food? 'Cause I once went to a great Szechwan restaurant in this neighborhood. I don't remember the exact address... (He spots a mailman crouched emptying a box) Uh, excuse me, you must know where the Chinese restaurant is around here.
(The mailman stands, turns and is revealed as Chinese. He takes offence.)
MAILMAN: Why must I know? Because I'm Chinese? You think I know where all the Chinese restaurants are? (adopts hackneyed Chinese accent) Oh, ask honorable Chinaman for location of restaurant.
JERRY: I asked because you were the mailman, you would know the neighborhood.
MAILMAN: Oh, hello American Joe. Which way to hamburger, hotdog stand? (storms away)
JERRY: I didn't know that...
WINONA: You know, it's late. I should probably just go home.

JERRY: I thought we'd eat at the Gentle Harvest.
WINONA: Ooh, I love that place, but it's usually so crowded. Can we get a table?
JERRY: Ah, don't worry. I made reser... (catches himself)
WINONA: You made what?
JERRY: I uh, I uh, I arranged for the appropriate accommodations. And then, Knick tickets, floor seats.
WINONA: How did you get these?
JERRY: Got 'em on the street, from a scal... (catches himself again)

WINONA: Jerry, I really need it back. It, it is mine.
JERRY: You can't give something and then take it back. I mean, what are you... (catches himself)
WINONA: What?
JERRY: A uh, a person that uh...
WINONA: A person that what?
JERRY: Well, a person that gives something and then they're dissatisfied and they wish they had, had never uh...
WINONA: And?
JERRY: ...give, given it to the person that they originally gave it to.
WINONA: You mean like, an Indian giver?!
JERRY: I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that term.

External links

• "The Cigar Store Indian" episode at IMDB