How To Tell a Story: Kramer’s Pinky Toe
Whether you’re a fan a Seinfeld or not, the scene above with Kramer telling the story of the rescue of the pinky toe is a classic example of how to tell a story.
As both a set piece, without any of the rest of the story or any background on the characters, it’s brilliant. And as the central scene of the episode, The Fire, it crackles with energy and drives the whole show.
I love the originality yet simplicity of the set up — a comic heckling back at the heckler at their workplace. It’s familiar yet surprising.
And the specifics of the story — a street sweeper, the pinky toe, a Cracker Jack box — seem arbitrary but they’re perfect to bring the story to life. These few, concrete details give the reader / viewer all the information needed to follow the story.
Because we’re dying for the story! A pinky toe, severed, that could, with heroic effort, be saved!
From there the script sings and the performances are outstanding.
Taken all together, like all great storytelling, the scene lives on and looms large in memory far beyond the 2:07 running time.
Even reading it is a joy.
New scene – Kramer and Jerry in Jerry’s apartment.
KRAMER: What did you go up there to heckle her for?
JERRY: Because she came down to the club and heckled me! Give her a taste of her own medicine!
KRAMER: Oh, YEAH! You gave her a taste of medicine, alright.
JERRY: Well, I didn’t want her to have an accident.
GEORGE: What accident?
KRAMER: Well, after he heckled Toby, she got so upset, she ran out of the building and a street sweeper ran over her foot and severed her pinky toe.
GEORGE: That’s unbelievable!
KRAMER: Yeah! Then after the ambulance left, I found the toe! So I put it in a Cracker Jack box, filled it with ice, and took off for the hospital.
GEORGE: You ran?
KRAMER: No, I jumped on the bus. I told the driver, “I got a toe here, buddy – step on it.”
GEORGE: Holy cow!
KRAMER: Yeah, yeah, then all of a sudden, this guy pulls out a gun. Well, I knew any delay is gonna cost her her pinky toe, so I got out of the seat and I started walking towards him. He says, “Where do you think you’re going, Cracker Jack?” I said, “Well, I got a little prize for ya, buddy – ”
– knocked him out cold! GEORGE: How could you do that?!
KRAMER: Then everybody is screamin,’ because the driver, he’s passed out from all the commotion…the bus is out of control! So, I grab him by the collar, I take him out of the seat, I get behind the wheel and now I’m drivin’ the bus.
GEORGE: You’re Batman.
KRAMER: Yeah. Yeah, I am Batman. Then the mugger, he comes to, and he starts chokin’ me! So I’m fightin’ him off with one hand and I kept drivin’ the bus with the other, y’know? Then I managed to open up the door, and I kicked him out the door with my foot, you know – at the next stop.
JERRY: You kept makin’ all the stops?
KRAMER: Well, people kept ringin’ the bell!
GEORGE: Well, what about the toe? What happened to the toe?
KRAMER: Well! I am happy to say that the little guy is back in place at the end of the line.
GEORGE: You did all this…for a pinky toe?
KRAMER: Well, it’s a valuable appendage.
Tags:
Batman, comedy, Cosmo Kramer, George Costanza, Jerry Seinfeld, Kramer, scripts, scriptwriting, Seinfeld, sit coms, stories, Storytelling
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