The Seinfeld Episode Banned Over Five Seconds Of Footage
Though any Seinfeld fan will tell you that every single episode is offensive in one way or another, there’s one episode that was so offensive upon its initial airing that it was pulled from the summer repeat schedule and syndication rerun packages. The 1998 episode, entitled “The Puerto Rican Day,” originally aired in 1998, but couldn’t be viewed on television for four years until it started regularly appearing again in 2002.
Though this episode was the second-highest-rated Seinfeld episode of all time, the five-second sequence in which Cosmo Kramer accidentally lit a Puerto Rican flag on fire was controversial enough to have NBC pull the episode from syndication after Puerto Rican activist groups took issue with the episode.
The Seinfeld 1998 episode, entitled “The Puerto Rican Day,” originally aired in 1998,
“The Puerto Rican Day” was a return to form for Seinfeld, and brought Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer back into familiar territory in the sense that this was another episode about “nothing.” The episode centers on a traffic dispute between the gang and the driver of a maroon Volkswagen Golf.
As the situation escalates, the group splits up into various misadventures, but the situation comes to a head when Jerry and Kramer pose under aliases to watch a Mets game in an apartment that’s for sale.
In his infinite wisdom, Kramer steps outside to light a cigar with a sparkler, and haphazardly tosses the sparkler into the back of a convertible that has a Puerto Rican flag draped over the rear passenger seat.
Though this very well could have been a nod to a previous Seinfeld episode, Puerto Rican activist groups took issue with the fact that it was their flag that was being ignited into a ball of flames that Kramer proceeded to stomp on in order to extinguish.
Puerto Rican activist groups took issue with the fact that it was their flag that was being ignited into a ball of flames
Given that this was Seinfeld’s final season, this inadvertent act of arson was likely a self-referential nod to a season 4 episode entitled “The Bubble Boy,” in which Kramer accidentally burned down George’s girlfriend’s cabin after carelessly leaving a lit cigar near a pile of old newspapers.
Though the five-second sequence is typical Kramer behavior that’s not rooted in maliciousness, but rather carelessness, it was controversial enough for NBC to pull the episode after receiving countless protest letters for using the Puerto Rican flag as a stage prop.
Jerry Seinfeld went on record stating that before “The Puerto Rican Day” even aired, it was met with protest. He recalled asking the protest leader why they found the episode unreasonable before they even saw it, and alleged that they said they assumed that it would be offensive given the nature of the show.
Though this Seinfeld episode did garner controversy for burning a Puerto Rican flag, two of the episode’s writers, Steve Koren and Dave Mandel, suggested that the episode had nothing to do with Puerto Ricans. In other words, the incident involving Kramer could have happened at any kind of festival or event without significantly changing the story or dialogue.
But since they chose to have the episode set in this context, it was enough for NBC to pull the episode after receiving a deluge of protest letters when it was originally aired.
As of 2002, the unedited Seinfeld episode is in regular rotation, and can be viewed on cable, and streamed on Netflix.
