The Cartoon

"The Cartoon" is the 169th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 13th episode for the ninth and final season. It aired on January 29, 1998.

The episode was inspired by comedienne Kathy Griffin's ridiculing Jerry Seinfeld during a stand-up comedy performance on HBO where she stated that he was allegedly rude to her during her first appearance on the sitcom, in the episode "The Doll". Seinfeld was so amused by this that he wrote her a humorous letter congratulating her for it (reprinted in her memoir, Official Book Club Selection), added the clip of her routine as well as a clip of her being interviewed about the incident by Conan O'Brien to a video shown to audiences at Seinfeld tapings and had it written into the series. Griffin said, given that this was one of the final ten episodes of Seinfeld, "I felt like it was part of history-making television." Griffin and Seinfeld have remained friendly in the years since.

This episode was also notable for its subtle criticism towards the cartoons published in The New Yorker, which none of the characters seems to understand. The episode's writer, Bruce Eric Kaplan, had himself contributed many cartoons to The New Yorker, and he drew upon some of his own experiences for this part of the plot. Kaplan said of the cartoon subplot, "To me, the most interesting part of that story was the idea of not understanding a cartoon."Elaine tries to contribute to the magazine with a simpler and understandable cartoon, but ends up subconsciously lifting a Ziggy joke. This part of the storyline was later remembered by the media when in 2008 Jessica Seinfeld was falsely accused of plagiarizing a cookbook.