Seinfeld's Controversial Puerto Rican Day Parade Has An Odd Avengers-Like Moment

Some "Seinfeld" episodes, like "The Contest" or "The Chinese Restaurant," have a deserved place in the upper echelons of TV comedy history (one might even say they're gold, Jerry). Others are best kept relegated to the dustbin of history. One of the worst episodes of "Seinfeld" is Season 9's "The Puerto Rican Day." When the gang drives home early from a Mets game, they get stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic caused by the city's Puerto Rican Day parade. Yada, yada, yada ... Kramer (Michael Richards) accidentally lights a Puerto Rican flag on fire and stomps it out, inciting an angry mob.

Upon airing in 1998, the episode was not well-received. National Puerto Rican Coalition President Manuel Mirabal responded in The New York Times, "It is unacceptable that the Puerto Rican flag be used by 'Seinfeld' as a stage prop under any circumstances." NBC issued an apology.

The maligned episode is also known for other, less controversial oddities. "Seinfeld" is a series obsessed with in-jokes, recurring bits, and aliases. "The Puerto Rican Day" sees Kramer, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), and George (Jason Alexander) assemble, Avengers-like, and equip their personae — H.E. Pennypacker, Kel Varnsen, and Art Vandelay, respectively — together for the first time, all in the luxurious stillness of an empty $1.5 million apartment.

Away from the traffic and noise of the Puerto Rican Day parade, an empty apartment sets the stage for Jerry, George, and Kramer to flex their fake identities. The inciting incident is a recurring joke on "Seinfeld" — someone needs to use the bathroom. Kramer, donning fake glasses and a haughty affect, poses as his character H.E. Pennypacker — a wealthy American industrialist and philanthropist whose business ventures include (but aren't limited to) opening a silver mine in Peru — to infiltrate an open house to use the restroom. Soon, the rest of the gang feigns interest in the open house.

For Jerry, the vacant apartment is a convenient place to watch the rest of the Mets game in peace, as they seem to have made a miraculous comeback. He tells the realtor his name is Kel Varnsen and promptly invents a bidding war between himself and Pennypacker.

Perhaps the most famous persona is George's Art Vandelay (née Corvelay), a fictional importer-exporter he first introduced in Season 1. George enters the apartment under the guise of Vandelay to wash exploded pen ink from his hands. 

When Kramer (aka Pennypacker) enters the apartment a second time, it's to escape the mob downstairs. There's a Mexican standoff quality to the three men standing in the room together, not unlike if "The Avengers" had been imagined as a farce. However, the ending is more of a tragedy than a superhero thriller since Jerry's beloved Saab is destroyed by the mob, and the once-prevailing Mets lose the game.