New Jersey’s Great Pop Culture Moments Vol.59: Seinfeld’s Face Painter

Photobucket

Earlier tonight in preseason NHL action, the New Jersey Devils beat the New York Rangers. But, as you know, this isn’t a sports blog. Although, there aren’t many things that get people as passionate as they do for sports, except maybe The Simpsons, and Seinfeld.

Seinfeld freaks know every episode, so this one is for you! In the 6th season (1995), Elaine went on a date with hardcore New Jersey Devils fan David Puddy played by Patrick Warburton. Just before they leave to go see the Devils/Rangers game at the Garden, much to Elaine’s shock and dismay, he reveals himself to be a face painter. Puddy was just one of those crazy fans who the camera pans over to after a huge play or when the home team is trying to get a rally going. Elaine will have none of it because she thinks “it’s insane.”

Photobucket 
“We’re the DEVILS!” (to the priest)

With his diabolical looking face paint on, Dave even scared the crap out of Kramer at first! With a Brodeur jersey on and his face full of grease paint, Puddy screamed at the top of his lungs during the game. The Devils wound up winning and Puddy rubbed it in everyone’s face, including a priest’s! The priest thought he was the actual Devil! Sports fans out there know the kind of intense fan Puddy is. I’m a fan of Patrick Warburton and he was the perfect casting choice to pull off this character. I think he’s a funny dude and if you aren’t familiar with him, you’ve probably heard his distinctive voice overs everywhere.

At the end of the episode Elaine tries to break it off with Puddy because of how much the face painting is weirding her out. He tells her he’s going to stop for her and all seems fine after that. Later, they are messing around on the couch and Elaine opens Puddy’s shirt to discover a big red “D” painted on his chest so he can spell out Devils with other guys in the crowd at the game.

Blue lights on the trees?

There was a great commercial that aired during the kickass episode of Heroes on Monday. I must give props to Cingular and Motorola who produced an homage of A Christmas Story to promote their latest phone deal.

I find it quite amazing that A Charlie Brown Christmas is already airing on television right at this second on ABC. What’s even nuttier is that the Christmas Tree lighting in Rockefeller Center seems like it’s being scheduled earlier and earlier each year. Next thing you know, Halloween will be cancelled and replaced by a new holiday called “Countdown to Christmas.”

Tomorrow is the tree lighting and to me it’s pretty exciting. I’m looking forward to going to see the tree because it’s one of the last real traditions we have in the tri-state area. Traditions are awesome and make Christmas one of the most highly anticipated holidays. From the holiday music to the classic movies, it’s fun to relive them each year. Even though the holiday season has the most anticipation of any tradition, (next to the Super Bowl of course!) the more miniscule ones are still important. To many people, watching Monday Night Football (or Raw in my case) is one of the feelings that makes living life so awesome. If you don’t have traditions in your life, I recommend starting a brand new one up and then see if you can make it catch on with other people. Oh wait, George Costanza’s father tried that on Seinfeld (fesitvus) and Seth tried to on The O.C (Chrismakuh) and they both didn’t work out. It’s worth a shot anyway. I’ve always wanted to make a horror movie night with some friends where we all got together and watched a different horror movie every week or so. To me that is a great tradition.

Finally, it’s important to note that the town has decorated the trees on Main St. They put these weird blueish/purple lights on the trees! Usually red and green is more festive, or even colorless lights are better. I can’t get into lavendar, it’s not traditional enough dammit! Even silver and gold would be better.