Seinfeld's Stale Cereal

Two years ago we started watching Seinfeld as a background show when Netflix lost The Office. That Christmas I got the Lego version of the Seinfeld apartment. It only took a few hours to build but it came with so many little details from the show - including the kitchen and the row of cereal boxes.

For those who haven’t ever watched Seinfeld, Jerry’s kitchen has an entire shelf above his sink dedicated to about nine boxes of cereal.

I don’t know about yall, but if we have more than three boxes in the pantry at any given time two of them will go stale before they get eaten.

Even with Kramer, George, and Elaine casually helping themselves to all the food in Jerry’s apt there is still too much cereal on that shelf to eat in a timely manner. But I think the fact his buddies eat all his food, especially the New York priced orange juice and milk he has in the fridge, is why there are over a dozen boxes on the shelf.

I don’t see Jerry as the cereal box collector type, that would scare off his girlfriend-of-the-week. But, having full shelves gives the appearance of wealth. It also gives the appearance of something ready to eat.

With all his buddies constantly grazing his kitchen I think he devised a plan to - once the cereal box was nearly empty - to leave it on the shelf. Let’s say Kramer goes in to get some Lucky Charms, he picks up the box but its ultra light, not enough to bother making a bowl. So he moves on to the next one, same thing, and the next, just box after box of cereal crumbs.

Over time Kramer develops a conditional response to not bother getting the cereal out because he knows the boxes are empty. By season five or so Jerry can now buy new cereal and keep the bags inside the old boxes, finally able to enjoy his Saturday morning cartoons.