During a visit to his parent’s home George Costanza (Jason Alexander), picks up a Glamour magazine and… becomes the “master of his domain.” Upon returning to New York, he regales his friends Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards) with the story. As they all laugh at his misfortune, George claims “I am never doing that again.” The foursome then bets just how long each of them can last without masturbating.
Seems tame by 2017 television standards, I know, but you gotta remember: This was 1992 and times were totally different. A gallon of gas cost just $1.05, and the World Wide Web was just getting off the ground. So to get this script approved and on the air took nearly an act of god. At the very least, it took creator Larry David threatening to quit the show.
“By the way, [the idea] was in my notebook for some time and I never even mentioned it to Jerry [Seinfeld] because I didn’t think there was any way that he would want to do it, and I didn’t think there was any way the show actually could get done on the network,” David recently revealed to New York Magazine as part of an oral history on the episode. “So it took me a couple years, you know, to even mention it to Jerry because it didn’t even occur to me that it was a possibility. But he was all for it.”
When it came time for a table read and NBC executive approval, David said he was ready to live and die on his soapbox that masturbation belonged on television.
“I remember being nervous because the NBC executives were there,” David said. “I really had this thing going on in my head where, well, if they don’t like it, I’m just going to quit the show. I really had this built up in my head where, there’s no way they’re going to do it and I’m just going to quit if they don’t do it.”
Thankfully for fans everywhere he didn’t have to quit that day, and instead brought masturbation to 18.5 million American television sets (and 28.8 million on its first rerun).
And you know what, we’re sure glad he did, because ain’t nothing wrong with a little “me” time. In fact, it can be downright good for you.
“Masturbation is part of a healthy sex life,” Gloria Brame, Ph.D., a clinical sexologist, told Men’s Health in 2016. “It’s totally safe and harmless.”
Not only that, but regularly cleaning your own pipes can help prevent prostate cancer, fight erectile dysfunction, increase your sexual stamina and increase your immune system. Oh, and it can even boost your mood no matter your gender (we’re looking at you, Elaines of the world).
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“An orgasm is the biggest non-drug blast of dopamine available,” Brame added. “A brain scan of someone having an orgasm looks like a heroin addict’s.”
And don’t worry if you can’t go days without some self pleasure like the Seinfeld cast did. According to Men's Health Sex Professor Debby Herbenick, Ph.D., daily masturbation is totally normal. The only time it can get out of hand is when masturbation gets in the way of your daily life, work, or romantic relationship.
So go ahead, find a Glamour magazine lying around your mom’s house and give it a go.