The Pothole

"The Pothole" is the 150th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 16th episode for the eighth season. It aired on February 20, 1997. This episode earned Andy Ackerman an Emmy Award for Outstanding Direction. Jerry Seinfeld, in an appearance on The Tonight Show the night before the episode aired, declared "The Pothole" to be one of the best episodes of the series.

Jerry accidentally knocks his girlfriend Jenna's toothbrush into the toilet, and she uses it before he can tell her. George shows off the new key ring that George Steinbrenner has given everyone in the Yankees organization, celebrating Phil Rizzuto's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame; the key chain displays Rizzuto's head that, once squeezed, exclaims his famous catchphrase, "Holy Cow!" Kramer complains about the failing highway infrastructure after running over an abandoned sewing machine, so he adopts a one-mile piece of the 'Arthur Burkhardt Expressway' through the Adopt a Highway program. Elaine tries to order a new Chinese dish, Supreme Flounder, but she lives across the street from the boundary of the Chinese restaurant's delivery area. Later, George bemoans the fact that he lost his new key chain.

Jerry plans to secretly sterilize Jenna's mouth, but despite his efforts, he just can't get past the vision of the toothbrush in the toilet. George theorizes that he may have lost his keys when he did a broad jump over a pothole that's now been paved over. Kramer works diligently to keep his part of the road clean, not trusting the work to the city's maintenance crew. Elaine schemes to get her flounder by moving into a janitor's closet, located in the building across the street. The building's superintendent believes her to actually be the janitor and pesters her about the maintenance that needs to be done. Jerry indirectly tells Jenna about the toothbrush, even though he never planned on telling her; as retaliation, she sticks something of Jerry's in his toilet and refuses to tell him what it is, causing him to panic.