| “ | … I'm Cosmo Kramer, The Assman | „ |
| ~ Kramer's most famous line |
Cosmo Kramer (simply referred to as Kramer and occasionally referred to as Cosmo by either his friends or minor character) is an occassional hero on the sitcom Seinfeld. He is one of the main characters on the show alongside Jerry Seinfeld, Elaine Benes and George Costanza. He is Jerry's next door neighbour and Jerry is his closest friends
He was portrayed by Michael Richards.
While Cosmo doesn't do much throughout the series, he is actually a hero on several occasions. In one famous scene, from "The Fire" episode, he gives an account about how he fought off a mugger. He also talks about how he drove the bus at the same time.
He also tried to keep the streets clean.
Unlike most of the group Kramer is rarely seen at his job (which is a bagel shop) as apparently he has been on strike for nine years. Kramer's family aren't actually seen in the series, making him the only member of the main cast who's family or close relative have never been seen on-screen however it's mentioned that he is the last male member of his family, indicating his father is dead. However Kramer's mother, Babs, was mentioned and seen in the earlier episodes.
Kramer is most likely the loyalist of all the people in the group, specifically towards his neighbour Jerry who as was mentioned earlier is his closest friend, he was even willing to break he and Newman's bottle deposit route which would have made them a substantial amount of money as he wanted to save Jerry's car from a psychotic mechanic.
At the end of the series Kramer suffers from the same as the rest of the group in a twist of irony their fate is actually his fault as on their way to California Kramer hopped up and down on thier plane to get water out of his ears and they land in a town nearby where they see a fat man being mugged for his car. Instead of helping they all make jokes and Kramer was even able to record it on his phone. In doing so they break "The Good Samaritan Law" and are sent to court whereafter a jury sends the entire group to jail for a whole year.
Personality
Kramer is known for his eccentric and sometimes erratic idiosyncrasies, behaviour and lifestyle; his noticeable traits would be his upright hairstyle, strange wardrobe and sliding method of entering Jerry's apartment. Kramer also has mooch tendencies, he constantly enters Jerry's apartment without his permission, borrows tools and appliances then later returns them broken and primarily eats his food. This is revealed to be because of Jerry claiming "what's mine is yours" when moving in. Amidst Kramer's various and extremely short-lived enterprises and get-rich-quick schemes world be "Kramerica Industries", the bottle deposit with Newman, the Bro (bra for men) with Frank and the "make-your-own" pizza place which came close to fruition with the help of Poppy but penultimately failed.
Amongst the infamous traits of Kramer would be his bluntness, brutal honesty and correspondingly lack of tact. He thoughtlessly told George's insecure girlfriend that "she [could be the prettiest woman in New York]", [she] just needs a nose job", made Elaine aware of a minuscule red dot on her new cashmere, accidentally told Jerry the score to a Knicks game which he had recorded, outwardly told Sally Weaver that she was a failed actress that Jerry said in private and said that George's girlfriend looked exactly like Jerry right to her and George's face. Kramer never seems to suffer from this tactlessness, however, many people actually seem to thank him for his candour (this goes to the point where Elaine tried to get him to comment on her friends outdated hairstyle but he actually ends up liking it).
There have been explanations to Kramer's bizarre behaviour. His past implies that he was hit by a falling air conditioner and this affected his behaviour before losing his memory of such an incident; a similar thing happened when he was kicked on the head by Crazy Joe Davola whilst wearing a helmet which caused severe memory loss and the involuntary language tick; "Yo-Yo Ma". However, when Kramer switched apartments with Jerry, he began acting more like his calm, sarcastic friend whereas Jerry began behaving similarly to Kramer. The implication is that Kramer is negatively affected by his apartment but is unaware because he has been affected so long. His tendency for pratfalls, blips in cognitive abilities and frequent, gibberish and percussive muttering to indicate skepticism, frustration or agreement were implied to be the result of a blow to the head as a result of a baseball pitch.
Compared to the rest of his friends, Kramer has shown the least problems with women. He never seems to be in a serious relationship or even express a desire to obtain any meaningful commitment with anyone. It is revealed that women's inexplicable attraction towards Kramer is because of the kavorka, "the lure of the animal" which is shown on the devout Latvian Orthodox Sister Roberta and Susan's girlfriend became attracted to him, the only reply he offered was "I'm Kramer". He is also noticeably friendly, as he has a closer rapport with George and Jerry's parents than either of them and even the Soup Nazi, an aggressive soup vendor who virtually everyone found to be unlikeable. Though Kramer constantly refers to his active social life and calls on his friends for favours, they are rarely seen by Jerry, George and Elaine, however Kramer rebuffs that his friends wonder why they never see them.
Whilst eccentric and indifferent, Kramer has more than often shown to be kind-hearted. He will often go out of his way to help total strangers; he risked his own life to save a passenger bus being held by a gunman so he could keep his girlfriends lacerated toe on ice.
Kramer's apartment and daily lifestyle have also been subjects to radical designs and changes. He coordinates "mind over control of the body", believing that the bodily clock knows when to wake up so he does not have an alarm and even tells time based on the location of the sun. He once attempted to add a level design and rid of the furniture "like Ancient Egypt" but because of his short attention span, abandons the experiment altogether. He once designed the interior to look exactly like the set of The Merv Griffin Show and began mimicking Griffin in behaviour. The entire apartment is designed around a hot tub and decorated with miniature statues of people made out of pasta. Kramer also experiments with his front door, adding a "reverse peephole" and a screen door after George's parents discarded it.
He has a fondness for fresh fruit and cigars
Trivia
- In the first few seasons whoever Kramer entered Jerry's apartment applause would occur, eventually the actors asked the audience to do this less as it threw the other actors off-game.