When Seinfeld is at its best, it’s the perfect example of a show that deftly touches on a wide array of taboo subjects, either by not really directly referencing the subject (“I am master of my domain” skirting masturbation in “The Contest”) or, conversely, greatly exaggerating reactions (“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” a cheeky politically correct reaction to homosexuality in “The Outing”). At its worst, Seinfeld can be offensive, outdated, and even hard to watch now. Shows that straddle the line between clever and crass can easily slip to one side or the other, so it’s a credit to the creative forces behind the show that Seinfeld walks that line more often than not. However, it doesn’t mean the show is infallible by any stretch.
There are many situations over the course of the show that Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George (Jason Alexander), and Kramer (Michael Richards) get themselves into that were in bad taste the first time around, let alone now. But there’s one episode that stands out from the rest, and it’s the only Seinfeld episode that caused so much uproar that it was pulled from syndication: Season 9’s “The Puerto Rican Day.”
Kramer Accidentally Burns and Stomps on the Puerto Rican Flag in “The Puerto Rican Day”
“The Puerto Rican Day” was the second highest-rated episode of the series, just behind the series finale that aired the following week. It follows Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer as they make their way home after leaving a Mets game early. Unfortunately, Fifth Avenue is blocked by the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. Elaine gets out of the car and boards a taxi, which doesn’t make any more progress than the car she was in. She then attempts to walk underneath the viewing stands to her destination, only to find herself stuck under the stands with a host of others. George exits the car to see Blimp, a film about the Hindenburg disaster, ready to shout “That’s gotta hurt!” at the moment the Hindenburg goes down, a line that got laughs the first time he saw the movie. Not this time.
Collider Exclusive · Universe Personality Quiz Which Iconic Universe Do You Belong in the Most? Star Wars · Lord of the Rings · Harry Potter · Game of Thrones · Star Trek
Five legendary universes. Five completely different visions of what the world could be — or already was. One of them is the world your instincts, your values, and your particular way of existing were built for. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🚀Star Wars
💍Lord of the Rings
🧙Harry Potter
👑Game of Thrones
🖖Star Trek
01
What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning? Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.
02
Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit? The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.
03
How do you prefer your conflicts resolved? The shape of a world’s conflicts tells you everything about its soul.
04
Who do you want beside you when things get difficult? Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.
05
What is your relationship with power? How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.
06
How does your universe treat good and evil? A world’s moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.
07
What role would you naturally fall into? Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?
08
What do you ultimately believe about the future? The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.
Your Universe Has Been Chosen You Belong In…
Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.
You are drawn to the moral clarity of a universe where hope itself is a form of resistance.
You’d find your people in the Rebellion — a ragtag coalition of true believers held together by conviction more than resources.
Star Wars is fundamentally a story about ordinary people choosing to matter in an extraordinary conflict — and that is exactly your kind of story.
The Force may or may not be with you. But the will to use it for something larger than yourself certainly is.
Middle-earth
Lord of the Rings
You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.
Middle-earth is a world of ancient wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough small acts of courage accumulate.
You would thrive here because you value the fellowship more than the glory — the road more than the arrival.
Tolkien’s universe rewards patience, loyalty, and the willingness to carry something heavy across a very long distance.
Those are not burdens to you. They are simply how you move through the world.
The Wizarding World
Harry Potter
You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.
The Wizarding World is a place of wonder hidden in plain sight, where learning is transformative and the bonds you form at school follow you into every battle.
You would flourish here because you take both the magic and the friendships seriously — and you understand that one without the other is incomplete.
Harry Potter’s universe ultimately rewards those who choose to stand for something even when standing is terrifying.
That choice — made quietly, without guarantee — is something you understand completely.
Westeros · The Known World
Game of Thrones
You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.
Westeros is a world that rewards intelligence, adaptability, and the willingness to understand that every alliance is also a negotiation.
You would survive here — possibly thrive here — because you don’t confuse the world as it is with the world as you’d like it to be.
Game of Thrones is a story about what happens when the idealists and the realists collide. You are sharp enough to know which one lasts longer.
Winter always comes. You are already prepared.
The United Federation of Planets
Star Trek
You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.
Star Trek is a universe where the questions matter as much as the answers, and where encountering something utterly alien is cause for wonder rather than fear.
You would belong here because you are fundamentally optimistic about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being honest about how hard that achievement is.
The Federation is the universe’s most ambitious thought experiment: what if we actually got better?
You don’t just hope that’s possible. You think it’s the only thing worth working toward.
Kramer, who is always making schemes, needs to use a restroom, so he pretends to be a wealthy industrialist, H.E. Pennypacker, in order to gain access to an apartment that’s for sale. The final inning of the Mets game happens to be on the TV in the apartment, so Kramer invites “Kel Vamsen” (Jerry) and the infamous “Art Vandelay” (George) up to watch. With no one to watch the car, an angered mob (we’re getting there) surrounds the car and sticks it into a stairwell. Once everything has subsided, the group starts walking home.
There’s nothing in the synopsis of the episode that would seemingly suggest that it would incite outrage. In fact, it’s a return to form of sorts for the series, astand-alone episode like “The Chinese Restaurant” or “The Puffy Shirt.”It’s what’s missing from the recap that incensed the public. Upon leaving the apartment,Kramer accidentally sets a Puerto Rican flag on fire with a sparkler, then proceeds to throw it on the ground and stomp on it to put the fire out. The act sees an angered mob of parade-goers approach Kramer, who escapes back into the apartment. As they watch the mob damage Jerry’s car, Kramer says, “It’s like this every day in Puerto Rico.”
‘Seinfeld’s “The Puerto Rican Day” Led to Outrage
George (Jason Alexander), Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards) in a car on Seinfeld.Imageg via NBC
That was enough to raise the ire of the Puerto Rican community. Protests were held at NBC in New York, harshly worded letters were written to NBC, and Latino radio stations were inundated with irate callers. An outraged Manuel Mirabal, president of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, staged a news conference demanding an apology and a promise that the episode would not be aired in syndication. “I was concerned that the Latinos depicted in the show were very stereotypical, like in West Side Story,” said Mirabal, “Then Kramer started running around with the Puerto Rican flag… at the point at which the flag was burned, my blood started boiling.”
Fellow Puerto Rican leader Fernando Ferrer issued a statement condemning the scene: “The burning of the Puerto Rican flag as a sight gag was insulting to the millions who hold that flag dear, as was the slur that men rioting and vandalizing a car is like this every day in Puerto Rico.” NBC did apologize, releasing a statement to the effect that there was no intent to offend anyone, and bowed to public pressure by pulling the episode from syndication.
“The Puerto Rican Day” Was Pulled From Syndication
However, a response from an executive with the Seinfeld production company to Mirabal would suggest that NBC still didn’t get it, as they suggested that the episode could have been written about any parade, like the St. Patrick’s Day or Columbus Day parades. It’s an odd statement that either implies other groups wouldn’t get as upset, or Puerto Ricans should be grateful it was their parade that was chosen, while explicitly looking past the flag burning. There’s a hypocritical element to it as well. What if it wasn’t a Puerto Rican flag that was set on fire, but rather an American flag?
The burning of an American flag was a cause for conviction for years before it was deemed protected under the First Amendment in 1989 and again in 1990, a mere 8 years prior to “The Puerto Rican Day.” A proposed amendment that would protect the American flag came as recently as 2006, a proposal that actually passed the House but failed by a single vote in the Senate. If the desecration of an American flag is so reviled that it only narrowly avoids being a cause for convictions, then Puerto Ricans have just as much right to have that same reaction when their flag is being burned on national TV.
What’s ironic is how an episode like “The Puerto Rican Day” makes it to air, while there’s evidence of two episodes that never got made for fear of (you guessed it) controversy. One proposed episode would have had George observing, “You know, I have never seen a Black person order a salad.” The other was an episode that would have been called “The Bet” about a bet being made among the friends on whether Elaine would buy a gun for protection, with one scene that saw Elaine joke about shooting herself in the head, referring to it as “The Kennedy.”
The creative team, wisely, saw the high probability of adverse reactions from the Black community, both sides of gun advocacy, and those that find little humor in presidential assassinations (although the Magic Loogie reenactment from “The Boyfriend” did far earlier), so how they didn’t pick up on possible reactions to “The Puerto Rican Day” — especially when the title alone was enough for Mirabal to campaign against it months before it was aired — is a mystery. Nevertheless, you do have the option to make up your own mind about the episode: NBC placed it back into syndication in 2002.
Imageg via NBC
