The Close Talker

Have you ever began talking to someone and they began to physically grow closer to you as the conversation continues? Well, Seinfeld created an episode about the way people sometimes invade other people's personal comfort space when engaged in a conversation. Elaine has a boyfriend who is a close talker and of coarse, this is television so they take it to the extreme. He grows so close to character's faces that it almost appears they may touch lips.

Elaine's friends, Jerry, Kramer and George, all notice how close this man gets to them when he talks. When Kramer is first introduced to him, he actually falls down from leaning back to far. This raises the important question. How close is too close? Is there a certain measurement we should have established for talking distance and if there was, what would be consequences of violating this act? Thankfully, there was no issue with Elaine's boyfriend's breathe. I know this is something which everyone has encountered multiple times in their lives and I find it extremely hard to actually tell a nice person to step off a little bit. Later in the episode Jerry decides that he is not going to back down anymore. He is going to stand his ground and talk to him face to face from a distance that is uncomfortable to watch from my couch. The plan sort of backfires though. Jerry expects to gain respect and the man might back off, but he did not. It is just his nature to be a close talker and there's nothing they could do about it. Clearly, Elaine's shallow behavior lead to their breakup which in their opinion was inevitable.