It’s always a fun mental experiment to think about which characters in a given television series should have ended up together, the more incongruous pairing, the better. This is a particularly fun activity to do with Seinfeld, as the three of the male leads all experience some amount of sexual tension with Elaine at some point or another.
Though it might seem silly at first glance, there are actually some pretty strong reasons why Kramer and Elaine would have made the perfect couple.
It’s pretty clear throughout the show that Kramer finds Elaine physically attractive. Admittedly, this isn’t saying much, considering the fact that Kramer is, shall we say, a bit oversexed at times. However, one could argue that his attraction to Elaine is of a different order, that maybe there’s a bit something there other than just physical lust. Having the two of them be a couple would be a good opportunity to explore that further.
As opposite as they are in many ways, it’s definitely true that Elaine and Kramer each bring something to the table in terms of their ability to hatch schemes together. While Elaine is, marginally at least, a little more logical and sensible than Kramer, there’s no question that it’s Kramer’s art of performance that allows him to play a key part in the various schemes that she manages to cook up, and it’s revealing that she looks to him to help her.
Kramer is definitely a larger-than-life character, but it’s also true that, at times, he’s not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. On her side, though she is rather full of herself (supercilious, as Frank Castanza calls her), she’s also intelligent and rational (at least compared to Kramer).
If Elaine and Kramer ever became a couple, it’s likely that Elaine would have helped Kramer to be smarter, if only through her proximity to him.
There’s no question that Kramer has some issues when it comes to getting his life together as a mature adult. More even than George, he seems to be in some sort of suspended form of childhood. Given that, whatever her flaws and idiosyncrasies, Elaine does a pretty good job at being an adult, had they ever gotten together as a couple she would have been the perfect kind of person to help Kramer get his life together.
On the flip side of that equation, we all know that Elaine has a bit of a tendency to be uptight. This isn’t necessarily a flaw in and of itself, but it’s true that Elaine sometimes doesn’t know when to tone it down a bit. Since they obviously have some feelings for one another already, it’s not hard to imagine Kramer allowing Elaine to let go of some her hangups and learning to relax a bit more than she does.
One of Kramer’s key personality traits is a willingness, and eagerness even, to tell the truth no matter how uncomfortable that it might make others. His refreshing sort of candor, his ability to cut through the myths that people tell themselves would, undoubtedly, be a bit of a splash of cold water for Elaine, who rarely likes to hear the truth in such unvarnished terms. However, it’s very likely that it is exactly this character trait of Kramer’s that would make them work so well together as a couple.
Though Elaine has a...fraught...relationship with George, it’s pretty clear that her dynamic with Kramer is something different. There seems to be a genuine sort of fondness between the two of them, as evidenced by the many times that they call each other by affectionate pet names.
It doesn’t take too much of a leap of the imagination to think that they could have developed this fondness into a genuinely close romantic relationship.
Of all the people that would have written a book, perhaps the last person on that list would have been Kramer, and yet that’s exactly what happened. While he did achieve some moderate success with his publishing venture, Elaine’s bumbling ended up sabotaging the project at some key points. Had they been in an actual relationship, she might have done more to ensure that it succeeded, thus bringing out the best in one another and leading to mutual success.
It’s pretty revealing that Kramer is always so willing to join Elaine for her various schemes and is almost always willing to help her when she comes to him. This suggests that, deep down, Kramer really cares about her and, considering the lengths he’s willing to go to help, it’s hard not to think that the feelings might be a little more than just friendship. It might even be that, were they to get together, he would be a generous and helpful boyfriend.
