So, what is the deal with Jerry Seinfeld?
Well, Jerome Allen Seinfeld (born April 29, 1954, in Long Island, New York) is an American stand-up comedian who specializes in observational humor. He also co-created the long-running sitcom Seinfeld with Larry David, where he played a fictionalized version of himself. After Seinfeld ended, he returned to stand-up and didn't act again, except for making cameo appearances in several TV series and voicing the main character in the 2007 animated film Bee Movie.
In 2015, he hosted the web video series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. In 2024, he is set to make his directorial debut with the comedy film Unfrosted.
Tropes associated with Jerry Seinfeld:
- Author Appeal: Is a huge fan of Superman, which appears in a lot of his work. He even did an American Express commercial where he and an animated Superman go on a road trip together.
- Cool Car: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee features him interviewing guests while driving around in high-end vehicles, often taken from his large personal collection of classic cars.
- Cutaway Gag: Jerry features a few in his routine. For example:
- So, I'm in the bathroom at the airport. Now, I don't know who designs or makes these decisions, but why is it we can't have a normal twist-it-on, twist-it-off style faucet? Why do we have to have these spring-loaded, pain-in-the-ass, Alcatraz-style faucets? You know the ones I'm talking about? The ones where you go "Whoa, I got a little water there! Oh, just a few more drops!" Is it too risky to leave the public in charge? I mean, what is it they're afraid we'll do? Just turn 'em all on, run out into the parking lot, laughing, pushing each other into the bushes? "Come on! It's on! Let's go! I turned them all on full blast!" "You idiot! We're businessmen. We're gonna miss our plane." "Who cares? Water!" That's what they're afraid we'll do.
- What else is a date but a job interview that lasts all night? Although most job interviews don't end with the applicant naked. "Well, the boss thinks you're the man for the job. We just need you to strip naked and meet some of the people you'll be working with."
- I see the wanted posters at the post office. I turn around and look at the guy behind me. If it's not him, there's pretty much nothing I can do. (a little later) Maybe they should put the wanted posters on the postage stamps and have the postman look for them. He's got the uniform, he's walking around..."Ah, yes. Here's your mail, Mr. Jo...hey, wait just a second!"
- Deadpan Snarker: One of the best, especially on his eponymous show.
- Fun with Acronyms: Jerry thinks the word "golf" might as well stand for "get out, leave family."
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Jerry makes a point of keeping swearing out of his routines, believing it to be too much of a crutch. Occasionally a "hell" or a "goddamn" will slip through, though.
- Kidnapped from Behind: Jerry acts this out in his bit on his proposal for a new Olympic sport: the Involuntary Luge. (He says that the Luge is the only sport where you can have people competing in it against their will and it would be exactly the same.) He suggests they just grab people off the street and walks backwards with his arms outstretched to simulate being abducted.
- Mad at a Dream:There's nothing the female brain cannot do. It will solve all problems of earth and life. Having completed that, it will move on to the hypothetical. Theoretical situations. That may or may not occur. The female needs to know how you might respond. "If you faked your own death, and I found out about it, what would you say then?" "What are we talkin' about now?" "Oh, I dreamt the whole thing last night, so don't deny it!"
- Non-Idle Rich: He's estimated to be worth $800 million, but he still spends part of every year travelling all over America to do standup.
- Reclusive Artist: Relatively speaking, he famously ended Seinfeld on his own terms and showed little to no interest in further acting jobs. He returned to the stand-up circuit to hash out new material and started Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee largely for his own amusement. With how successful the show was, he has no incentive to do anything he doesn't want to do.
- Russian Reversal: In his bit on skydiving and the effectiveness of wearing a helmet:If you jump out of a plane at ten thousand feet and your parachute doesn't open, the helmet is now wearing you for protection.
- Sarcasm Mode: Apparently, Jerry doesn't have an off switch for this setting.
- Second Place Is for Losers: Jerry says that he would rather come in last than win the silver medal. He says that getting the silver is like saying "Congratulations, you almost won," in a race where first and second are less than a second apart. Additionally, they have to tell the story of how they almost won because people are going to want to hear the story.
- Serious Business: When Michael Richards appeared via satellite on David Letterman's The Late Show to apologize for his racial slurs during his stand-up act, some in the audience tittered at first, and Jerry told them "It's not funny."
- Signature Style: Jerry's obsession with life's minutiae is legendary.
- Skewed Priorities: Jerry accuses the scientists who developed seedless watermelon of this.And what kind of scientists work on this kind of thing anyway? You've got scientists working on AIDS, cancer. "No, I want to focus more on melon. Sure, thousands are dying needlessly, but this? (poot!) That's gotta stop."
- Testosterone Poisoning: Much of his bit "Men & Women" has to do with this. He says there's no more male idea in history than the lunar rover since just going to the moon should be good enough. Then there's this:I'm probably not supposed to be telling you this, but men view themselves as kind of low-level superheroes. When guys are growing up, reading about Superman, Spider-Man, Batman. These aren't fantasies. These are options. I'll tell you what I'm talking about. You ever see a guy on the freeway moving a mattress on the roof of his car? Whatever he's got rigged up there, he's always helping along with his arm. He apparently thinks that if the wind catches this eight by six rectangle at fifty miles an hour 'I got it. I got it. I'm using my arm!'
