Crazy Facts About Jerry Seinfeld

Written by Lon Cohen | 13. March 2023

The Massapequa native did his hometown proud. Below we list some crazy facts about Jerry Seinfeld.

Life and Early Comedy Success

Jerry Seinfeld was born on April 29, 1954 in Brooklyn
Seinfeld’s father was a sign painter
Seinfeld grew up in Massapequa
He attended Massapequa High School
Seinfeld is an avid Mets fan
He graduated from CUNY Queens College in 1976
His first stand-up comedy gig was an open mic night in 1976 at Catch a Rising Star in Manhattan
Seinfeld had a small role in the TV sitcom Benson in 1980
He appeared on The Tonight Show for the first time in 1981
He also appeared on Late Night with David letterman
His net worth is estimated to be around $950 million
Seinfeld is said to have a collection of more than 500 sneakers, although he has publicly disputed the number
Seinfeld has been married twice and has three children
When he did a standup show at Westbury Music Fair he called it “exciting” and said ''When you grow up on Long Island, Westbury is kind of like the Hollywood Palace''
Seinfeld’s current wife, Jessica Sklar had just married a Broadway producer when they first met and the couple divorced after only a few months
Seinfeld married Sklar in 1999
The couple bought Billy Joel's house in Amagansett for $32 million

Photo: Shutterstock.

TV Show

Seinfeld created and starred in the hit sitcom, airing from 1989 to 1998
The show was originally called “Seinfeld Chronicles”
The show was originally described in the New York Times before its premier as being about single life, combining situation comedy and stand-up bits
The show's theme music was composed by Jonathan Wolff
From a Huffington Post interview: “[Wolff] then recorded samples of lip pops, tongue noises and other ‘organic human sounds’ to create what he described as a ‘percolating rhythm, this New York groove’ to play around Seinfeld's dialogue
The show had a strict "no hugging, no learning" policy, meaning that there would be no emotional moments or life lessons in the show
The character of Elaine was not originally in the pilot episode
The character of Kramer was based on a real person named Kenny Kramer
George was based on show co-creator Larry David
David’s favorite episode of Seinfeld is “The Contest”
The show received ten Emmy awards and three Golden Globes
The final episode of Seinfeld on May 14, 1998 was watched by 76 million viewers
Jerry Seinfeld famously turned down an offer of $5 million per episode to continue the show for a tenth season
There is a 24/7 AI-generated show based on Seinfeld called “Nothing Forever”

List of Funny Phrases Coined on Seinfeld

Photo: Shutterstock.

Bee Movie

Seinfeld co-wrote the screenplay and voiced the main character Barry B. Benson
Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted to get Seinfeld into a movie for over 12 years
Seinfeld was inspired to write the script for this movie after his wife took up the hobby of beekeeping - IMDB
According to Jerry Seinfeld, while having lunch at Steven Spielberg's house, he first mentioned the idea for the movie as a joke, but Spielberg loved the idea - IMDB
To prepare for the role, Seinfeld visited a French bee keeper on Long Island
The bees swarmed Seinfeld and one stung him on the nose
The movie was release in 2007 to mixed reviews
The Bee movie experienced a brief resurgence in popularity as an Internet meme in 2016