The Two Seinfeld Scenes Jerry Couldn’t Stop Laughing While Writing

During a 2014 Ask-Me-Anything session on Reddit, Jerry Seinfeld was humorously asked about his story. The commenter wrote: “What made you laugh the hardest that you remember?” Although he first joked about discovering flatulence as a boy, he later refocused his response. For some reason, Seinfeld chose to focus on the scenes he found the funniest during the writing process, rather than when they were being acted out and filmed.

“Larry [David] and I had gigantic laughs while writing the series,” Seinfeld recalled. “I remember one of the first times – when Newman had to speak up in a courtroom scene, and I believe Kramer cross-examines him, we had a lot of laughs writing that.” This comment references a scene from Season 4, Episode 4 (“The Ticket”) and is a standout reminiscence given how much of the scene’s comedic value comes from the performances of Michael Richards and Wayne Knight.

The second scene that Seinfeld cited as making him laugh particularly hard at the time of his writing is an absolute classic “Seinfeld” scene. In fact, for many fans, this scene is from one of the best episodes of “Seinfeld.” “I also remember writing the last speech of [Season 5, Episode 14] “The Marine Biologist,” where George tells the story of finding the golf ball in the whale’s blowhole,” Seinfeld wrote. “It was a very, very long hard laugh when we wrote that.” Notably, Jason Alexander, the actor who portrayed George Costanza, also recalled the process of developing that particular scene before (via Television Academy Foundation).

Of course, if you’re a “Seinfeld” fan, you already know that those long, hard laughs were sustained and even amplified as the footage moved from writing to performing.