Ah, Seinfeld, the NBC show about nothing that became something! Well, there was one episode that nearly had co-creator Larry David biting his nails, worried that his comedic counterpart, Jerry Seinfeld, might not give it the thumbs up. We are talking about the legendary banter that became a cultural touchstone—the eleventh episode of the fourth season, The Contest.
Praised as a juggling act of wit & daring subject matter, this fan-favorite and critically acclaimed episode stood out and had viewers rolling with laughter. Surprisingly, the concept of this episode, which aired in 1992, was a hot potato, as David kept it under wraps for several seasons before daring to pitch Seinfeld.
Seinfeld Episode That Larry David Kept Hidden From Jerry Seinfeld
Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the dynamic duo behind the classic sitcom, Seinfeld, never shied away from pushing the envelope and trying new things. But David had his doubts about whether one episode would be too risqué for Seinfeld.
The Contest, a beloved episode that aired back in 1992, had viewers in stitches. The premise? A competition amongst Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards) to see who could stay the longest without, well, fans know it…m*sturbating. Some might say they were testing their willpower to see who could truly be the master of their domain.
David revealed that he kept this idea hidden in his notebook for years before finally mustering up the courage to pitch it to the Benson actor. The former told Showbiz Cheat Sheet:
I didn’t even tell Jerry until three or four years in because I thought oh, there’s no way he’s ever going to want to do this. I had it in my notebook and then one day I just said, ‘What about this idea?’ He went, ‘Yeah.’ Whoa, okay, I had it for two years already.
And much to his surprise, Seinfeld was all in! One of the genius moves David and Seinfeld made was to avoid using any explicit language or s*xual hint in the episode. Instead, they used euphemisms and clever wordplay to keep things light-hearted and humorous. David further added:
I’m going to give Jerry full credit because I mentioned something. I had some euphemism in the first draft. I don’t know what it was. There’s 10,000 of them. He said, ‘Let’s not even say it.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s good. Let’s not.’ That was his thing.
Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld truly knew how to walk the line between pushing boundaries and delivering comedy gold. For the episode, David was recognized with a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series.
Beyond ‘Nothing’: Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfiltered Commentary on Seinfeld
When it comes to Seinfeld, one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, the story behind how it was pitched to NBC is just as hilarious as the show itself.
Jerry Seinfeld famously pitched their sitcom as “a show about nothing” (via BBC). You probably thought that was a brilliant stroke of comedic genius, because who in their right mind would pitch a show like that and expect a major network to pick it up?
But as it turns out, the real pitch for Seinfeld was a lot more straightforward. According to Seinfeld himself, he and Larry David actually pitched the show to NBC as a way to show how a comedian gets his material. The whole “show about nothing” concept was just a joke that came up in an episode later on in the series. Taking to Reddit, the Unfrosted actor cleared the doubts:
It just goes to show you that sometimes what you see on TV isn’t always the whole story. In this case, the show about nothing was actually about something very specific: the life of a comedian trying to make it in the world of stand-up.
Ergo, Seinfeld may have been pitched as a show about nothing, but in reality, it was about so much more. And isn’t that just the magic of television? You never know what you might uncover when you peel back the layers of your favorite shows.
Stream Seinfeld on Netflix.
