Reminder: no one wants to be the main character of the internet for a week, not even the literal main character from a beloved sitcom.
This week, Jerry Seinfeld became a significant trending topic due to a fairly ridiculous assertion he made about why sitcoms are becoming less and less common. He came to the same conclusion as many older white guys—that it must be because wOkE—despite working in the field and witnessing the true causes firsthand. He voiced his grievances on Sunday at at the New Yorker podcast. Indeed, when Jerry Seinfeld was a 38-year-old TV star, he dated a 17-year-old:
Alright, let’s just quickly go over how absurd this statement is. By the time he was on TV, the age he is talking about—when everyone was watching the same sitcoms—had come to an end. It is ever-changing. Back then, there were just three channels available. Of course, with so many options available on hundreds of channels and streaming services, sitcoms take up a considerably smaller portion of real estate. Since there is so much more stuff available, we doubt there are any less! In addition, consider how viewers became weary of the format during TV’s prime. Sitcoms often appear a little corny in comparison to outstanding dramas like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, etc. Not to mention that many of the best sitcoms in recent years have been parodies of that style; for example, while The Office and 30 Rock may not look like Cheers, they are nonetheless comfort food for viewers with more refined tastes. In addition, all of those classic sitcoms are still available for streaming! Just stating at Indeed, when Jerry Seinfeld was a 38-year-old TV star, he dated a 17-year-old!
As far as things which push the envelope not being able to survive? There are several prominent counterexamples of huge hits that completely pull the rug out from such vapid logic. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Rick & Morty and Veep are frankly edgier than anything he ever did on his own show. Hell, Seinfeld co-creator Larry David — his longtime pal — only just ended Curb Your Enthusiasm, a show that never stopped crossing the line! Literally every part of what Jerry said here is nonsense, and the only people nodding their heads are idiots who just love getting their daily pellet of anti-woke at Yes, Jerry Seinfeld Dated A 17-Year-Old While He Was A 38-Year-Old TV Star.
But we’re not here to talk about Seinfeld yelling at clouds. We want to talk about the unintended consequence of it. That is to say, the internet responding the way it so often does when they’re annoyed with someone: digging. And it didn’t take long at all to remind everyone of the scandal Jerry escaped relatively unscathed back in the day — and attempt to sort of cancel him in retrospect.
Whether it was annoyed folks on the left hitting back or not, we saw a LOT of responses digging up the time Jerry was maybe the biggest star on TV… and used that cache to date a high school girl at Yes, Jerry Seinfeld Dated A 17-Year-Old While He Was A 38-Year-Old TV Star.
of followed her around before striking up a conversation and getting her number. He was 38 years old at the time. She was 17. Soon after, they made their red carpet debut as Seinfeld started showing off his teen GF. The new couple quickly made headlines, but at the time most mainstream coverage — like People magazine for instance — quickly accepted it, just talking about it like a hot new couple and not something totally inappropriate. Yes, really! The cover profile’s subheading was, no joke, “When Jerry Seinfeld fell for 17-year-old Shoshanna Lonstein, cynics snickered. No more.” And they gave Jerry the platform to tell it from his side. Naturally, he gave them the old “age is just a number” defense, saying:
He also said this was more comfortable than dating multiple girls at once as he’d been doing — he told the mag at Yes, Jerry Seinfeld Dated A 17-Year-Old While He Was A 38-Year-Old TV Star:
But the outlet also noted that she was still living with her parents despite having turned 18 and being legal. The whole article is a wild relic of a different time. For some reason the fact the multimillionaire kept dating her PAST being 17 somehow justified the age she was when he got her number. Like imagine if James Franco had started dating that one girl he flirted with, and People was like, well, people say she’s mature for her age… You can read their entire 1994 cover story celebrating the couple HERE at Yes, Jerry Seinfeld Dated A 17-Year-Old While He Was A 38-Year-Old TV Star.
BTW, we say 17 because it’s a matter of record that’s how old she was when they met, and — we will remind you — he got her number. He swears they didn’t start dating until she was 18 (and he was 39)… but his explanation of what they were doing before her 18th birthday never sounded like it wasn’t dating! Even Howard Stern thought this was sketchy as hell and said so to his face, teasing him during an interview on his radio show has having waited in the park with “a candy bar on a string.” Jerry defended the relationship, saying at Yes, Jerry Seinfeld Dated A 17-Year-Old While He Was A 38-Year-Old TV Star:
They weren’t dating, they were just going out! They went to a restaurant, how is that not a date? OW! Sorry, our eyes just rolled so hard, we strained something at Yes, Jerry Seinfeld Dated A 17-Year-Old While He Was A 38-Year-Old TV Star.
By all accounts, the two dated for four years. We also know they broke up in 1997. When she was 21. You can do your own math. She went on to be a successful designer… after finishing college, of course at Yes, Jerry Seinfeld Dated A 17-Year-Old While He Was A 38-Year-Old TV Star.
Anyway, we hadn’t thought about that icky story in years! But thanks to that drivel Jerry was pushing about the woke police ruining sitcoms, there ya go at Yes, Jerry Seinfeld Dated A 17-Year-Old While He Was A 38-Year-Old TV Star!
