“This is not an opinion”: Jerry Seinfeld’s favourite funny movies of all time
Having co-created and starred in an era-defining sitcom, Jerry Seinfeld‘s career could have taken an entirely different path had he shown even the slightest interest in becoming a movie star after the comedy classic bearing his name drew to a close in 1998.
Across its nine seasons and 180 episodes, Seinfeld was a cultural phenomenon that gathered such a huge audience the finale notched over 76 million viewers in the United States alone. Naturally, the leading man constantly basked in the glory that came with being integral to the show’s success.
For his work in front of and behind the camera, Seinfeld only won a solitary Primetime Emmy for ‘Outstanding Comedy Series’. However, he was nominated 13 times in total, and he won a Golden Globe for ‘Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy’ at the first attempt before going home empty-handed three times after that.
It stands to reason that offers to headline studio-backed comedy films were coming thick and fast, but he wanted no part of it. Throughout his entire career, he’s appeared in precisely one feature film where he wasn’t either making a cameo or playing himself. In typically subversive Seinfeld style, it came when he voiced an anthropomorphic insect who bangs a human woman in 2008’s Bee Movie.
Even on the small screen, he’s restricted himself to stand-up specials, guest spots, and hosting duties. However, he will be seen starring in the bizarre-sounding origin movie Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, which he also directed, produced, and co-wrote. Just because he’s got no interest in cinematic superstardom, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t watch films at all, with Seinfeld outlining his favourite titles to Entertainment Weekly and naming a number one pick that he refuses to treat as subjective.
Prefacing his thoughts by calling it “the greatest comedy movie of all time, and this is not an opinion,” Seinfeld will die on the hill that 1972’s The Heartbreak Kid is the best there’s ever been. Charles Grodin’s Lenny marries Jeannie Berlin’s Leannie, only to fall in love with another woman on their honeymoon, which he describes as “the greatest comedy premise”.
For his next two candidates, Seinfeld admits they aren’t comedies by any stretch of the imagination, which has done nothing to dampen his enthusiasm for either The Graduate or Glengarry Glen Ross. They do carry plenty of humour, even though neither of them was crafted with the intention of splitting sides. Each to their own, then, even if he’s firmly in the minority associating them with outright hilarity.
Arthur Hiller’s odd-couple caper The In-Laws stars Alan Arkin and Peter Falk as the fathers of an engaged couple who get drawn into a misadventure despite their differing backgrounds as a dentist and CIA agent, respectively. At the same time, Seinfeld adheres firmly to the classics by plumping for the Marx brothers gem A Night at the Opera, rounding out a truly eclectic list of his preferred comedies.
Jerry Seinfeld’s favourite comedies:
- The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, 1972)
- The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
- Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992)
- The In-Laws (Arthur Hiller, 1979)
- A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935)
