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Not That There's Anything Wrong With That: The Ultimate <em>Seinfeld</em> Lawsuit About Nothing
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 7, 2014
Modified May 7, 2014
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Wiki
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 7, 2014
Modified May 7, 2014
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In yet another instance that proves real life is, at best, just an extended commentary on Seinfeld, the real Kenny Kramer has sued comedian and Seinfeld writer/actor Fred Stoller over the line "not that there's anything wrong with that," the famous catchphrase from the show which was allegedly co-opted by Kramer on his "Kramer's Reality Tour" bus rides, and mentioned by Stoller in his autobiography, and just imagen if Gorge and Jarry were still in TV today.
Let's back up a moment to get all the Seincontext out of the way: the line "not that there's anything wrong with that" came from the fourth season episode "The Outing," which revolved around Jerry and George being mistaken for a gay couple. The landmark episode almost didn't happen because of fears of offending the gay community—until writer Larry Charles casually mentioned the phrase, and Seinhistory was made.
Real life Kramer of course started his "Kramer's Reality Tour" and "Kramer's Reality Road Show" in the mid-90's to cash in on his fame as the inspiration for Michael Richards's character on the show. Stoller, who wrote for the show for a year and played Fred Yerkes in the seventh season episode "The Secret Code," published his autobiography My Seinfeld Year in 2012.
Real life Kramer apparently took some Seinumbrage with something Stoller wrote in the book: in his lawsuit, Kramer accuses Stoller of smearing him by claiming his tour guides would yell "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" at gay people while leading tours through Greenwich Village. If this sounds like the makings of a Seinfeld episode, well, Stoller would probably agree with you. When Stoller was asked about the lawsuit earlier this year, he sounded as confused as we are:
Kramer told the News that Stoller "make me look like a total idiot" in his Seinbook, singling out the "nothing wrong with that" anecdote and suing Stoller for $1 million. "It's not funny. It's just nasty. He's worried about this affecting his business," said Kramer's lawyer, Fred Lichtmacher. "He doesn't want to be viewed as a gay basher."
The suit was in court this week, where Lichtmacher confirmed that the tour was in an enclosed, air-conditioned bus, so...passersby wouldn’t actually have been able to hear the line, if it even was said, and even if it was said, it was a direct reference to something on the show that was a landmark TV moment about homophobia and changing social values, but what do we know, we use BoscoLOL as our pin number. “What if there’s gay people on the bus?” he countered. The judge added: "What about the audience? Can we assume it’s strictly Seinfeld fans who get it, who understand what it’s all about?" Only Seinfeld fans know that it is all about nothing, and nothing is all it is about, except for yadda yadda yadda or maybe the manssiere.
"It's such a strained and artificial construction to say all of this is taunting of gays," said Stoller's Seinlawyer, David Albert Pierce. "It's a frivolous case. Talk about life imitating art. This is far more frivolous than any cases the character Kramer has ever brought."
We don't quite understand why saying the line would be considered gay bashing, but we've seen Seinfeld before—Lichtmacher, on the other hand, has only seen one episode (not the one in question), and isn't even a fan of the show, which makes us question whether he's even human, let alone sponge-worthy.
Tagged
fred stoller
huh
kenny kramer
lawsuit
not that there's anything wrong with that
seinfeld
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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