Jerry Seinfeld: David Letterman joke was great

During the star-studded final Top Ten List on the last ever Late Show with David Letterman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus cracked that she was so pleased to be part of “another hugely disappointing series finale” following Seinfeld. Funny. But what did Seinfeld himself think?

Speaking to Vulture on Saturday, Seinfeld — who was also part of the Top Ten List — said he loved the jab, which came about after a previous joke was scrapped.

“The writers had a different joke that Julia and I did not like and she came to me and she said, ‘I don’t know if this joke works,’ and I read the joke and I go, ‘No, that’s a bad joke,'” Seinfeld said. The comic explained that Louis-Dreyfus had flown to New York from Los Angeles for the last Late Show, and neither former Seinfeld star wanted to see her flop.

“I’ve been at this awhile; you don’t always know 100 percent, but in this case I knew this is a loser,” Seinfeld continued about the initial joke, “and so we went to the writers and it was quite a long negotiation and then they came up with this other line, which was sensational. I wonder actually now, I was thinking, ‘Did they have that, or did they write that? Maybe they didn’t want to hurt my feelings.’ That’s what it may have been: that they had that joke and they didn’t want to hurt my feelings and then, of course, they don’t know I don’t have feelings.”

After the Late Show finale aired, Bill Scheft, a longtime writer for Letterman, posted a diary of how the show came together, and revealed that Mike Leech was the person who came up with the Seinfeld diss. Relive the joke below; for more from Seinfeld, head to Vulture.

And in a related video, watch celebrities remember their favorite Letterman moments: