Celebs

Jerry Seinfeld is still haunted by a heckler from 30 years ago. Of course it was in Boston.

"That was a tough one. I still think about it.”

Jerry Seinfeld says he's still haunted by a two-word heckle he heard in Boston in 1993. Victoria Will/Invision/AP

April 29, 2024

2 minutes to read

JERRY & LARRY & Boston:

Given that he’s arguably the most successful comedian of the modern age — he’s likely a billionaire according to Forbes, although the comedian himself calls that inaccurate — you wouldn’t think Jerry Seinfeld would be the type to let a heckler haunt his thoughts 30 years after the fact.

But it’s not surprising that, if it were to happen, the particular heckle would have happened in Boston.

“I had this amazing bit about weddings. It was fantastic. It was so long, and it covered everything. It was a great bit, and I worked on it and worked on it,” he told Graham Bensinger recently on the sports journalist’s YouTube show, “In Depth with Graham Bensinger.” “And I love developing and polishing every little detail of a bit. So it takes me forever.”

Seinfeld finally felt like he had the routine perfected for a 1993 gig in Boston. “So I start into the bit and somebody yells ‘Heard it!’,” he recalled to Bensinger of the heckler. “And that was a tough one. I still think about it.”

To Seinfeld’s credit, he gives that audience member the benefit of the doubt, blaming the remark on a general lack of sophistication among audiences in those days when it came to knowing how many times comedians have to perform a routine before it truly works.

“These are pieces that we work on for months and months and months … I was talking to Chris Rock yesterday, and he was telling me about his last special. He said, ‘I had three jokes in there that I’ve worked on for over 10 years.’ And people don’t understand that about comedy,” Seinfeld said. “What could take 10 years? But it can if you’re obsessive and perfectionist.”

Or — just hear us out — the Boston audience member knew that and didn’t care, because he was a) genuinely annoyed that he’d already heard the bit, and b) looking to get under Jerry’s skin. As Seinfeld himself said of the remark, “It was mean, [and] it was true.”

Sounds like a Boston insult if we’ve ever heard one.

Seinfeld’s new Netflix movie, “Unfrosted,” debuts May 3.