Today, December 23rd, marks one of the most widely celebrated fake holidays in the world: FESTIVUS. It’s an imaginary holiday so damn significant, there’s an entire website dedicated to it and you probably have it distinctly marked on your calendar, even though there’s a 3% change you actually own a physical calendar.
To state the rather obvious, the “Festivus” episode was an all-timer, clearly among the top five that Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David ever wrote. Between the feats of strength, the airing of grievances, the POLE, and George needing to pin Frank in order to bring Festivus to a close, it was basically impossible not to laugh throughout a good majority of the episode. The mere presence of Frank Costanza and his scorching passion for the holiday was enough to make it a lasting memory.
And the same goes for Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who simply could not stop losing her shit while being creepily told “I think you’re a fox” by Seinfeld producer Larry Charles, who occasionally made cameos as a random weirdo.
Amazingly, the dinner scene itself took SIX HOURS to film, mostly because Elaine couldn’t stop laughing. But come on, everyone was laughing.
It seems like almost any scene that involved Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jerry Stiller usually ended up requiring a sea of takes. This particular one, from the “The Little Kicks” episode, was also a classic when it came to the blooper factor, and downright adorable the way Louis-Dreyfus keeps breaking up.
She just can’t stop. And neither can I.
Fun Fact: The guy sitting next to Elaine at the Festivus dinner is Lockhart from Homeland.
The more you know.
[H/T Esquire]