David Letterman has been officially retired for well over a week now, but some folks are still willing to talk a bit about the finalLate Show and how some of the jokes came together. Particularly Jerry Seinfeld at this weekend’s Vulture Festival.
Seinfeld stopped by to chat with those in attendance and give a preview for his reunion on Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but soon drifted into the Letterman finale and Louis-Dreyfus’ Seinfeld joke. If it wasn’t obvious, Seinfeld was a big fan of how it turned out and actually helped to get the joke on the air. As revealed to Vulture, the writers on the show actually had another joke in mind:
“I like all jokes. There’s really nothing else I care about except jokes, I don’t care who has them, whose feelings have to be hurt, if it’s a good joke I’m into it. And we actually fought hard for that particular joke, 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.’ She had flown from LA to New York just to do the one line — we were really excited to be on that show. It was a really cool experience to be on Dave’s last show and I didn’t want her to go out there and tank.”
Seinfeld continued, noting that it wasn’t the easiest of changes to make with the writing staff and negotiations took a little longer than expected before the joke that made the air revealed itself.
The comedian also wondered if they’d had that joke in the can and held it off out of respect or if it was one they wrote on the spot. Either way, it was a highlight of that final Top Ten and certainly a funny moment for Seinfeld fans. Head over to Vulture for more from the festival.
(Via Vulture)
