Seinfeld Actor Hurt By Being Voted Most Immoral Character On The Show
Seinfeld fans have voted on who they think the most immoral character on the show is, and it hurts that actor's feelings.
This article is more than 2 years old
Well, it is official: the fans have spoken, the votes are in and tallied, and it turns out that pretty much everyone thinks Seinfeld’s George Costanza is the most immoral character on the classic NBC sitcom. This seems to have rankled the actor who portrayed George, Jason Alexander, who expressed his feelings the traditional way, via Twitter. According to Alexander, this popular opinion on his most famous character “kinda” stings and he tried to nudge the people into having a stronger opinion about Newman, the mail-carrier character played by Wayne Knight. Unfortunately for both George Costanza and Jason Alexander alike, the Seinfeld voters went for his aspiring marine biologist in an overwhelming landslide. Behold:
As fan voting polls go, this is a pretty good one for Seinfeld fans. Although George was considered the most immoral character by a ridiculously lop-sided, double-digit margin, pretty much everyone who ever appeared on the show can be considered immoral on some level. In fact, the still-controversial final episodes of the show resulted in the core foursome of Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Elaine Benes, and Cosmo Kramer being sentenced to prison for not helping a man being carjacked (and in fact, recording it and laughing). If that is not the behavior of a cesspool of morality, what could be? Most of the show centered around the protagonists getting themselves into unpleasant or awkward situations due to their own malfeasance, incompetence, or just plain selfishness (or all three), so they all had plenty of opportunities to be voted on in the poll.
That said, Jason Alexander’s portrayal of George Costanza undoubtedly takes the cake for immoral and callous behavior. The George of Seinfeld was memorably described (by himself, no less) as a “short, stocky, slow-witted bald man.” He also, over the course of Seinfeld’s nine seasons, helped contribute to the decline of the New York Yankees organization, repeatedly masqueraded as an importer-exporter named Art Vandelay, and oh yeah, essentially committed manslaughter by poisoning his fiance via toxic envelopes he frugally purchased for their wedding invitations. Sorry, Jason Alexander, while Newman seems unpleasant and frankly, not a very good Federal employee, he never actually caused the death of anyone (that we know of). Somewhat surprisingly, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine Benes was the character least voted to be most immoral (importantly, not the most moral, because no one in the Seinfeld universe fits that description). After all, that is a woman who tried to pass off a rat hat as actual sable, and a poorly made rat hat, at that.
Regardless of the morality of the characters, Seinfeld managed to pull off the rare feat of ending its run still at the relative height of its powers. It recently gained a second life when it began streaming on Netflix (though people still managed to find a way to be upset about it, in a very Seinfeld turn of events), and the people behind the show are currently wealthy beyond the dreams of kings of old. Sorry, Costanza. You’re just the worst one.
