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Jerry Stiller was behind one of the most famous bloopers on “Seinfeld” — and co-stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander still couldn’t stop laughing about it recently. Stiller, whose death was announced Monday, played the hysterical rage-filled dad of Alexander’s hapless character, George, and in the 1996 behind-the-scenes episode of the classic NBC sitcom, he’s …
Jerry Stiller was behind one of the most famous bloopers on “Seinfeld” — and co-stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander still couldn’t stop laughing about it recently.
Stiller, whose death was announced Monday, played the hysterical rage-filled dad of Alexander’s hapless character, George, and in the 1996 behind-the-scenes episode of the classic NBC sitcom, he’s talking to Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine about his son suddenly turning bad boy and getting arrested to impress a woman.
“My George isn’t clever enough to hatch a scheme like this,” Stiller’s character, Frank Costanza, tells Elaine, who shoots back, “You got that right.”
Frank Costanza then shouts, “What the hell does that mean?!” — at which Louis-Dreyfus breaks out of character and dissolves in uncontrollable laughter before saying, “That means whatever the hell you want it to mean.”
This prompts Stiller to deliver the now-famous line, “You want a piece of me?!” — which he has to repeat as Louis-Dreyfus again erupts in giggles.
Louis-Dreyfus and Alexander laughed as they reminisced about the moment for an online fundraiser last week before Stiller’s death.
Louis-Dreyfus said Stiller, the dad of actor Ben Stiller, would look to the sky while on camera when he had trouble remembering his lines because he was nervous — and the gesture only added to his character’s hilarity.
Alexander said his on-screen dad also used his frustration at having trouble with his lines to make his character more angry, which added to the humor, too.
“That is where a lot of [Frank Costanza’s] internal rage would come from,” Alexander said, chuckling.
Ben Stiller said his dad, 92, died of natural causes.
