The Bizarre Seinfeld Episode That Was Influenced By A Superman Villain

No one could ever accuse the 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld" of being a show for the book-averse jocks of the world, but in season 8 the series took its nerdiest turn of all in the episode "The Bizarro Jerry." In the episode, which is easily among the best "Seinfeld episodes of all time," Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) agrees to hang out with her ex-boyfriend, Kevin (Tim DeKay), and two of his friends. They end up being the complete opposites of her other ex-boyfriend, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), and his two best friends, George (Jason Alexander) and Kramer (Michael Richards). When Elaine tries to discuss the whole freaky experience with Jerry, he immediately turns to his love of "Superman" to explain it in a very comic book way: she's met the bizarro versions of her friends! In the end, Bizarro Jerry, Bizarro George, and Bizarro Kramer even get to meet their alternates in one of the show's more surreal (but hilarious) moments.

It turns out that the whole reason that the show was able to explore the weird idea was because of the way writing episodes changed after series creator Larry David left the show, giving series writers a chance to tackle concepts that might not have gotten past his very particular eye. Writer David Mandel pushed for his "bizarro" idea, inspired by a "Superman" villain, and the rest is sitcom history. 

Both the character of Jerry and the real-life Jerry Seinfeld are big fans of Superman, and Mandel revealed that Seinfeld played a major role in bringing the Bizarro Jerry episode to the screen: 

"Of course, there had been Superman references on the show because Jerry was a Superman fan, so when I pitched the concept of the Bizarro Jerry, Jerry was all over it. He knew what it was and loved it and he saw why that would be funny. I always give him credit because he was the one to say 'take it further.' It's because of Jerry that there's that ending scene of the show where they actually talk in Bizarro-speak."

Bizarro Superman was created by Otto Binder and George Papp in the 1958 comic "Superboy" #68, and the character has had a strange and convoluted history. He is the shadow version of Superman and is his evil opposite, much like the mirror versions of characters in "Star Trek," although instead of tell-tale facial hair to depict his evil, Bizarro Superman is a grizzled, gray version of his alternate self. Bizarro-speak is just speaking in reverse (think the people in the red room in "Twin Peaks" or just backmasking in general, like the credits of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"), but it does sound really eerie and added another nerdy level to the episode. While the Bizarro versions of the guys were just a one-off bit, they were a delightful way to bring some of Seinfeld's real-life love for comics into the show. 

There was another inspiration behind "The Bizarro Jerry," according to Mandel, and it wasn't as heart-warming as Seinfeld's love for Superman. He said that the idea for Elaine to meet a guy who wanted to be friends after breaking up was partially inspired by the success of the series "Friends," which was airing at the same time period on the same network. Mandel elaborated, saying that he was shocked there was a show called "Friends" at all because he couldn't imagine wanting new friends at his age:

"I know for me, I know a lot of people, but the people I consider 'friends' are people I've known for a long time. I don't need any f***ing friends. I'm good. And the 'Seinfeld' characters, they're good. They don't need it or want it."

That means that while the Bizarro versions of Jerry and the gang are really nice people who try to be friendly, they just don't fit with the acerbic crew that they're mirroring. They end up looking a little silly as a result, which is a dig at "Friends" courtesy of Mandel. Oddly enough, "Seinfeld" and "Friends" technically exist within the same canonical universe because of a little show called "Mad About You," so it's possible that the gang could have crossed paths with the friends from "Friends," theoretically. Just imagining George and Chandler (Matthew Perry) trying to out-neurotic one another is enough to make a person anxious, so maybe it's a good thing that never happened... 

Oh well. We'll always have Bizarro Jerry.