Jerry Seinfeld Stopped A Comedian Guest Star From Pitching Jokes For A Festivus Episode

Working collaboratively in comedy can be kind of a tricky thing, as everyone seems to have a slightly different way of doing things. One movie or TV series might be extremely collaborative and encourage members of the cast and crew to contribute their own ideas, while another may restrict everyone to following the vision of a single person or a small, select group with a specific vision. Conflicting egos and ideas can make things even messier, like that time a "Seinfeld" guest star learned the hard way that the series was the baby of star Jerry Seinfeld, which meant he wasn't all that eager to hear suggestions.

In the fiercely funny Festivus episode "The Strike," Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) gets hit on by a man wearing a denim vest at dentist Dr. Tim Whatley's (Bryan Cranston) Hannukah party, prompting her to give him her fake number. This leads to a rather awkward interaction when she actually needs his help later, but it's pretty funny because he's wearing even more denim. In fact, he's in a full-blown Canadian Tuxedo with denim-on-denim happening.

The man known best as "Denim Vest" (his real name is Steve) is one of the more memorable one-off characters in "Seinfeld" history, and he was played perfectly by Canadian comedian Kevin McDonald. Unfortunately, as McDonald has shared over the years, Seinfeld himself wasn't exactly open to artistic input. (Or even learning his own guest star's names!)

In a 2010 interview with The AV Club, McDonald revealed that his interactions with the show's star weren't all that friendly. (It's worth noting, though, that the comedian also told CBC that Seinfeld was "very nice" to him 10 years later.) He explained that while he was filming his outdoor scene with Louis-Dreyfus, he tried to give some — very unwanted — input:

"Two of the writers were with him, and he wasn't happy with the joke, so him and the two writers started spritzing jokes. I just flashed back to the 'Kids In The Hall' days when we'd be on set like this, where it's a communal kind of thing, so without thinking, I offered one up. And all of a sudden it was like a Western movie, where someone walks into a saloon and everyone goes quiet. It was a stunned silence. Then Jerry Seinfeld turned and looked at me and said, 'Noooo.' [Laughs.] And then he turned back to his writers and they kept spritzing jokes."

McDonald, the consummate Canadian, took this pretty well, saying he realized he had "overstepped his bounds" and that he totally understood. While Seinfeld was certainly under a fair amount of stress as a showrunner following the exit of series creator Larry David, he still really didn't need to be so rude to McDonald. After all, McDonald was already an accomplished comedian in his own right as one part of the comedy sketch troupe The Kids in the Hall, and he was just trying to help.

In the AV Club interview, the interviewer pointed out that on the commentary for the episode, Seinfeld audibly groans and says something akin to "Ugh, this guy" when McDonald appears onscreen. McDonald said that he really didn't mean any offense but he'd clearly annoyed Seinfeld somehow. He also noted that Seinfeld didn't even take the time to learn his name, consistently calling him "Dave" throughout rehearsals. (Dave Foley, another star of "Kids in the Hall," was regularly on television on the series "News Radio" at the time.) Whether that was intentional to try and hurt McDonald in some way or simply an indication that Seinfeld truly only "knew one Kid in the Hall," as McDonald joked, only Seinfeld himself knows.

Either way, "The Strike" is one of the best "Seinfeld" episodes for a number of reasons, and Denim Vest is absolutely one of them. Combined with Cranston's wild opening and Jerry Stiller as Frank Costanza teaching everyone about Festivus, it's a must-watch holiday episode that stands above the rest. And hey — it taught us all that unless you have as an incredible amount of swagger to pull it off, don't try to wear denim-on-denim.