Real Kramer Sues ‘Seinfeld’ Writer — Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That
Image by Getty Images
By Anne Cohen May 7, 2014
Photo: Getty Images
If you’re a “Seinfeld” fan, you may have shouted “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” a couple of times. It’s just one of those lines that has stuck from the show, much like, “Big Salad,” “Yada Yada,” or “These pretzels are making me thirsty!”
You might also argue that there is genuinely nothing wrong with repeating lines from the show.
Kenny Kramer disagrees. The real-life inspiration for Kramer filed a $1 million defamation lawsuit against “Seinfeld” writer Fred Stoller and Skyhorse Publishing last December for writing in his memoir, “Maybe We’ll Have You Back,” that guides on Kramer’s Manhattan tour buses drive through Greenwich Village pointing out gay people and yelling — you guessed it — “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
Now, Stoller’s lawyer David Pierce is arguing that the case should be tossed out because, as the New York Daily News put it, “the line is ironic.”
Besides, Pierce added, because the buses are air-conditioned, the windows are always closed — so the passerby couldn’t possibly be insulted by comments they don’t hear. Duh.
“It’s not ironic. It’s insulting to a lot of people, ” Kramer’s lawyer, Fred Lichtmacher, replied in a hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday.
What he’s accused of is a disgusting, hateful thing,” Lichtmacher added. “This thing (the bus company) has his name all over it. This is a situation that can destroy this man’s business because no body wants to get on his bus if his reputation is as a gay basher.”
Manhattan Supreme Court judge Barbara Jaffe will rule on the motion to dismiss in the coming weeks.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
