“Seinfeld” was twice the most popular show on television (per the Nielsen ratings) despite its penchant for courting controversy. The series spared no racial or ethnic group, and hopped all over third-wire issues with relative impunity. The one time the show pole vaulted over the line in a script titled “The Bet,” which centered on Elaine buying a gun, the cast revolted before the episode could go before cameras. (The script is online, and the bit where Elaine and Jerry discuss the latter’s method of firearm-hastened demise reads like something that would’ve been dicey on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”)
Once “Seinfeld” settled into its misanthropic groove (by the end of season 2), it was randomly, unapologetically offensive (to an unfortunate degree with “The Puerto Rican Day) — which was either spot-on or bizarrely off for a show about nothing. If the series steadfastly refused to take life seriously, why should anyone watching the show get their hackles up? Apparently, though, everyone has their breaking point, and Jason Alexander, who played the most consistently objectionable character on “Seinfeld,” found his in an episode involving a sacred Jewish rite.
Why Jason Alexander found The Bris disgusting
In a conversation with the Television Academy Foundation Interviews: An Oral History of Television, Alexander none-too-fondly recalled the season 5 episode “The Bris.” (Season 5 itself, incidentally, made the number three spot on /Film’s ranking of every season of “Seinfeld.”) This is the one where Jerry and Elaine become the godparents to their friends’ baby, and are thus tasked with arranging the bris. They, of course, manage to book a wildly problematic mohel who seems not quite up to the task, and it was this bit of business that upset Alexander.
“The version of it that came to the table, the character of the mohel was disgusting,” said Alexander. “I think it remains disgusting in the show that we did.” What exactly was the problem? Per Alexander:
“You’ve got to go a long way to hit my Jew button. I give you Jews are funny and you can be really sacrilegious with me, and I’ll take every Jew joke you got, even the borderline offensive ones. To a non-Jew, the whole practice of the circumcision, the bris is mysterious and kind of distasteful. To present the figure of the mohel, the person who goes, ‘I’m going to be the guy, my life’s work is to remove the foreskin from the genitals of young Jewish boys, that’s what I’ve devoted my life to…’ to make one who is a child-hating, self-loathing, foul-mouthed, incompetent to me was anti-Semitic in a hurtful way. I went to [co-creator] Larry [David], and I went, ‘I won’t be in this episode. This one you have to take me out. I have to boycott this.'”
David was surprised by the vehemence of Alexander’s reaction, but he respectfully offered to soften the awfulness of the mohel. Alexander still thinks the mohel portion of “The Bris” is in bad taste, but, obviously, he was mollified enough to appear in the episode — which is probably best remembered today for Kramer’s Don Corleone imitation.
