No matter what he does at this stage in his career, Jerry Seinfeld will forever be remembered as the comedian who started many of his jokes off by saying, “What’s the deal…”—regardless of whether or not he actually did. For his part, Seinfeld maintains that he never used the phrase in his stand-up act, but that hasn’t stopped countless people, such as Gilbert Gottfried, for example, from incorporating it into their impressions of him. Here’s a clip from Conan O’Brien’s show from around the time Seinfeld ended, featuring a number of people trying to imitate Seinfeld by using his supposed catchphrase:
But where did the misconception come from if not from Seinfeld’s own routines? Well, as Mental Floss pointed out in 2014, “What’s the deal…” was said on Seinfeld a few times over the years, though mostly in the context of it being a hacky thing that people say. The first instance occurred in the 1991 episode appropriately titled “The Deal,” in which George asks Jerry, “What’s the deal with Aquaman? Could he go on the land or was he just restricted to water?” By 1996, it was being used in a hackier context by Jerry’s fiancée, Jeannie (played by Janeane Garofalo), who asks him things like, “What’s the deal with decaf?” and “What’s the deal with brunch?”
It would only be used that way moving forward. In 1996’s “The Abstinence,” Jerry performs for career day at his former junior high, and bombs with the joke, “What’s the deal with homework? You’re not working on your home.” Later, in the series finale, Jerry winds up in jail, asking his fellow inmates, “So, what is the deal with the yard? I mean, when I was a kid, my mother wanted me to play in the yard, but of course she didn’t have to worry about my next-door neighbor, Tommy, sticking a shiv in my thigh.” Playboy put together a compilation of most of these instances years ago, which you can check out right here:
However, Mental Floss cites a 1992 Saturday Night Live sketch Seinfeld did as the reason the phrase has come to be associated with him. In it, Seinfeld hosts a Jeopardy-esque game show entitled Stand-Up and Win. The contestants—played by Dana Carvey, Adam Sandler, and Rob Schneider—are all hacky comedians who speak like Seinfeld and answer questions like, “What’s the deal with airplane food?” “What is the deal with the black box?” and “What is the deal with Count Chocula?” Take a look at the full SNL skit below.
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