Comedy legend Jerry Stiller has died at 92. His son, Ben Stiller, tweeted the news on Monday that his father had passed away of natural causes. Jerry Stiller’s career began with his wife, Anne Meara. They found success in the ’60s as a comedy team, making several appearances on variety programs, especially The Ed Sullivan Show, and they also had their own shows throughout the ’80s before winding down.
However, Jerry Stiller became a pop culture icon in the ’90s, when he picked up the role of Frank Costanza on Seinfeld. Costanza became a beloved character due to his hot-headed, scene-stealing antics that helped solidify the show’s status as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time—not to mention giving us iconic cultural movements such as Festivus.
It’s a great time to shout, “Serenity now!” to your heart’s content. It might just make you feel better and forget that we’re on day 9 zillion of quarantine with no end in sight.
It’s also what Frank Costanza would have done.
Here, we honor Jerry Stiller with some of Frank Costanza’s most memorable quotes.
“Serenity now!”
The story behind “Serenity now!” goes back to a season 9 episode of Seinfeld when Frank Costanza learns the phrase from a self-help recording. But in true Frank Costanza fashion, he yells it with all he’s got instead of repeating the phrase calmly. Not shockingly, Costanza’s technique proves to have the opposite effect (but again, it might be surprisingly useful now).
“You want a piece of me? You got it!”
Cranky Frank Costanza was always on edge, always ready to brawl, even with Elaine. Also see: “My George isn’t clever enough to hatch a scheme like this.”
This Seinfeld outtake is priceless.
Vale Jerry Stiller. Thanks for the laughs.
— Michael Rowland (@mjrowland68) May 11, 2020
“Festivus for the rest of us!”
Frank Costanza hated all the commercial and religious aspects of Christmas, so he made up his own holiday.
“So who’s having sex with the hen?”
Not surprisingly, Frank Costanza had interesting takes on everything and expressed them whenever and wherever he felt like it.
“Maybe it was because I refused to take off my shoes—I have a foot odor problem.”
Frank Costanza’s time as a salesman in Korea was epic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9igRIOwOswg
“Are you trying to keep us out of Del Boca Vista?”
George’s and Jerry’s parents hated each other, and it all came to a head when the Seinfelds moved to Florida.
“A brassiere for a man—a manssiere, get it?”
Frank and Kramer were almost onto something.
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