The 9/11 Seinfeld spec script you absolutely have to read today

Seinfeld went off the air on NBC in May 1998 with 76 million viewers tuning in to see Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer get their just punishments for being horrible New Yorkers.

In recent years, parody Twitter accounts such as Modern Seinfeld and Seinfeld Current Day have imagined the foursome dealing with technology and social media and current headlines — gaining hundreds of thousands of followers in the process.

But how have we gone this long without seeing how terribly each of them would react to 9/11?

Thanks to comedian Billy Domineau’s new spec script, we now could imagine how that would play out. It’s been the talk of comedians, writers and actors on Facebook for the past several hours already. I’ve read it, and it’s at once quite easy to see this as an iconic classic episode of Seinfeld, because it’s also perhaps the worst way any New Yorkers could have responded to or somehow gotten themselves involved in the terrorist attack and its aftermath. NO SPOILERS, because I’m not a monster. But please read how Domineau imagined “Jerry Seinfeld,” “George Costanza,” “Elaine Benes,” and “Kramer” would behave like monsters in the days after 9/11.

Seinfeld — “The Twin Towers,” an original spec script by Billy Domineau

BillyDomineauWhen Domineau posted it from his Google Drive yesterday, he told friends on Facebook: “I’ve written a Seinfeld spec script. It’s called The Twin Towers. Yep. It’s a 9/11 episode. This is what I do with my time now. Please join me on this journey deep into the subconscious of the multi-cam sitcom.”

Domineau, a freelance joke contributor for Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update, and an actor and teaching artist with Story Pirates, told The Comic’s Comic this morning how this all came about.

“I was helping someone write a sketch a few months back and told them theirs needed to be an exercise in bad taste, ‘Like imagine if there was a 9/11 episode of Seinfeld…wait a minute,'” Domineau told The Comic’s Comic.

Why now? “Now because I finished it,” he told me.

He wrote the script in Los Angeles, where he’s part of a small TV writing group that meets in the home of Chelsea Davison, a cast member of the new MADtv reboot on The CW. Domineau comes back to New York City to perform with Gentleman Party, a sketch and improv group that has monthly shows at The PIT. He also has contributed to the Onion News Network, and been a member of past groups Dangerbox and Hammerkatz at NYU that also boasted members including Golden Globe winner Rachel Bloom, Sudi Green, Anna Drezen, and the members of Derrick (Donald Glover, Dominic Dierkes and DC Pierson).

So, if you dare, please read Billy Domineau’s 9/11 Seinfeld spec script.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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20 thoughts on “The 9/11 Seinfeld spec script you absolutely have to read today

  1. Luckily for the writer, most creative exes were in 3rd grade in LA at the time and will probably enjoy its shock factor.
    But in my lifetime (and for many others), this will always be too soon.

      1. Thanks for saying, Mary. I hate being a downer. It may be a great script to be read as a sample. And good comedy is often cringe-worthy. I don’t judge the writer or any who read it, but the way it’s being shared is so hurtful to thousands of us who live with real pain.

        1. It was clearly originally intended as a basic creative exercise in bad taste for a minimal audience. You can’t really judge him on that.

  2. Needs a bit of rewriting (tightening up, the ending falls apart a bit) but pretty good. Has a good grip on the characters, especially Jerry. I’d watch.

  3. Clearly this talentless tool is not a New Yorker and must hate Seinfeld. Whomever told him that jokes about cutting stewardesses throats with box cutters or inhaling human dust would be funny was clearly looking to sabotage this losers career before it ever got off the ground. Tell ya what Billy, stick to cracking jokes and farts at your familie’s funerals and prepare to spend alot more time living in mom’s basement. Your career is over.

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