Plenty of Hollywood celebs, including Tom Cruise, Priscilla Presley, and the late Kirstie Alley proudly tout their affiliation with the Church of Scientology. Others, such as Leah Remini and Laura Prepon, left the controversial group behind.
One star you might not associate with the teachings of sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard is Jerry Seinfeld who said he found his brief time with Scientology to be “interesting.”
How connected was Jerry Seinfeld to Scientology?
Rumors of Seinfeld‘s Scientology connection may have started during the final episode of The Arsenio Hall Show in 1994 when moderately funny Bobcat Goldthwait referred to Seinfeld as “a spooky weird Scientologist guy banging teenage girls,” adding:
“What I find creepy is that people are convinced he lives in that apartment, and those are his wacky friends. They don’t like each other; they’re actors paid to pretend they like Jerry Seinfeld. He’s a weird guy. But everybody thinks he’s normal and I’m weird.”
When the Spokesman-Review repeated Goldthwait’s outlandish claim in 1995, it merely added to public perception that Seinfeld might be a follower of L. Ron Hubbard.
In truth, Seinfeld never took Scientology seriously and explained as much during an in-depth conversation with Marc Maron on episode 1129 of the WTF podcast. Maron noted that comedy itself can be a “spiritually satisfying” endeavor before asking Seinfeld why some people think he might be a Scientologist: “I did do a course in Scientology in, like, ’75 in New York. Found it very interesting, never pursued it.”
Seinfeld further explained that although he was not dazzled by the tenets of Scientology, he did walk away with admiration of the pseudo-church’s emphasis on ethical behavior, says Complex.
Is Jerry Seinfeld religious at all?
One of the world’s most successful comedians, Seinfeld credits his Jewish heritage for making him so funny. Explaining how Seinfeld relates to Judaism but is more apt to practice Transcendental Meditation, Hollowverse provided the following quote:
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“Well, there’s no question that a lot of the, whatever gifts that I have, came through this strain of DNA. It can’t just be a coincidence that I know how to do this; I didn’t learn all this, you know what I mean? How to be a comedian, and how to think funny, or talk funny. Some of that was put in me from other Jews. So, you know, I’m grateful for that.”
What’s the deal with Goldthwait?
Aside from what he told Maron on the WTF podcast, Seinfeld hasn’t been very vocal about his relationship with Scientology. The man is far more generous with words when it comes to Goldthwait, however. Now and then, he bleeps those words.
As Monsters & Critics deduced, when Seinfeld roasted a rival comedian in the Bridget Everett episode of his Netflix series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, the roastee (whose name was repeatedly censored) was more than likely Bobcat Goldthwait.
Syracuse agrees, due to a scene in the show where Seinfeld and Everett pay a visit to a Tarot-reading fortune teller who warns Jerry, “Beware of the past — one particular person that you’ve had conflict with.”
Without skipping a beat, the coffeed-up comics looked at each other and mouthed, “Bobcat.” It was bleeped out.
Probably best known for his self-titled show “about nothing,” Seinfeld had — and continues to have — a comedy career before and after the series that familiarized the world with his name. Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, Seinfeld set his sights on a comical career as soon as he graduated from Queens College in New York City.
As with many comedians in the mid 20th century, Seinfeld gigged at various resorts in the Catskills before getting his “big break” on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
