Seinfeld: 10 Worst Things George Costanza Has Ever Done
The lord of the idiots' most shameful moments.
A bitter little bald man with a chip on his shoulder, George Costanza is a man constantly at war with the world. His peculiarities, outbursts, and unique set of core values make him one of the greatest sitcom characters of all time.
Seinfeld is famously a show with an ethos of no hugging or learning, with majorly maladjusted main characters. Constanza’s genius lies in his relatability - at some point or another, like it or not, we’ve all been George Costanza. He may go about things the wrong way more often than not, but most of the time we can see where George is coming from.
He is a seeker of justice, a man of principles, even if they’re more often than not pretty warped and self serving. That unshakable sense of right and wrong has led him to commit some pretty dreadful deeds over the show’s nine year run.
But as we’ll see, it’s rarely George’s fault. The cruel world conspires against the likes of George Costanza, and he reacts accordingly. His behaviour may be reprehensible, but if you look at it in a certain, self serving way, his heart is in the right place.
10. Identity Theft
One of TV’s great schemers, George will never concoct a simple plan when a complicated one will do. In “The English Patient”, he meets a beautiful woman who mistakes him for her boyfriend - only, her actual boyfriend is a bit shorter, and not in such good shape as our hero,
George finds himself obsessed - not so much with Danielle, the way out of his league woman who has shown an interest in him, but with Neil, his inferior lookalike. He asks for Neil’s phone number, passing up the chance to seal the deal with his new romantic interest to go home and await a call.
Eventually George realises that he has “out-Neiled Neil”, and completes the transformation, stealing Neil’s life and his girlfriend and living it that little bit better. It’s one of the greatest heists the character pulls off, and he would have gotten away with it, were it not for an overstuffed crepe badly burning Neil and sending Danielle back into his arms to take care of him, in a nod to the titular film. In a rare win for George, he yanks on Neil’s intravenous wires as he leaves, possibly killing him.