Almost everybody loves to bring a little bit of pop culture into their lives, whether it’s by wearing a movie-themed T-shirt, putting a band’s bumper sticker on one’s car, or getting a tattoo of one’s favorite fictional character. When it comes to outgoing messages on answering machines and voicemail, though, there’s basically one place you can go for inspiration: Seinfeld. Watch the following Late Late Show with James Corden clip, in which Jason Alexander records George Costanza’s iconic outgoing message for a fellow TV star.
James Corden’s guests for the night were Alexander and the 2 Broke Girls stars Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs. And when the subject of Seinfeld came up – because how could it not? – Dennings admitted that her current outgoing voicemail message was a YouTube-recorded rip of George’s message, which he sang to the tune of the Greatest American Hero theme song. To be expected, Dennings says that people are somewhat confused when they call her.
Then, in what is clearly one of the coolest acts of celebrity possible, Alexander agrees (at Cordon’s request) to record a live rendition of the message for Dennings’ voicemail, as the studio audience remains silent. It’s great to see him halfway rehearse it to make sure he remembers all the words, and then the final product is pure gold. (Gold, Jerry!) Now I want to record my own voicemail from THIS YouTube video, replacing “Cat” with my own name. And the cycle continues. Relive the memorable Seinfeld scene below.
Even though answering machines have gone the way of dinosaurs with pagers, I’m thinking Alexander could make a bit of side money by recording people’s voicemails like this. There would probably be some copyright issues where the music is concerned, but that could probably all be taken care of pretty easily. And while we’re at it, why the hell hasn’t Arby’s ever worked with Patrick Warburton on some Puddy-themed ads? And why doesn’t George have any Snickers ads? Maybe because the show has been off the air for more than 15 years, but that’s hardly an excuse in our nostalgia-embracing society.
The Late Late Show with James Corden airs tonight with guests Jon Cryer, Freida Pinto, Grace Helbig and Andy Grammer. Maybe he’ll get Cryer to take a picture as Pretty in Pink’s Duckie for Helbig’s Twitter profile picture.
