Kesha calls Seinfeld hug snub “the saddest moment of my life”
In 2017, Jerry Seinfeld declined to hug pop star Kesha, proving to her why no one should meet their heroes
Aux News kesha
In what Best Show host Tom Scharpling rightly declared a very “clickable” moment, pop singer Kesha finally opened up about that hug Jerry Seinfeld declined a few years back. The incident might have been an easy win for Jerry “No hugging, no learning” Seinfeld, but for Kesha, it was “the saddest moment of my life.”
Speaking to Scharpling on The Best Show about her new album Gag Order, Ke$ha relayed what happened the night Seinfeld said, “No thanks,” in four seconds. After confirming that Scharpling was not friends with Seinfeld, Kesha began by explaining that she used to carry her Seinfeld DVDs with her around the world “so whenever it would get bumpy on the plane, I would pop in Seinfeld and feel like everything’s OK in the world and watch my buddy Jerry.”
Like Seinfeld, Kesha practices transcendental meditation, so imagine her surprise when she ran into the comedian at an event for the David Lynch Foundation, Lynch’s non-profit that promotes TM around the world. So when she saw Seinfeld there, she got a little excited.
“I get to the fucking charity event and I got really excited because he brings me peace and love and all things good in the universe,” she said. “And then he didn’t hug me in front of cameras. It was hilarious, but also so sad. It was the saddest moment of my life.”
Thankfully, she said not all of her heroes have been so anti-hug. She ran into Bob Dylan once, and “he gave me a really big hug.”
In the past, Seinfeld has also explained his reasoning for this. Apparently, he didn’t know who this woman was trying to hug him. He doesn’t “know every pop singer,” nor does he know “everyone,” so to him, Kesha was a “total stranger” asking for a hug “right in the middle of an interview.”
“When you get to be my age and you’ve done a couple things, you have your own reality,” he told Extra in 2017. “In my reality, I don’t hug a total stranger. I have to meet someone, say hello. I gotta start somewhere. Hug isn’t the first moment of a human, two humans. I never did that.”
Scharpling was right. This was a very clickable moment.
86 Comments
Cover Best Show more. Scharpling and Wurster are fucking brilliant and deserve it more than the reality show coverage that doesn’t even attract a handful of comments.
She was too old for him to be interested.
More or less the age of his wife when he met her.
Kesha expecting a hug from a man who famously does not hug or betray any genuine sympathy, then having the saddest day of her life when it doesn’t happen, is sort of a good indicator of why Seinfeld had no idea who she was
I don’t hug strangers either.
I totally understand her feeling bad about it, at the same time if she was such a big fan of the show, should she really be all that surprised? Maybe if you’re an attractive person you’re just used to people wanting to hug you, but I can totally see it from the other side where you have some rando asking you for a hug and not wanting to do it.
I can’t believe Larry David snubbed my offered bear hug!
Jerry was right and he was also right about the kiss hello.
Jerry, Hello!
Shocked to learn that Seinfeld is into TM because he seems like the world’s least chill guy.
“Could this meditation BE more transcendental?”Oh wait, wrong show.
Imagine where he’d be at without the TM!
Copyrighted?
Conglomerated?
Is the light in the hall supposed to look that hellish?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicken_Roaster
Personally, I have never been a big Seinfeld fan (for example, I was quite satisfied by the finale when consequences finally arrived for 179 episodes worth of shitty behavior) but I am a sucker for the sitcom premise where two characters switch personalities, so this was one of my favorite episodes.
iirc it caused Kramer to mistake tomato juice for milk lol
Well, Howard Stern is (was?) into TM as well…
and has become much chiller, more low-key, and signifcantly less of an a$$hole in the last decade or two, if you follow him. Personally I knew his live-in chef for some years and he was a neurotic, obsessive, rude and demanding dude according to him (and the chef loved him anyway). In the last few years apparently all of that has reduced by like 90%.
(Fun fact: he was so obsessive about “bad food” that he would have everything thrown away after 3 days- produce, meat, breads, entire catered dinners- anything- and used to refuse to let them donate it anywhere out of fear that he would look like a spoiled rich guy who ate things like lobster or filet mignon- so the chef would have to basically steal it out of the house to drop at a homeless shelter. And we’re not talking one-person servings- i’m talking TRAYS of food, enough to feed a small army, usually from partiees and such- which had to go into the trash.)I am a lifelong Howard fan (i’m 45) and his stories made it difficult to keep doing that. (Meet your heroes and all that.) Luckily there were other insights which helped dilute some of the worst of it. And when he met Beth apparently he got much more mellow, chill and gained a lot of perspective on things.So, we’ll allow HIM to live, unlike Jerry Seinfeld who WOULDNT HUG A WEIRD LADY WHO ACCOSTED HIM DURING AN INTERVIEW AND THE AV CLUB IS NOW READY TO HANG
I mean, Mike Love has been into it for what, half a century or so? And he’s one of the biggest assholes on the planet
And into enough to go to events for it.
I think he heard it made you “one with everything” and he thought that meant it gave you a free hot dog or bagel!
Well they didn’t say he was good at it.
Trust me, from first hand experience, meditation doesn’t do jack to make you more chill. It totally helps, life is better when I meditate, but I am still the asshole I always was.
I don’t imagine being an uber-rich “ephebophile” dick improves his chances at enlightenment.
TM is just meditation with a FEE
Everyone should have the right to not be touched even when someone really wants to touch them.
Fully concur. I’m not a hugger even with people I know so I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be approached by a stranger asking for a hug. Thankfully, I am not in any way famous not seemingly that approachable.
But we’re talking about nominally-attractive famous white woman Kesha- sorry, Ke$ha! Those rules don’t apply to them!
You were right the first time. The Electric Mayhem convinced her to drop the dollar sign.
She removed the money from her name like 9 years ago. Get with the times, grandpa!
She asked for a hug, it was declined and that was it. Why you’re trying to turn Kesha into a Karen I can only imagine.
And then Kramer wouldn’t let Jerry use his shower because the other tenants were mad about the no hugging policy.
Maybe Ke$ha was too old for him
Yeah, if I were some Seinfeld-level celebrity with no need to prove anything I wouldn’t hug any stranger that asked either.
Heck, I’m no celebrity and I still don’t.
I enjoy hugging, so I’d hug someone who asked for a hug even if they were a stranger. But I can completely understand the point of view of not wanting to hug a stranger and it’s anyone’s right to say no.
Heck, I’d say it’s your right to decline a hug from anyone at any time.
Honestly, post Covid maybe as a society we should all just embrace the friendly bow. No hugs, no hand shakes, no kisses on the cheeks. Everyone just give each other a bow. Editors note: I have had this opinion for some time and its not just because my youngest son brought Covid home from day camp last week and its still beating the shit out of my double vaxxed ass.
There was a time where a popular way of robbing tourists in London was to go in for a hug, hug the victim so their arms were pinned at their sides, and a waiting accomplice would clear out their pockets.
I enjoy hugging people I know. I do not enjoy being embraced by random strangers or even just people I kinda know.
or Kesha?
Imagine being a life-long Seinfeld fan and thinking “this man would clearly appreciate a hug from a total stranger!”
Yes, the actual reason to do so would be to generate a Seinfeldian bit about clashing norms for interaction. “Some people are huggers, Jerry” “Fine for those people, let the huggers hug other huggers, and leave me out of it!”
“You shrugged off the hug, Jerry.”“She came in for a hug I went out with a shrug. Standard hug to shrug scenario.”“You we’re huggin’ and shruggin’ all over me!”
“The hug bugged me! Her hugs are too snug – she’s a snug hugger!”
Exactly. I’m not a celebrity, but I really dislike the sort of person who has just met you and thinks they can hug you. My relatives and romantic partners can hug me. Not you.
Can you imagine, separated by nothing more than a thin layer of gaberdine!!
A friend of mine had a very very Curb Your Enthusiasm moment with Larry David so I know what you mean
Exactly. Makes no sense. Maybe she only watched the show when she was very young? Too young to understand that most adults are actually pretty creepy?
Most adults are pretty creepy? WTF does that even mean.
WTF does it mean? It means what it says. I’ll qualify, if that helps. Generally speaking, humans are creepy.
“Imagine being a life-long Seinfeld fan…”Can’t. Man’s a dick.
“I got really excited because he brings me peace and love and all things good in the universe”And on top of all that he has to give you a hug too? I can’t imagine walking up to a celebrity I like and expecting a hug. I’m weirding myself out thinking about it.
Right?? At best, I would just be like, hi, just wanted to say I really like your work. Hope you have a good night. And even then I’m not sure that I would want to bother them.
Here in Nashville we pride ourselves (to an admittedly obnoxious degree) about being a town where celebrities don’t get bothered, so I definitely have a visceral disaffinity for talking to celebrities. lol I might have to talk to Dolly Parton. But I would NOT ask for a hug.
The look on the host’s face in that screenshot says, ‘i’m just gonna think about my tax returns for a bit, let me know when this anecdote is done.’
I was going to say. In the screenshot in the youtube clip Scharpling looks like he’s never heard a more boring story in his life.
Didn’t she claim to get raped?
So what I’m hearing is that Seinfeld needs to be hunted for sport. Gotcha. You know, for making Kesha sad. And also his weird past with underage girls.
Wait… so she went to rehab for an eating disorder; had been abused and sexually assaulted by her producer and god knows what other shit faced by a young woman in the music industry – yet the saddest moment in her life is that Jerry Seinfeld didn’t feel like giving her a hug? Yeesh.
Sad and traumatically mortified are two distinct emotional states.
Wait… so she went to rehab for an eating disorder; had been abused and sexually assaulted by her producer and god knows what other shit faced by a young woman in the music industryThat’s what the AVC and all others are really pissed about: Seinfeld not hugging and not giving them a chance to run an “ewww, this old guy hugged a young woman! A woman who’s been abused and sexualised by other old men, to boot!” story.
I think you meant to say “Yee$h”
I feel like she was probably exaggerating
Wtf is hyperbole right?
Maybe he’d recognize her if she hadn’t already started in with the facial fillers. I sure didn’t.
Jerry Seinfeld was 63 years old in 2017. I have zero doubt my parents have no idea who Kesha is either, or could pick her out of a lineup.
Why would anyone want to hug him? He’s like a corn cob with no kernels.
got a horse face with big teeth, flared nostrils
Seinfeld’s an arse, but he wasn’t wrong here.
He probably didn’t recognize her without the dollar sign.
If that is the saddest moment of her life, she must be about 3 yrs. old, and never left the house.
Kesha began by explaining that she used to carry her Seinfeld DVDs with her around the world “so whenever it would get bumpy on the plane, I would pop in Seinfeld and feel like everything’s OK in the world and watch my buddy Jerry.”The term “parasocial relationship” gets tossed around a lot in an age where people listen to podcasts every week and feel a connection to people they’ve never met.And I bet celebrities may experience it a little differently, when two celebrities have never met but are familiar with each other’s work.But obviously, it was a one-sided relationship in this case. Maybe if they’d had a 2 minute conversation and she was able to explain who she was, and how much his show had meant to her in her journeys, and how she also practices TM to help her — he may have been more inclined to give her a hug.Instead, he just saw a stranger. Or worse — a celebrity he wasn’t familiar with who felt entitled to a hug because she was a celebrity.It’s a perfect little viral video, but I’m sure that’s just made it more mortifying for her. I’m thoroughly haunted by embarrassing things I’ve said and done, but at least I don’t have to see video evidence of it plastered on the internet.
I have to agree with Jerry. I don’t hug much at all, and I certainly don’t hug strangers. If this is the saddest moment in Kesha’s life, she must be having a pretty great life.I understand loving a tv show. I adore The Office, but I certainly would not expect Steve Carell to hug me if I saw him somewhere.
Saddest moment of her life? Well I guess “Dr” Luke is off the hook!
This is exactly the problem with fandom.
And then he didn’t hug me in front of cameras.
Boo fucking hoo. You’re not entitled to anything.
It was the saddest moment of my life.
Seriously?
Some of the more intelligent commenters apparently don’t know what hyperbole is and it’s tripping me out.
I went to a Kevin McDonald podcast taping where Scott Thompson was the guest. My wife and I sit down, and there’s Bruce to our left and oh, Dave just popped in.
I never talked to a one of them. I couldn’t risk saying something dumb, but mainly I didn’t want the Kids in the Hall to be assholes to me. The MST3K people, on the other hand, I am quite confident would be nice. And we could all make fun of Seinfeld for liking teenage girls and sports cars like a 12 year old. They kind of rule for roasting him for that.
what a monster, not hugging a complete rando who runs up and asks for a hug. He’s a big star, he OWES EVERYONE EVERYTHING INCLUDING HIS RIGHT TO HIS OWN BODY AUTONONMY AND PRIVACY!I cannot imagine Kesha, of all people, doesn’t “get this”
I also dislike it when people I meet for the first time try to hug me. It’s weird.
Would this continue to be a story if the genders were reversed? (Actually, it probably would, it would just be a much more unsympathetic take from the AVClub.)
Not hugging a total stranger is 100% normal behavior. And him not knowing Kesha also makes a ton of sense as I have no doubt he is NOT her target demo of fans.
It is hard for me to imagine that anyone who has thoroughly watched Seinfeld would expect a hug from Jerry. That is a big ask of anyone when you first meet let alone known germaphobe Jerry Seinfeld.