Considering the contentious and chaotic year that was 2020, comedian Jerry Seinfeld is amending the seasonal holiday his hit sitcom made a household word in 1997.
Among the rituals associated with Festivus — which takes place Dec. 23 — is “the airing of grievances,” where friends and family are free to get things off their chests.
“Maybe just this once, just for this Festivus 2020, we take pass on the ‘Airing of Grievances’ ” Seinfeld tweeted Wednesday.
Predictably, Seinfeld’s Twitter followers responded, many of whom felt the airing of grievances has never been as necessary as it is right now. Some folks lashed out against President Trump, who continues to insist he won last month’s election, which he lost. The nation is also struggling to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in 2020 and crippled the economy.
But for the most part, Seinfeld’s Twitter fans looked back fondly on the “Seinfeld” episode that introduced Festivus during better times.
Seinfeld’s co-star Jason Alexander also remembered Festivus on Twitter and quoted Jerry Stiller, who played his father on the show and was the holiday’s most loyal practitioner.
“Happy Festivus, my friends,” Alexander tweeted. “I wish you health, success and happiness. But…I got a lotta problems with you people.”
Among the many sad events of 2020 was the death of Stiller, who was 92. The Brooklyn native died in his Upper West Side home on May 11.
According to “Seinfeld” writer Dan O’Keefe, it was his won father who invented Festivus many years before it was introduced to TV audiences worldwide. When he mentioned that to his colleagues, they decided to immortalize the holiday in sitcom form.
“I didn’t pitch it,” he told Mother Jones in a 2013 interview. “I fought against it.”
O’Keefe, who was 26 when the episode called “The Strike” was written, now sees why Seinfeld thought the idea of the secular holiday dubbed “a Festivus for the rest of us” would make for good television.
“I was honestly surprised anyone gave a flying f–k,” he said.