Seinfeld Defense: Lawsuits are Funny

Jerry Seinfeld insisted yesterday that he didn’t slander a woman suing his wife for cookbook plagiarism because silly lawsuits are fodder for good comedy. The comic cited episodes from Seinfeld as well as his kid-friendly Bee Movie in a court filing as examples of the First Amendment-protected comedic license to poke fun at the legal system, the New York Post reports.

Missy Chase Lapine, who claimed Jessica Seinfeld ripped off her Sneaky Chef cookbook, sued Seinfeld for slander after he called her a “wacko” and a “mentally unhinged celebrity stalker” on David Letterman’s show. Attorneys said allowing the suit to proceed would forever threaten laugh lines like Kramer’s free-coffee-for-life burn settlement or a bee suing honey manufactures for exploiting his kind. (More Jerry Seinfeld stories.)