Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

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About

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is a web series in which comedian Jerry Seinfeld interviews other comedians while driving a series of vintage cars.

History

The show debuted as a web series, distributed by the Sony-owned online streaming web site Crackle on July 19th, 2015. The first episode featured Larry David, the co-writer of the show Seinfeld, riding in a 1962 Volkswagen Beetle.^[1]

In a 2012 interview with the Huffington Post, Seinfeld explained the impetus of the show:^[2]

"I think I first started playing around with this kind of thing in 2002 with my “Comedian” documentary. Colin Quinn and I did a commentary as a DVD extra and I was kind of amazed at how funny it was. You know, it was just us sitting there talking. Then I bought this VW Bug in Albuquerque, New Mexico and went to pick it up with my friend Barry Mardar and we videotaped ourselves driving back. And so those two experiences plus the “Comedian” documentary itself really had a lot of just comedians talking, although it was more talking shop than what you would call the usual stand-up comedian nonsense talking that we do quite a bit of."

As of December 31st, 2015, the show has had seven separate seasons, and been renewed for nine. According to the New York Times, the show has been streamed over 100 million times as of May 2015.^[3]

Format

Each episode begins with Jerry Seinfeld explaining the history of the car he is about to ride in. He then picks up the comedian at a meaningful location, sometimes allowing his guest to drive the car. Then, he and his guest engage in an unscripted conversations; since the guests are generally professional acquaintances of his, they are able to have a relaxed conversation with good rapport. To continue the conversation, Seinfeld stops at a local restaurant, often a favorite of the guest, to have a cup of coffee.^[1]

Guests of Seinfeld have included Mel Brooks, Ricky Gervais, Sarah Silverman, Chris Rock, Seth Myers, David Letterman, Louis CK, Aziz Ansari, Jon Stewart, Amy Schumer, Steven Colbert, and the entirety of the original cast of Seinfeld, among many other lesser-known comedians. Most recently, with the premiere of the seventh season on December 31st, 2015, Jerry Seinfeld drove a 1963 Corvette Sting Ray with Barack Obama.^[4]

Cars Jerry Seinfeld has driven on the show have included Ferraris, Mustangs, Spyders, Aston Martins, Porches, Gremlins, and a DeLorean, mostly dated between the mid-1950s and mid 1980s.

Criticism

In early 2014, Jerry Seinfeld was asked why he didn't feature more women or people of color on the show by Buzzfeed reporter Peter Lauria. He responded "“This has gotta represent the actual pie chart of America? Who cares? Funny is the world that I live in. You’re funny, I’m interested. You’re not funny, I’m not interested. I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that.”^[10] Many criticized the comment, saying that there were plenty of diverse comedians that Seinfeld was choosing not to represent. Kyle Chayka of Gawker wrote, "In conclusion: Yes, comedy should represent the entire pie chart of America, and the glorious, multicolored diversity pie should be thrown directly at Jerry Seinfeld's face."^[11]

Online Presence

The show maintains both a dedicated web site,^[5] which contains all the streaming episodes, as well as a channel on Crackle,^[4] Sony's dedicated streaming media site. In addition, a subreddit^[6] for the show was formed on February 3rd, 2014 and has accrued about 260 readers; many also discuss the show in the /r/seinfeld subreddit.^[7] The show's Facebook topic page has over 27,000 likes,^[8] and the official Twitter has over 14,800 followers.^[9]