Jerry Seinfeld Confesses He’s “A Little Bit” Bothered By The ‘Seinfeld’ Finale, But Does Not Regret It

The Seinfeld series finale has gone down in history as one of the worst finales in television, right up there with The Sopranos‘ controversial ending.

The backlash for the 1998 episode was not enough to keep Larry David from emulating it for the finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm, almost 30 years later, but now, Jerry Seinfeld himself has finally confessed that he is still “a little bit” bothered by the episode.

The comedian was recently asked in an interview with GQ if the Seinfeld finale still “bothered [him] all these years,” to which he responded, “A little bit, yeah.”

But he quickly noted, “I don’t believe in regret. I think it’s arrogant to think you could have done something different. You couldn’t. That’s why you did what you did.”

Instead, Seinfeld and David took another stab at it by revisiting a similar premise in Curb, which recently ended after 24 years.

Despite his regrets — or lack thereof — the comedian still defended the episode against the frequent criticism he’s heard. “We were affected by some things that people had said, that they were selfish or whatever… [but] that’s an essential element of comedy, since Shakespeare and forever. You can’t do comedy without selfish people. That’s what people relate to,” Seinfeld said.

David even addressed Curb‘s take on the Seinfeld finale during a recent appearance at PaleyFest, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Curb executive producer Jeff Schaffer said it was a “full-circle” moment for Seinfeld fans. “As Jerry [Seinfeld] said, it was a joke 26 years in the making. It’s neat that you can stick around long enough to do that,” he said.

But David had one message for critics who still have something to say about the finale: “Fuck you!” he said. “You didn’t like the first one? Fuck you!”

Seinfeld didn’t dwell too long on where his sitcom went wrong when it ended in the late ’90s. Instead he revealed which show had what he considered to be the “greatest” series finale he’s “ever seen.”

“[M]e and Jeff Schaffer and Larry were standing around, talking about TV finales and which we thought were great,” he said. “I feel Mad Men was the greatest. A lot of people like the [Newhart] one. Mary Tyler Moore [Show] was OK.”

He continued, “I think Mad Men was the greatest final moment of a series I’ve ever seen. So satisfying.”

Seinfeld is streaming on Netflix.