Jerry Seinfeld Jokes Friends Was NBC’s “Good-Looking Version” of Seinfeld at Netflix Is a Joke Festival

Jerry Seinfeld is sharing his humorous theory about how Friends came to life.

During a stand-up set at the 2026 Netflix Is a Joke Festival at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Tuesday, May 5, the comedian playfully suggested that NBC took inspiration from Seinfeld when developing the beloved ensemble comedy.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 72-year-old comedian brought up the topic while asking audience members to guess his all-time favorite television show. When someone shouted out “Friends,” Seinfeld used the moment to launch into a joke about the hit sitcom’s origins.
“My show came on — ’89, ’90. Friends came on a few years later,” Seinfeld told the crowd.

The comedian then joked that network executives may have seen the success of his sitcom and decided to recreate the formula with a more glamorous cast.

“I think NBC was watching my show and went, ‘Hey, this is working pretty well. Why don’t we try the same thing with good-looking people?’ ” he continued. “And that was a pretty good idea. I think that kind of worked.”

Both shows were iconic NBC comedies that dominated television throughout the 1990s.

Seinfeld premiered on NBC in 1989 and followed a fictionalized version of Jerry Seinfeld navigating everyday life in New York City alongside friends Elaine Benes, George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer. The series also starred Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards.
Created by Seinfeld and Larry David, the comedy became one of the most acclaimed sitcoms in television history during its nine-season run, which ended in 1998.

Five years after Seinfeld debuted, Friends premiered in 1994. The series centered on a tight-knit group of friends living in Manhattan and starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and the late Matthew Perry. Friends went on to become a cultural phenomenon in its own right, running for 10 seasons before concluding in 2004. The sitcom remains one of the most-streamed and widely syndicated television shows decades after its finale aired. Over the years, fans and critics have often compared the two series because both focused on groups of friends navigating adulthood in New York City. While Seinfeld famously branded itself as “a show about nothing,” Friends leaned more heavily into ongoing storylines.