George Costanza

George Louis Costanza was one of the four main characters on Seinfeld, played by Jason Alexander.

George is Jerry's neurotic friend. He sometimes lives with his parents, Estelle and Frank Costanza, a bitter couple who are as neurotic as their son. Chances are George's personality traits of being bitter, miserly, selfish, greedy and dishonest come from his childhood background. As a teenager, he was tormented by his gym teacher, Mr. Heyman, who intentionally mispronounced George's last name as "Can't Stand Ya." George and Jerry attended public school together, setting the dynamic for their later relationship. George claims that he and Jerry met in gym class when George, climbing rope, fell on Jerry.

George has numerous psychological problems, including: sociopathy (officially referred to as Antisocial Personality Disorder), narcissism, habitual lying, low self-esteem, sudden fits of anger, hypochondriasis, impulsive acts of ill-considered cheapness, selfishness, obsessiveness, living in fantasy. Like Kramer, he would often concoct elaborate plots to weasel out of relational, financial, or legal obligations, always with unexpected and negative consequences. George's lying, however, is often seen as a gift in the eyes of himself and his friends. It is noted in some episodes that he can even beat a lie-detector test. When Jerry tells Elaine about his plan of beating a lie detector instead of somehow avoiding it, she replies, "Who do you think you are, Costanza?"

The character of George is based partly on the alter ego of the show's co-creator, Larry David (the alter ego developed later on as the protagonist of Curb Your Enthusiasm). In the first couple of seasons, George was restrained by the standards of his later actions, but as the series went on, his schemes and personality became more outlandish. Alexander related in an interview that, early in the creation of the show, he once expressed having problems acting out a scene in the script, because he felt no one would ever behave in such a way. David replied to him that the exact situation had actually happened to him, and he had reacted in exactly the same way. Jason said that this was a breakthrough for him in portraying the character, giving him valuable insight into both Larry and George.

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