George Costanza Wallet - The Exploding Wallet

[A Seinfeld Classic]

If you have ever seen any marketing from modern wallet brands, then you might have been greeted will a large, bulky, overfilled wallet that probably resembles something your dad/grandad carries with them. The trend of modern brands including Ridge, Ekster, and likes mocking large traditional wallets such as these very well could have come from George Costanza’s Wallet gag (Seinfeld) especially considering the popularity of the show and the aforementioned episode simply titled ‘The Reverse Peephole’.

Much of the popularity and hate of this kind of bulky bifold style wallet comes from a famous episode of Seinfeld a popular sitcom first airing in 1989. In one famous scene (season 12, episode 9) the character George Costanza and his comically oversized and overstuffed wallet. The gag revolves around him complaining about his back pain (due to him sitting on it) and ends with the famous scene of his wallet exploding (which Google used in an advertising campaign back in 2011). 

Due to the popularity of this scene, it quickly become an internet meme with a variety of iterations of the popular dinero being circulated across the web (see below for a few of these). You can also check out the infamous scene from the clip provided below. 

Scene Transcript

Jerry Seinfeld: Your back hurts because of your wallet. It’s huge. 

George Costanza: This isn’t just my wallet. It’s an organizer, a memory, and an old friend. 

Jerry Seinfeld: Well, your friend is morbidly obese. 

George Costanza: Well, at least I don’t carry a purse. Jerry Seinfeld: It’s not a purse, it’s European.