Cosmo Kramer
Cosmo Kramer, usually referred to simply by his surname, is a fictional character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld played by Michael Richards.
The character is loosely based on comedian Kenny Kramer, Larry David's ex-neighbor across the hall. Kramer is the neighbor of the series' main character, Jerry Seinfeld, and is friends with George Costanza and Elaine Benes. Of the series' four central characters, only Kramer has no visible means of support; what few jobs he holds seem to be nothing more than gigs or one-offs.
His character is that of a lovable rogue, with his trademarks being his upright hairstyle, vintage wardrobe, impractical business ideas and eccentric personality, whose combination led The Atlantic Monthly reviewer Francis Davis to characterize him as a "hipster doofus." The show's writers later adopted this description into the program. Kramer is obsessed with high-quality fresh fruit and occasionally smokes pipes and Cuban cigars. He is also known for his habit of bursting through Jerry's apartment door without knocking, and eating Jerry's food. His antics include frequent pratfalls and a penchant for noisy, percussive outbursts to indicate skepticism, agreement, irritation and a variety of other feelings. He has been described as "an extraordinary cross between Eraserhead and Herman Munster".
Kramer appears in all but two episodes: "The Chinese Restaurant" and "The Pen", in the second and third seasons, respectively. For the pilot episode, Kramer was named "Kessler" to avoid potential legal issues; Kenny Kramer later authorized the use of his name.
Background and family
In "The Trip", Kramer says a man in a park exposed himself to him when he was a young boy. In "The Big Salad" Kramer reveals to Jerry that he grew up in a strict household where he had to be in bed every night by 9:00PM.Kramer never completed high school; in "The Barber", it is revealed that Kramer has a GED.
Kramer was estranged for a long period from his mother, Babs Kramer, who works as a restroom matron at an upscale restaurant. Unlike George and Jerry, Kramer's character does not have a well-developed network of family members shown in the sitcom. He is the only main character on the show whose father never makes an appearance; in "The Chinese Woman", Kramer mentions that he is the last male member of his family, implying that his father had died. He also mentions in "The Lip Reader" that he has or had a deaf cousin, from whom he learned fluent American Sign Language. Like the other main characters, he has no children.
In "The Strong Box", it is revealed that Kramer spent a brief time in the Army, although info about this time is "classified". In "The Implant", he says he lived in Los Angeles for three months.
Personality
Though eccentric, Kramer is generally caring, friendly and kind-hearted; he often goes out of his way to help total strangers, and tries to get his friends to also help others and to do the right thing even when they do not want to. He is confident in his own unique way of doing things, yet he can be neurotic and highly-strung. His quirkiness, strange body movements and frequent gibberish mutterings have become his trademark. He is also well-liked by Jerry's parents, whom he calls once a week, as if he were their own son.Kramer was originally envisioned as a recluse who never left his apartment except to visit Jerry. This was the original reason behind why Kramer helps himself to Jerry's possessions and food without any pushback and also why he is absent from the season two episode "The Chinese Restaurant", which takes place entirely outside of the building. However, in season three Kramer starts to join Jerry, Elaine, and George in various scenes outside of the building. As the series progresses, Kramer completely loses any hints of reclusiveness and becomes one of the most extroverted characters on the show.
However, Kramer also gets his friends directly into trouble by talking them into unwise or even illegal actions such as parking in a disabled parking space, urinating in a parking garage, committing mail fraud or even hiring an assassin to get rid of a dog. Kramer persuades Jerry in particular to do things that he is reluctant to do. In several arguments with Jerry, Kramer is incredibly stubborn, protecting his own interests. Kramer is also known to mooch off his friends, especially Jerry. Kramer regularly enters and uses Jerry's apartment without knocking, and often helps himself to Jerry's food. Kramer also uses tools/appliances of Jerry's, only occasionally with permission, and often returning them in a state of disrepair.
Kramer is known for his extreme honesty and lack of tact; in "The Nose Job", he tells George's insecure girlfriend that she needs a nose job. In "The Kiss Hello" Elaine tries to take advantage of this personality quirk by inviting Kramer to meet her friend, Wendy, whose hairstyle she feels is outdated. Kramer rarely gets into trouble for his candor, but his friends often do; in "The Cartoon", Kramer makes comments to Sally Weaver, who then blames Jerry for "ruining her life" as a result.
In general, Kramer excels at persuading Jerry into doing things against his better judgment. Kramer has displayed an almost unbending loyalty toward Jerry, such as in "The Millennium" and "The Bottle Deposit", risking the failure of his own plans for Jerry's benefit. Kramer also thought nothing of giving Jerry a large amount of his banked blood in "The Blood". In the same respect, Jerry has helped Kramer out of good will and always seems to forgive and ultimately accept Kramer's mooching tendencies. At times, Jerry is entertained by Kramer's antics, which may also be a factor in the friendship's endurance. However, Kramer is also quick to assume the worst of Jerry, believing him guilty of everything from sabotaging a Miss America contestant to having a double life as a neo-Nazi leader, and is often oblivious to his sentiments. In "The Serenity Now", an emotional Jerry declares a near-brotherly love for Kramer, and Kramer is not even prompted to look away from his current activity, merely responding in a rote tone, "I love you, too, buddy."
He is close friends with Newman; however, like the other main characters, Kramer and Newman frequently get into conflict with each other, most notably in "The Butter Shave", in which Newman attempts to eat Kramer alive. Their get-rich-quick schemes appear in "The Old Man" and "The Bottle Deposit".
One of Kramer's friends, Bob Sacamano, is referred to by Kramer on several occasions, yet never makes an onscreen appearance. Sacamano is used as a source for several weird anecdotes, nutty ideas, or inaccurate information. Lomez is another good friend of Kramer's who is mentioned, yet never makes an appearance.
Kramer's apartment is the subject of numerous radical experiments in interior design. Oftentimes, the "experiments" never happen due to Kramer's inherent short-attention span, including his plan to eliminate all furniture and build "levels... like ancient Egypt" in "The Pony Remark". He reconstructed the set of The Merv Griffin Show in "The Merv Griffin Show". Inside views of Kramer's apartment are seldom seen, but it's known that he installed hardwood flooring and woodgrain-like wallpaper to, as he explains to Jerry, "give it the feel of a ski lodge." The apartment is centered around a large hot tub and couch styled after a 1957 Chevy. The apartment is decorated with many small statues of people, all made entirely out of pasta. Kramer has also experimented with his apartment entrance, including reversing his peephole "to prevent an ambush" in "The Reverse Peephole" and installing a screen door alongside plants and wind chimes in "The Serenity Now".
Kramer enjoys smoking Cuban cigars. In "The Abstinence" he sets up a smoking club in his apartment, which included a regularly scheduled "pipe night" for those who preferred pipe tobacco to cigars and/or cigarettes. His face gets ruined after so much smoking and he hires Jackie Chiles to sue the cigarette company, but instead gets his image as the Marlboro Man on the Marlboro billboard in Times Square. He hires Cuban cigar rollers in an attempt to make his own Cuban cigars in "The English Patient".
Kramer's conversation sometimes contains onomatopoeia or nonsensical sounds in order to stress an emotional point or describe earlier actions. He sometimes expresses his agreement with a sentiment or suggestion via the word "giddyup". He indicates pleasure with "Oh, Mama!" and frustration or disgust with "Oh... yeah!"
Of the four main characters, Kramer has the fewest on-screen romantic relationships. He has no trouble attracting women, but interactions with them usually begin and end with purely carnal encounters. What few relationships he has are short-lived.
Development
Inspiration
The character of Kramer was originally based on the real-life Kenny Kramer, a neighbor of co-creator Larry David from New York. However, Michael Richards did not in any way base his performance on the real Kramer, to the point of refusing to meet him. This was later parodied in "The Pilot" when the actor that is cast to play him in Jerry and George's sitcom refuses to base the character on the real Cosmo Kramer. At the time of the shooting of the original Seinfeld pilot, "The Seinfeld Chronicles", Kenny Kramer had not yet given consent to use his name, and so Kramer's character was originally known as "Kessler".Larry David was hesitant to use Kenny Kramer's real name because he suspected that Kramer would take advantage of this. David's suspicion turned out to be correct; Kenny Kramer created the "Kramer Reality Tour", a New York City bus tour that points out actual locations of events or places featured in Seinfeld. The "Kramer Reality Tour" is itself spoofed on Seinfeld in "The Muffin Tops". In the episode, when Kramer's real-life stories are used by Elaine to pad the biography of J. Peterman she was ghostwriting, Kramer develops a reality bus tour called "The Peterman Reality Tour" and touts himself as "The Real J. Peterman".