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Jerry Seinfeld's Favorite Seinfeld Emoji Baffles Him: 'Who's That? He's Cute'

Jerry-seinfeld-face
Jerry Seinfeld attends a film screening in 2013 in New York City.
Image: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP/Associated Press

NEW YORK CITY — Jerry Seinfeld took off his glasses for a better view of a shiny smartphone screen and used his frames to point to an emoji — his favorite emoji from the popular fan-made Seinfeld Emoji collection.

The 60-year-old didn't pick the emoji of Seinfeld wearing Google Glass, nor the Tweety Bird Pez dispenser, Soup Nazi, Frogger arcade game, Kramer, George nor Elaine.

"I like the black guy. Who's that? Is that a guy from my show? Who's the black guy in the middle? He's cute," Seinfeld told Mashable at the CLIO Awards on Wednesday, picking the "Barry Obame" (a.k.a. Barack Obama) emoji, which like all of the emojis is misspelled.

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Seinfeld Emoji app in action.

No, Obama never appeared on Seinfeld, but the @Seinfeld2000 Twitter account, which reimagines the sitcom in today's world, often weaves the president into tweets.

"There's an Obama one because my Twitter account jokes a lot about Obama — inserts him into the show for dissonance — and also because Obama is a modern reference," Jason Richards, the mind behind @Seinfeld2000 and Seinfeld Emoji, told Mashable.

Richards roped in designer Kevin McCauley to design the Seinfeld-inspired emojis, while developer Shahruz Shaukat developed the app.

"Ever since I found out that Jerry Seinfeld has Seinfeld Emoji on his radar, every moment has felt like a thousand summers of George," Richards added, when told Seinfeld saw the emojis. "I'm almost as euphoric as I'd be if I found out that NBC was finally putting Seinfeld back on the TV, but with modern references — Elaine not being able to fit her new iPhone 6 Plus inside her Alexander Wang clutch purse, George running into some professional awkwardness with his Washington Redskins-obsessed boss after declaring he was boycotting the NFL, or Kramer contracting the Ebola virus."

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A few of the Seinfeld-inspired emojis.

Seinfeld admitted he's well aware of @Seinfeld2000 and @SeinfeldToday, another account that tries to imagine Seinfeld's cast in today's age of social media and gadgets.

But when almost asked what type of plot he could see him, Kramer, Elaine and George involved in now, he politely declined to answer.

"Don't finish that question; I know where you're going with this," Seinfeld said on the red carpet at the CLIO Awards at the Cipriani on Wall Street.

Seinfeld was honored at the CLIO Awards, the so-called Oscars of advertising, for his contributions to the ad world in several memorable commercials for Apple, Microsoft and American Express. He poked fun at the industry throughout his acceptance speech.

"I love advertising because I love lying," Seinfeld said. "I think spending your life trying to dupe innocent people out of hard-won earnings to buy useless, low-quality, misrepresented items and services is an excellent use of your energy."

BONUS: 10 Emoji Meanings That Might Surprise You

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