Elaine Takes Her Bad 'Seinfeld' Dance on a Wild Trip Through Pop Culture

Thanks to editing wizardry, Julia Louis-Dreyfus dances alongside Beyoncé, Rick Astley, Wednesday Addams and more.

Free Happiness is back one week earlier than planned¹, but I discovered this super fun video and just couldn’t wait to share it!

Also, the Sunday Scaries are always a little more intense following a holiday weekend, and I thought we call all use a quick hit of joy right now.

We’re all familiar with Elaine’s bad dancing, which she showed off on a late-period episode of Seinfeld. Thanks to the innovative editors at Bell Brothers, we can now see her singular kicky moves in some iconic settings.

The way Elaine is transported into the vast pop culture universe is too good to spoil here. But you’ll definitely want to see her shimmy next to figures as varied as Steve Urkel, Tom Cruise, Johnny from Dirty Dancing and Stephanie from Full House.

This is the kind of clip you can watch several times and still find new things to enjoy (I think I’m on my twenty-third watch and counting!) And as a bonus, here’s the Bell Brothers’ Labyrinth Rap Battle. Magical for many reasons, including making Limp Bizkit actually tolerable, and daresay, even fun.

Reading recs:

*As an author, I always have the most immense respect for my peers who share the less than glamorous aspects of a writing career. Recently, Erin Bowman and Jodi Meadows both posted about the experience of having no one attend their book events.²

We all have or will have this kind of mortifying experience at some point, which is why I encourage reading their posts even if you’re not an author. There are some good lessons to be learned—especially on how to bounce back afterwards.

Author stuff:

Thrilled to share that I’ll be taking part in The Shit No One Tells You About Writing’s Deep Dive Series in 2024! I’ll be leading the online seminar, “Writing an Ensemble Cast,” based on my experience writing Dava Shastri’s Last Day, an intergenerational family saga.³

My hourlong seminar takes place Jan. 30 at 8 pm ET. For more info, as well to check out the entire stellar lineup, go here.

Speaking of Dava…

DAVA book anniversary! 🥳

Dava was my debut, and it came out two years ago on November 30. I still can’t quite believe I was able to publish the novel that I will always think of as “me in book form.”

Let alone have it be named a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, a Barnes and Noble Monthly Fiction Pick, optioned for television by HBO Max,⁴ and many other nice things! And to have had readers tell me how much the novel means to them, which means the most of all.

Since I’m inching closer to 100 subscribers, to celebrate the milestone the 100th subscriber to Free Happiness will receive a signed copy of Dava. Spread the word to your family and friends, and if you’re the one who referred the 100th subscriber, I’ll send you a signed copy too! 

This week’s fun fact:

Since my Thanksgiving destination is San Francisco, here’s a fun fact I just learned about the city.

The fog in San Francisco is named Karl.

(To anyone I know who lives in the Bay Area: Did you know this? And if so, why didn’t you tell me? This is just the kind of random thing I love to know.)

Thanks for reading, safe travels if you are on your way home from the Thanksgiving holiday and wishing you a good week ahead.

1. In my last newsletter, I had said there would be no new FH until early December because I didn’t think I’d have time to write again until then. Guess again, Past Me!

2. I would say I’ve had decent to great attendance at all my book events to date (knock wood), except one that mortified me at the time and doesn’t seem so bad in hindsight.

What they all had in common were kind and wonderful booksellers, who are some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met.

3. Looking back, I can’t believe I decided to write and publish a novel that has fourteen family members and seven point-of-view characters, not understanding how complex that would be to pull off. I am awed by that version of Past Me, who just didn’t know better, honestly!

4. It’s called Max now, but at the time the book was optioned it was called HBO Max, so that’s what I like to stick with.