Fan Snaps Photo of Matthew Broderick, Politely Asks ‘Friend’ Jerry Seinfeld to Move Out of the Way

Getty Images | Stephen Lovekin

Spotting a movie star out off the screen is arresting, but it’s the perfect time to snap a memorable photo! However, managing not to squeal, jump around, and generally make a bit of a fool of yourself is something else altogether.

When a Matthew Broderick fan spotted the “Ferris Bueller” actor outside, of all places, a humble convenience store in Montauk, New York, he did himself proud. He didn’t squeal, he didn’t faint, and he certainly didn’t embarrass anybody. At least so he thought at the time.

The anecdote, originally regaled in its entirety by Twitter user @HonoredSpirit, was later shared on Time and tickled thousands of funny bones for very good reason.

“A few years ago, a friend of mine took his family out to Montauk on vacation and had stopped at a little store to get snacks,” the anecdote began. “Who do they see but that star of stage and screen, Matthew Broderick, also in the store with a friend. So my friend politely asks Broderick if he will take a photo with his daughter.”

Broderick, himself a father of three with his wife, actress Sarah Jessica Parker, was a gentleman, and happily obliged. However, Broderick had a friend with him. The camera-brandishing dad wanted the friend out of the shot.

Dad and daughter were star-struck at seeing a celebrity out and about in the real world, so Dad didn’t give this friend much consideration; frankly, he was taking up space in the shot. The eager photographer politely asked Broderick’s buddy to move to one side so that his little girl and his movie idol could take center stage.

Dad asked Broderick’s friend to step back a little further out of shot. Perhaps a little further still, and ... perfect. Broderick grinned, Dad took the photo, and the family left, delighted.

According to the Daily Mail’s account, the father returned to his car and immediately showed the enviable snap around to his expectant family. But they didn’t quite have the response he'd been hoping for; everybody burst out laughing.

Had he messed up the exposure? Was the shot out of focus? Was his daughter making a funny face?

Oh no. It was way, way more mortifying than that. Matthew Broderick’s “friend,” the affable man whom Dad had so casually ushered out of the photo, was none other than the massively celebrated comedian and TV personality Jerry Seinfeld.

That’s right, the Jerry Seinfeld! And the loveable Matthew Broderick, perhaps too polite to say anything, perhaps secretly enjoying the hilarious social faux pas, kept shtum the entire time.

Friends Jerry Seinfeld and Matthew Broderick at the "November" after-party at Bond 45 in New York, 2008 Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Can you believe that? It’s not every day that an ordinary guy gets to put comedy heavyweight Jerry Seinfeld in his place! We’re willing to bet that this snap-happy dad hasn’t been able to bear a single “Seinfeld” rerun since that fateful day.

His daughter, on the other hand, has comedy ammunition for life!