The antics of Jerry Seinfeld and company amuse millions of people to this day. Unfortunately, quote the show too vigorously as a means of coming on to a married gal, like Iowa man John Preston, and you might find yourself fired.

A Cedar Falls man who repeated a gag from the “Seinfeld” show while at work has been fired for sexual harassment.

It’s the second case of an Iowan being fired for harassment stemming from an episode of the popular comedy series.

In the most recent case, John Preston and several of his co-workers at the Brain Injury Association of Iowa attended an outdoor retreat in July 2008. During the event, one of the female workers told her colleagues that whenever she or her husband sneezed, the other would respond by saying, “You are so good looking.”

A week after the retreat, Preston allegedly sent the female worker who initiated the joke a series of e-mails in which he reiterated that she was good looking.

The woman complained to her superiors, and Preston was cautioned about such comments. A few weeks later, Preston allegedly stopped the woman in a hallway at work and massaged her shoulders while speaking to her. That generated another complaint, and early this year Preston confronted the woman at a work-related event.

The case is similar to the 2004 firing of Ronald Knight, who worked as a manager at the Fareway grocery store in Shenandoah. Knight allegedly told a female subordinate that he had heard she was drunk and running naked through the streets the previous night. He also implied that her forgetfulness was due to lack of sex, and he telephoned her at home and asked what she was wearing.

Knight claimed that he was simply repeating comments heard on a “Seinfeld” show and that the remarks were made in jest. He was denied unemployment benefits.

Um, yeah, so I’m pretty sure that I missed the episode that this article references in regards to the 2004 firing of Ronald Knight. While I appreciate Knight’s efforts in blaming someone other than himself for being an idiot, I feel like an episode in which a female ran around naked and was then told by George that it was due to her lack of sex as he called her, panting into the phone and touching himself, would probably have been seared into my memory.

As for Mr. Preston, you might be able to blame the “You are so good looking” cracks on an episode of Seinfeld and an inside joke. But once you start massaging shoulders and confronting people about not sleeping with you, you’ve pretty much left joke territory. And entered the strategy I typically use for courtship. Nothing gets the panties dropping faster than a little poorly timed, unwanted massage and confrontation. It’s like my life is a Jackie Collins novel.

[via]