Jerry Seinfeld: 'Comedy helped me rebel'

Jerry Seinfeld has revealed that he turned to comedy in his 20s to rebel against friends he believed were taking life too seriously.

The acclaimed comic first began performing after graduating from university in 1976, a decision he told The Guardian was motivated by a desire to stand out from his peers.

Seinfeld said: "I thought everyone was funny in the beginning. Then, in my early 20s, everybody started to get very serious, so I decided I would rather hang around with the people who still just wanted to be funny."

He added that he has a wide-ranging taste in humour, saying: "I love Chris Rock, Jerry Lewis and Bill Cosby. The great thing about comedy is that you don't really have to think about it, you just go, 'I like this guy, I don't like this guy' and it's all fine."

Seinfeld recently described his upcoming June 3 gig at London's O2 arena as a "big marking point" in his evolution as a stand-up comedian.

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Watch Jerry Seinfeld's comedy routine on a 2010 episode of The Late Show with David Letterman below: