The Hilarious Seinfeld Easter Egg You Likely Missed In Solar Opposites

Animated shows "Solar Opposites" and "Rick & Morty" have fundamentally different premises but share certain DNA, in part because both series share a co-creator and voice actor, Justin Roiland. Each show has a lot of very dark, science-fiction-based humor, with the characters having access to extremely advanced technology and life on other planets. And like "Rick & Morty," "Solar Opposites" has a lot of obscure or even obsessive pop culture references.

However, where Rick (Justin Roiland) and the other characters of "Rick & Morty" grew up on Earth, the aliens on "Solar Opposites" sometimes only understand humanity through the movies and shows they watch. In a 2021 interview with Mashable, Roiland emphasized how much he enjoys writing about pop culture within the context of another series. "Taking things that are a favorite for us and breathing fresh life into the fandom of it by letting the aliens be fans of it," Roiland said, "that's just really fun."

Of course, Earth pop culture enthusiasts may have already noticed the extremely nerdy "Seinfeld" reference in Season 1 of the Hulu show.

"Solar Opposites" Season 1, Episode 7 ("Terry and Korvo Steal a Bear") focuses on the shrunken human residents of The Wall, a terrarium in Yumyulack's (Sean Giambrone) room, where a team of rebels meets in a tiny replica of Jerry's apartment from "Seinfeld." They speculate that Yumyulack bought the near-perfect model online, and Lindsey (Andy Daly) even compliments the set's exact attention to detail.

In a 2020 interview with Cinema Blend, Justin Roiland revealed that the idea for the joke originated when he actually bought a tiny version of the set for himself, much like Yumyulack. "And then when we were writing," Roiland said, "I was like, 'It'd be really funny if we could put a Seinfeld set replica somewhere on The Wall.'"

Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that Seinfeld's apartment actually isn't a perfect fit for the tiny Wall denizens either. In actuality, the animated figures are even smaller than the faux set. Because this joke deepens the layers of meta-ness even further, "Solar Opposites" co-creator Mike McMahan chose to leave the sizing inconsistent, instead opting to have the characters address it directly. 

"I like in the show that the scale is off," McMahan said. "It's not even the right scale for them, and then the characters in the show comment on it."