What character did Pat Finn play in Seinfeld? Details explored in depth

Seinfeld featured many memorable characters through its nine-season run, and Joe Mayo was one of them. The character appears as a party host in Season 9 of the hit comedy series in the episode titled ‘The Reverse Peephole’. The role was played by Pat Finn.

The Seinfeld episode, which debuted in 1998, continues to stand out as one of the show’s most unforgettable installments. In the episode, the group is at Joe's housewarming party, where they are assigned various jobs that they take up reluctantly.

While appearing on Seinfeld – This Podcast is Making Me Thirsty, Finn shared about his experience with the famous cast. He said,

“It was so nice because they didn’t have to but to be welcomed into any group is nice especially that group and you certainty want them to be nice because… you put them on such a high pedestal.”

Pat Finn has appeared in several other notable projects including Friends, Murphy Brown, The Middle and 3rd Rock from the Sun. The actor died on December 22, 2025, at the age of 60.

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What character did Pat Finn play in Seinfeld?

In Seinfeld, Pat Finn plays the role of Joe Mayo, who is a friend of the close-knit group Jerry (played by Jerry Seinfeld), George Costanza (played by Jason Alexander) and Elaine Benes (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Joe is known for giving different duties to people at his party. In the Season 9, episode titled ‘The Reverse Peephole’, Joe invites them to a party at his house. Geroge decides to get a chair from Delaware to avoid paying extra and agrees to get the furniture delivered late.

The three turn up for the party with just a photo of the chair. At the party, Elaine decides to throw David Puddy’s (played by Patrick Warburton) fur coat out of the window but later discovers that it belonged to Joe instead. Elaine does not want to spend for a new coat, but knows that she has to give it to back to him.

Later in the Sienfeld epsiode, Kramer shares that Newman (played by Wayne Knight) has got the fur coat, which they found on a tree, and she can get it from him. But Newman already gave it away to the super Silvio’s (played by Jon Polito) wife Svetlana, with whom he was secretly having an affair.

Meanwhile, Geroge is having a terrible back pain, thanks to the giant wallet he had been carrying around, and decides to use the massage chair they got for Joe, before giving it to him. On the other hand, Silvio suspects that his wife is having an affair when he comes upon the coat. Kramer tells him that it is a man’s coat and it belongs to Jerry.

Jerry starts flaunting the fur coat to keep up the act. He later discovers that Joe does not like the music he listens to and decides to cancel the order for the chair, only to learn that Geroge had been using it all along.

In a chance encounter towards the end of the Sienfeld episode, Elaine will share that Jerry is wearing Joe Mayo’s coat, which takes Silvio by surprise. Kramer will falsely state that Joe is having an affair with his wife. An enraged Silvio will attack Joe with a sock full of pennies.

Actor Pat Finn recently passed away at the age of 60. He was at his home in Los Angeles with his family.

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