Jerry Seinfeld has shared yet another hot take, this time saying he’s nostalgic for the “dominant masculinity” among men from decades prior.
During an interview appearance on The Free Press’ Honestly with Bari Weiss podcast, the 70-year-old comedian promoted his new Netflix original Unfrosted, a film about the fictionalized origin of the Pop-Tart.
Seinfeld said part of the reason he wanted to create the film was for reasons beyond jokes about breakfast foods. He said the film, set in Michigan in 1963, is also about an “agreed-upon hierarchy” that used to exist in society amid that era.
According to Seinfeld, that hierarchy, which allowed for social comfortability among the masses, has been “absolutely vapourized in today’s moment.”
“I think that is why people lean on the horn and drive in the crazy way that they drive, because we have no sense of hierarchy, and as humans, we don’t really feel comfortable like that,” he described.
Seinfeld said the social hierarchy of the 1960s is what makes the era “attractive” looking — that is, apart from the civil rights issues and “a zillion” other problems from that era which host Weiss briefly acknowledged. When he was younger, in the 1960s, Seinfeld recalled always wanting to be a “real man,” like John F. Kennedy, Muhammad Ali or Sean Connery.
“I miss dominant masculinity,” Seinfeld proclaimed. “Yeah, I get the toxic masculinity thing. I get it, but still, I like a real man.”
Seinfeld, who alongside Weiss described himself as a “lone wolf,” also spoke extensively about comedy and comedy writing.
“Comedy is an extraordinarily simple binary outcome event,” he said. “Is it funny? Or it isn’t. And nobody cares really about anything else.”
Unfrosted is Seinfeld’s directorial debut, but unfortunately for the comedian, many audience members felt the film fell on the unfunny side of his described comedy binary. The movie has been largely panned among critics and currently boasts a 43 per cent critic’s score on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, the comedian said he doesn’t mind, and that he actually enjoys reading negative reviews about his work.
“The only thing I want to read is the absolute worst reviews that the movie received,” he admitted. “There’s nothing funnier to me than people complaining that ‘I didn’t laugh,’ because they want to laugh. I relate to it. I get it.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think of me,” Seinfeld continued. “Why would I think that I’m going to make something that everyone will like? What sense does that make? You’ve got to be insane to think that.”
During the interview, Seinfeld acknowledged Pro-Palestinian protesters that have made demonstrations at some of his events this year, including a student walk-out during his commencement speech at Duke University earlier this month.
The 70-year-old comedian, who is Jewish, has been an ongoing supporter of Israel. He was one of 700 Hollywood figures to sign an open letter condemning Hamas and supporting Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people.
“When we get protestors occasionally, I love to say to the audience, these young people, they’re trying to get engaged with politics, we have to just correct their aim a little bit,” he said. “They don’t seem to understand that as comedians, we really don’t control anything.”
“They want to express this sincere, intense rage, but again, a little off-target,” he laughed. “That’s, to me, comedic.”
Seinfeld called his trip to Israel after the Oct. 7 attack “the most powerful experience of my life.”
When asked why, Seinfeld choked back tears and struggled to speak.
He and Weiss agreed in today’s society it is easy to establish “mobs.”
“Let’s just talk politically, left and right. You’re watching mobs. They’re mobs,” Seinfeld said. “They’re mobs believing their own crap. That’s what a political party is. We’re going to make up a bunch of nonsense and we’ll all agree to it, right? Right. Let’s print out some bumper stickers and get out there, kids.”
This interview was not the only time during the extensive Unfrosted press tour that Seinfeld has said something to provoke ire, namely last month when Seinfeld said “PC crap” and the “extreme left” have killed TV comedy.
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Sarah Do Couto
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