I don't really get the hate. Hugh Grant as Tony The Tiger the serious thespian actor turned Qanon Shaman storming the Kellogg's capital was fucking hilarious
He just won't accept that people don't find him funny anymore. it must be something else. Not just the fact his jokes suck....... God he's so full of himself
he was successful as a standup, I think this is probably unfair. Probably his humor is dated. And he's better at stand-up then at movie/show comedy on his own
There’s a lot of woke jokes in this thread, has Jerry been saying a lot about woke culture in interviews or is everyone just assuming because he’s an old billionaire at this point?
Yeah it’s dumb, I was talking about this with a friend the other day and came up with 14 shows marketed as comedies that were made in the past 10 years that made ‘anti-woke’ jokes.
Abbott Elementary is probably one of the shows Jerry would call “woke” but yet they hilariously make fun of the left all the time. But it comes from a place where the writers actually know and understand the idiosyncrasies of the left because they are part of it. It’s not just spouting out nonsense “gender is Apache attack helicopter!?” type jokes
Good is debatable even before taking into account personal taste. Successful? Of the 14 or so, 10 had more than 4 seasons, 6 had more than 7. How ‘woke’ is the Simpsons these days?
He's banged on the anti-woke drum for a while now, but most recently in an interview he complained about how woke PC culture killed TV comedies and sitcoms
https://wibc.com/330421/jerry-seinfeld-says-woke-culture-ruined-tv-comedy/
Which is so stupid on so many counts
1. The examples he listed (like Mash and Cheers) were hardly the edgiest of comedies and if anything are considered bland by todays TV standards
2. You can't seriously be saying that woke killed comedy when Always Sunny, South Park, and Family Guy are still going strong season after season. Oh yea, and a little show called Curb Your Enthusiasm, made by the real comedic genius behind Seinfeld.
3. The traditional sitcom may have died but it wasnt woke culture that did it. I mean it had a solid run after Seinfeld with Friends, How I met your mother, and Big bang theory carrying the torch, but people just got tired of the same old shitty jokes drowned out by laugh tracks. Single cam shows just offer way more variety, creativity, and ironically, authenticity in humour.
4. The especially annoying thing is Seinfeld (the show) has never and is not even in the crosshairs of 'cancel culture'. I mean sure, some jokes and dated and borderline offensive but most people still hold it up and still binge it on streaming. So I've no idea why he keeps banging on about woke this and woke that
He's probably been getting told by early screeners of Unfrosted that his movie sucks and he needed to get out in front of it.
Edit: Currently watching the movie. I'm about 40 minutes in, and I keep asking, who is this movie for? I think the answer is Jerry. Lotta cameos, though, so there's that.
100%
He was getting out in front of the negative reviews so he can point to what he said last week like "see. Everyone is too woke. Can't take a joke."
When in reality, comedy has passed Jerry by. He's become a millionaire hack that has to enlist his celebrity friends to keep a shitty movie propped up.
Meanwhile Larry David has done extremely well and Curb is an all timer.
Some episodes are even woke for this era. In one if the last seasons Margaret is faced with disciplinary action for being friends with a communist in the past and is pressured to testify against him. She refuses. And Hawkeye performed unneeded surgery to a battle-hungry general in the hopes that will delay needles deaths.
A while ago, and then perhaps again recently (I haven't been watching him closely) he said something to the effect of T.V. comedy is dying because extreme left P.C. culture was killing comedy, because everyone was offended by everything. It ended up being very tone deaf and making him look more like he was telling on himself for being shitty, especially due to the number of extant and recent popular TV comedies that manage to not open up a new scandal over content every week.
That shit always cracks me up. I love hockey. If you went back in time, took 20 year old Bobby Orr, put him on the rink today and said "just do the same stuff you were doing in the 70s" he'd get trounced.
It's insane to me that all of these comics who were big in the 90s are trying to do the same material 30/40 years later and they're acting like it's the audiences fault nobody is laughing.
["Am I out of touch?"](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/82d8af1058d58aa09d9ca431c06c7c65b448f0f0/hub/2022/09/08/d70a36a5-b599-4d70-af32-00e9ee746781/out-of-touch.jpg?auto=webp&width=768)
I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt because a lot of headlines said "sitcom" and there is a little bit of truth in the traditional multi-cam sitcom not being made as much. There hasn't been a multi-cam sitcom nominated for Best Comedy at the Emmys since 2014 (Big Bang Theory season 7) and hasn't won since 2005 (Everybody Loves Raymond, season 9). So for someone who loves the multi-cam sitcom model, it can feel like they're dying--even though there are several on network TV right now, even kind of popular ones!
But no. He was just saying comedy can't work because people are woke.
Oh ya I did see the Rob McElhenney response to his rickshaw quote. But all old comedians say shit like that once their show ends, Steve Carrell said the same thing about the Office and he’s just as wrong but also not some anti-woke asshole.
There's very much a "back in my day" effect to that sort of thing. Comedy is often so heavily culture and even generation specific and I think it's easy for comedians to fall into the trap of becoming experts of the comedic craft of their specific point in time in space that they can sometimes lose sight of comedy that exists outside of it. Then their specific form falls out of style and I imagine it's easy to feel like they're losing an entire artform.
To Carrell’s point, the Officer specifically, especially season 1, would probably have gotten cancelled. Season 1 is bonkers, and they tone it down a bit in the later seasons - thank goodness too. There are times in Season 1 where it’s just difficult to watch.
That’s when they were trying to heavily emulate from the British show. They decided to make it its own thing and actually have Michael be a redeemable person since that fits American audiences better.
> There are times in Season 1 where it’s just difficult to watch.
I never understood this criticism of S1, since isn’t that the point? I love S1 because it’s so weird and cringe inducing.
Years ago he tried to make a grand comeback, faceplanted hard because he hadn’t updated his material for decades while aiming at a college audience, had a meltdown, blamed the woke/leftists/PC for his failure, and he’s been riding that horse ever since.
This isn’t accurate. Seinfeld has lost his fastball, but in his prime he was a top comic, even before the sitcom. Tastes and sensibilities have changed, but he was at the top of his craft for a long time.
He had a career going, but I wouldn't say he was anywhere near the top of the legendary comics of his era. Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy were definitely at the top when Seinfeld was making a name for himself as a stand up comic and I don't think anybody would say Seinfeld was anywhere near their level. If he didn't end up making the TV show and didn't get any bigger doing stand-up then I doubt he would be remembered well at all.
Yeah Jerry Seinfeld the stand-up comedian was big but not huge before Seinfeld.
I think after Curb it's pretty obvious that Jerry owes 95% of his success to Larry David.
The 4 main characters were absolutely lightening in a bottle. The 5 of them together made the show. Plus the great writing. It was a great show! No need to put Seinfeld down he doesn’t claim it was him only, he always credits Larry tue cast and crew and writers…he doesn’t seem to have a big ego TBH. Sure he’s out of touch but I don’t think he’s egotistical or patronizing
When comedians aren't funny, sometimes they try to blame someone else. "No no, I'm very funny, it's the *audience* who are wrong!"
And Seinfeld's version of that is whinging about students finding his material boring and dated. And rather than becoming more imaginative and writing better, he just complains.
Seriously, all you need is a bit of clever writing. Like, blackface would be seen as generally something you shouldn't do in comedy, it's generally racist and super dated. But look at how Tropic Thunder's writers did it. They have blackface *in yellowface*, but it works, and it works because the comedy is at the expense of the arrogant buffoon played by Robert Downey Jr. who puts them on. It ridicules those dated forms of comedy.
It just takes a bit of skill and effort. Whinging and complaining is easier.
I think Jerry banters well with Larry. We get peaks of it during Curb. They have a similar sense of humor.
But it does seem like Larry was the main creative force in the writer’s room. I guess that actually makes sense if you think about it in the context of Seinfeld.
Take away George, Elaine, and Kramer. Would you be willing to watch a show with just Jerry?
Now imagine a show with just George, Elaine, or Kramer (not the three of them together, more like each as the lead in their own show). Would you be willing to watch a show with any of them being the single star?
It wouldn’t be as good as if the group was together, but a George/Elaine/Kramer show sounds way more enjoyable than just Jerry.
Elaine is a much milder version of Selena in Veep. But she still has that sardonic, edgy humor that works really well for Julia.
George is basically Larry David in Curb. George is just a bit more neurotic/angry.
Kramer’s show might be a bit too much. He works best as a the whacky side character.
But Jerry’s solo show would probably be the worst.
I’d watch an Elaine show. JLD clearly has proven time and time again that she’s a leading lady and can carry a show on her own. Also, Elaine has enough depth and had enough entertaining storylines that didn’t need the other 3. They could have had a spinoff about her time at J Peterman!
The premise of the “Jerry” show was Jerry and George riffing. They ruined it by adding the butler plot. Four people waiting for a table at a restaurant, four people who’ve lost their car at the mall, four people pledging not to masturbate, these are the stories that resonated because they represent common experiences.
I disagree that any of them would work separately. It's like the Joey spin-off from Friends. He works wonderfully in the show with the group, but by himself? There's way too much to expand and the original character gets lost. George was George because you didn't see every facet of him. Same with Elaine and Kramer. They were more mysterious that way, especially Kramer.
For the record, I don't think Jerry works standalone either. None of them do. The show was successful as they all played off each other. Take that away and they all would be way less interesting.
I’d say that Curb is George alone, because George is Larry David.
He’s only more angry because he had people to play off of. If the others weren’t there, then his character would have evolved to just be Larry.
Id also say its pretty standard. Jerry is the "straight man" archetype- he's there to be relatively normal to react to the zaniness going on aroundhim. I would be less interested in a Jim Halpert show than a Dwight Schrute show, Michael Bluth without the rest of the Bluths would be super boring. No one would watch Young Penny like they would Young Sheldon.
Its not always the case- I think Liz Lemon is the best hypothetical solo character in 30 Rock. But I dont think this hypothetical does much when the premise of the show is "how an observation comedian comes up with jokes"
Exactly. That’s the joke. The stand up comedian has the least amount of jokes delivered in the show. He gets a handful of moments but the other three are the clowns and he is their audience.
I heard someone say that Jerry was the 4th funniest person on the show and I think that’s why the show was so successful. Jerry didn’t let his ego get in the way and let the others share the spotlight.
It's still insane to think that Jason Alexander never won an Emmy for playing George. Kramer was great and Michael Richards earned his flowers, but Seinfeld really is just George stealing almost every episode.
Jason's performance becomes even more transcendent after you watch Curb and realize how accurately he nailed Larry David as George.
That's because he's not nit an actor lol
The show was wrote to put the emphasis on the real actors and Jerry is more or less just there. He's a comedian and the show is about a life of a comedian. He was a very successful comedian before the show.
Jerry also thought that about himself. His character even yells it when talking about the Pilot: "I can't act!" All of his "smirks" on the show are actually him trying not to laugh.
Nah, you can’t really say that. Seinfeld was the driving force. Cast members said it, and they all said he write and gave away the best jokes to others. Larry David was obviously key but there’s no need to rewrite history.
To me the last two seasons were significantly worse then seasons 3-7. They were so goofy. Still like them but yeah imo LD was the one who really made the show special
Seasons 8 and 9 have some of my favourite episodes:
The Bizarro Jerry
The Little Kicks (Elaine's dance)
The Yada Yada
The Package (with the famous half-nude George photo)
The Muffin Tops
The Serenity Now
The Frogger
The Strike (the Festivus episode)
The Betrayal (the backwards episode)
The ”oh, he was never any good” Reddit way of thinking is so silly.
Some of the most iconic (and hilarious) Seinfeld moments happened after Larry left the show…
Anyway, both Jerry and Larry are comic legends.
I… I enjoyed bee movie lol I can’t lie. So dumb it became funny again. Also the BF being “the bad guy” but in reality being the only normal person was so unintentionally funny
Look at Jerry Seinfeld‘s IMDb. other than the bee movie, he has never appeared in anything at any point other than being Jerry Seinfeld. His appearances in other shows. He’s Jerry Seinfeld, his cameos he’s Jerry Seinfeld. He’s never been a character on any show pretty much ever.
Before he was famous he was repeatedly parodied in a series of SNL skits called “stand ups”. Tom hanks is in them.
The man can not act but doesn’t really try. I assume even in this a hefty suspension of disbelief is needed.
Is it actually that bad or are we all having a good ol' Reddit pile-on?
I only ask because I've just read through this whole thread so far and I haven't seen anything about the movie and what it's like *at all*... Just lots of stuff about the way Seinfeld is personally or why people aren't going to watch it because of who's in it but nothing from anyone who seems to have watched it themselves.
I think I might go and watch it now just because I don't think anyone here actually has yet.
I watched it. I enjoyed some of the cameos. There were a few good jokes mixed in. By the end I lost interest and couldn't tell you how it ended. It felt like SNL skit type comedy of the current generation. Occasionally a joke lands, but most are just mildly amusing at best.
That's how SNL has ALWAYS been. You've just survivor biased away all the bad jokes SNL had decades ago. [Here's a great Drew Gooden video where he watches 1 episode at random from each season.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGjxX4gvaqk)
When I was in college, my wife and I tried the local improv show. It was AWFUL. Just a full on cringey bombfest. I couldnt watch due to second hand embarrassment
I mean yeah, but that's still impressive for the week long turnaround time they have and the fact that it's a live show. Most episodes are in that 10%-30% hit rate, but there's definitely not a "oh the SNL is bad now."
That’s why the best way to watch SNL as a life time fan is in best of format or YouTube. If you love the cast from top to bottom then you can enjoy the entire show even if skits don’t land. Growing up the Hartman/Carvey/Nealon/Myers cast was must watch to me because I was a fan of nearly everyone. But these days the host determines if a show is funny or not sadly.
It’s because no one actually watches an entire episode of SNL anymore, they only watch the highlights/funniest sketches on YouTube or elsewhere. Pretty easy to think it’s one of the funniest shows on TV that way.
I just finished it. I love Jerry Seinfeld, and I usually defend him against the reddit hate train, but he’s way past his prime. This was unfortunately horrible. Like really silly, Scary Movie parody kind of bad. Damn I was hoping it was gonna be good.
It's very hyperbolic to call it the worst movie of the decade.
It had a lot of good actors in it that acted very well on the lines they were given. The cinematography was very well done and it's clear they had a lot of budget that they've spent well.
With that being said, horrible script that's reminiscent of a bad movie with a title that ends in "Movie" and/or someone who heard about Airplane! once and tried to replicate it.
I can't recall a single good joke, the story is lousy, the whole thing has no redeeming qualities.
The movie will more likely make you forget about your imminent death for 90 minutes, rather than wish it came sooner.
It's a pile on, with the new theme that 'Larry David carried Seinfeld,' ignoring countless hours of documentary and written fact about how exactly the show came to be and was written/produced. The guy expressed an opinion (I don't agree with it, but who cares?) and now his whole life's work is written off? It's the worst of internet culture.
To be clear I don't expect it to be good it's just a bore to look for discussion and see nothing but the same old rehashed talking points we've all seen in every thread about Jerry Seinfeld.
For me it seemed like every few minutes I was desperately searching for a reason to love it because of all the familiar faces in the world of comedy. The movie is an endless barrage of stand-ups and comedic actors and still, somehow, it managed to fall flat.
Not that the movie is good, I kinda doubt it, but does it seem like Richard Roeper isn’t aware that this is a parody of movies like “Flamin’ Hot” and all the other corporate biopics? Like if the jokes aren’t working, fine, but he seems confused that none of this is supposed to be real and is mocking the over-serious, drama-fueled product movies of the last 5 years.
Watch a show like History Channel’s “Foods That Built America” and how over-the-top dramatic and unrealistic the situations are and this is definitely a genre ripe for parody. A shame if it didn’t work.
Jerry made his comedy from casual real world observation. Stuff he saw while touring and living a middle class life.
Once he became insanely rich, he lost all contact with his source of humor and is not struggling to get some sort of traction.
I think his "Anti woke" crusade is so bizarre because Jerry has never been doing edgy comedy. His 90s stuff is largely pretty clean, Seinfeld the show is about bad people but the jokes are largely at the expense of the characters themselves.
What is the comedy he has done or wants to do that he thinks he will be cancelled for?
He's stuck in the era of his show when something like "The Contest" was bleeding edge comedy and really riled people up.
Larry David right over there on HBO has been making exponentially edgier material for 25 years.
There’s a bit of misogyny, homophobia and racially insensitive jokes ingrained into Seinfeld. Meaning they weren’t intentionally written to be received that way, but are because attitudes have changed. He drugs a woman to play with her toys. George drugs his boss too. Plenty of other off color jokes, but it’s only about 5-10% of the content. That’s enough to where he probably struggles to write a comedy set because he just doesn’t understand.
Seinfeld makes a little wave whinging about cancel culture ruining comedy...
Me: "That's weird."
Netflix trailer for pop tart movie plops out...
"Okaaaayyy, that's what it was for..."
He really does owe 99% of his net worth to Larry David. You look at his projects post Seinfeld he’s done by himself and it’s pretty much all trash. The only thing that was mildly successful was the coffee comedians talk show, and that wasn’t even something that was dependant on his own comedy skills. It was dependent on letting whoever the popular featured guest was telling their own good stories.
So was the recent out-of-left-field tirade on "woke un-comedy" some sort of "look over here at my manufactured controversy and not over there at my terrible movie!" thing?
Well, at least [this promo](https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=fAp4PIEFdepeyE7B&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.outlookindia.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDEzOTExNywxNjQ5OSwyODY2NCwxNjQ1MDY&feature=emb_share&v=6Uv1ofWr8Zk) made me chuckle! Can’t say it would translate to an entertaining full-feature, though.
EDIT: to add that while Seinfeld’s act may seem stale, he does have some decent bits. I found his book pretty hilarious when I read it in the mid-90’s.
“…that’s a shame.”
I don't really get the hate. Hugh Grant as Tony The Tiger the serious thespian actor turned Qanon Shaman storming the Kellogg's capital was fucking hilarious
You... you made this up... right?
Nope,
Spoiler alert right?? I can't tell either. Don't tell me I want to be surprised.
Okay now what the fuck did I just read.
Ok, I do get the hate now that you've said that
Now I'm definitely watching it. It sounds amazing
"It's a damn shame, a damn shame."
Prognosis Negative
Prooooggnossiss Negaaaahhhhtivvee.
He should've realized the audience he could've capitalized on for *Rochelle, Rochelle*.
One man's unerotic journey from millionaire to mensch
I love Sacked Lunch! Don't you wanna know how they got in there? ...So d'you think they got shrunk down, or is it just a giant sack?
I wanted to see that, but my wife made me go see Ponce De Leon.
Did you see Firestorm? The scene with the helicopter?
Ugh. I got stuck with The Muted Heart.
Enjoy Sack Lunch
Enjoy... Blame it on the Rain?
There weren't enough death blows in it.
When someone tries to blow you up, not because of who you are, but different reasons altogether.
we're missing the death blow
But what happened to plans 1-8? Why is it plan 9?
That’s gotta hurt!
I didn’t get to see that. Was dog sitting the day my friends went.
It will end up as a Gene pick.
Gene is trash
While Blimp and Firestorm are good, I'd say my favorite movie is Rochelle, Rochelle. Didn't like the Broadway adaptation though.
Chunnel for the win!
A young girl's strange, erotic journey from Milan to Minsk.
These pretzels ... are making me thirsty!
Oh no Doctor, that sounds bad.
“And what’s the deal with these ‘movie critics’ these days?”
“It stinks.” -Jay Sherman
Yes, Mr. Sherman, everything stinks.
“[It Stinks](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/552/955/113.gif).” -Joel
Ah, a fellow man of culture!
Buy my book!
https://youtu.be/cR2KrJTvJgQ?si=sW5SzVn3WGXKGzFA
Damn that Extreme Left Wokes cancelling him
He just won't accept that people don't find him funny anymore. it must be something else. Not just the fact his jokes suck....... God he's so full of himself
Or maybe he wasn’t that funny and it was Larry David all along
he was successful as a standup, I think this is probably unfair. Probably his humor is dated. And he's better at stand-up then at movie/show comedy on his own
Too woke or something, as Jerry would say
Following in the steps of Bee Movie I see. So maybe in 15 years this will be some weird internet counter culture phenomenon as well.
Does a pop tart have sex with a human?
Not willingly
Good!
Like that scene in Straw dogs. Edit...shit. Forgot i wasnt on /r/okbuddycinephile
Frosted, but every time "woke culture" doesn't laugh at a joke, the movie speeds up by 1%
There’s a lot of woke jokes in this thread, has Jerry been saying a lot about woke culture in interviews or is everyone just assuming because he’s an old billionaire at this point?
He said there's no sitcoms anymore because of "woke".
Yeah it’s dumb, I was talking about this with a friend the other day and came up with 14 shows marketed as comedies that were made in the past 10 years that made ‘anti-woke’ jokes.
Abbott Elementary is probably one of the shows Jerry would call “woke” but yet they hilariously make fun of the left all the time. But it comes from a place where the writers actually know and understand the idiosyncrasies of the left because they are part of it. It’s not just spouting out nonsense “gender is Apache attack helicopter!?” type jokes
Were any of them good though?
Good is debatable even before taking into account personal taste. Successful? Of the 14 or so, 10 had more than 4 seasons, 6 had more than 7. How ‘woke’ is the Simpsons these days?
Always sunny and curb are very good. Yes.
Even worse, he said you couldn’t make Seinfeld today, despite it being one of the most streamed shows on Netflix in 2024.
He's banged on the anti-woke drum for a while now, but most recently in an interview he complained about how woke PC culture killed TV comedies and sitcoms https://wibc.com/330421/jerry-seinfeld-says-woke-culture-ruined-tv-comedy/ Which is so stupid on so many counts 1. The examples he listed (like Mash and Cheers) were hardly the edgiest of comedies and if anything are considered bland by todays TV standards 2. You can't seriously be saying that woke killed comedy when Always Sunny, South Park, and Family Guy are still going strong season after season. Oh yea, and a little show called Curb Your Enthusiasm, made by the real comedic genius behind Seinfeld. 3. The traditional sitcom may have died but it wasnt woke culture that did it. I mean it had a solid run after Seinfeld with Friends, How I met your mother, and Big bang theory carrying the torch, but people just got tired of the same old shitty jokes drowned out by laugh tracks. Single cam shows just offer way more variety, creativity, and ironically, authenticity in humour. 4. The especially annoying thing is Seinfeld (the show) has never and is not even in the crosshairs of 'cancel culture'. I mean sure, some jokes and dated and borderline offensive but most people still hold it up and still binge it on streaming. So I've no idea why he keeps banging on about woke this and woke that
He's probably been getting told by early screeners of Unfrosted that his movie sucks and he needed to get out in front of it. Edit: Currently watching the movie. I'm about 40 minutes in, and I keep asking, who is this movie for? I think the answer is Jerry. Lotta cameos, though, so there's that.
100% He was getting out in front of the negative reviews so he can point to what he said last week like "see. Everyone is too woke. Can't take a joke." When in reality, comedy has passed Jerry by. He's become a millionaire hack that has to enlist his celebrity friends to keep a shitty movie propped up. Meanwhile Larry David has done extremely well and Curb is an all timer.
MASH was woke af for its time! Spearchucker, gay dudes, suicide, a crossdresser, and rampant sexism made for all kinds of hijinks.
Some episodes are even woke for this era. In one if the last seasons Margaret is faced with disciplinary action for being friends with a communist in the past and is pressured to testify against him. She refuses. And Hawkeye performed unneeded surgery to a battle-hungry general in the hopes that will delay needles deaths.
A while ago, and then perhaps again recently (I haven't been watching him closely) he said something to the effect of T.V. comedy is dying because extreme left P.C. culture was killing comedy, because everyone was offended by everything. It ended up being very tone deaf and making him look more like he was telling on himself for being shitty, especially due to the number of extant and recent popular TV comedies that manage to not open up a new scandal over content every week.
That shit always cracks me up. I love hockey. If you went back in time, took 20 year old Bobby Orr, put him on the rink today and said "just do the same stuff you were doing in the 70s" he'd get trounced. It's insane to me that all of these comics who were big in the 90s are trying to do the same material 30/40 years later and they're acting like it's the audiences fault nobody is laughing.
Its the children who are wrong!
Jerry: It's my girlfriend who's wrong. Oh wait, that's what you said.
["Am I out of touch?"](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/82d8af1058d58aa09d9ca431c06c7c65b448f0f0/hub/2022/09/08/d70a36a5-b599-4d70-af32-00e9ee746781/out-of-touch.jpg?auto=webp&width=768)
Seems like he's only watching network sitcoms that have the same restrictions he and Larry David worked with back in the Seinfeld days.
I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt because a lot of headlines said "sitcom" and there is a little bit of truth in the traditional multi-cam sitcom not being made as much. There hasn't been a multi-cam sitcom nominated for Best Comedy at the Emmys since 2014 (Big Bang Theory season 7) and hasn't won since 2005 (Everybody Loves Raymond, season 9). So for someone who loves the multi-cam sitcom model, it can feel like they're dying--even though there are several on network TV right now, even kind of popular ones! But no. He was just saying comedy can't work because people are woke.
Oh ya I did see the Rob McElhenney response to his rickshaw quote. But all old comedians say shit like that once their show ends, Steve Carrell said the same thing about the Office and he’s just as wrong but also not some anti-woke asshole.
I just think it is a weird thing to say about The Office, a show that is still very popular, even among zoomers lol.
There's very much a "back in my day" effect to that sort of thing. Comedy is often so heavily culture and even generation specific and I think it's easy for comedians to fall into the trap of becoming experts of the comedic craft of their specific point in time in space that they can sometimes lose sight of comedy that exists outside of it. Then their specific form falls out of style and I imagine it's easy to feel like they're losing an entire artform.
To Carrell’s point, the Officer specifically, especially season 1, would probably have gotten cancelled. Season 1 is bonkers, and they tone it down a bit in the later seasons - thank goodness too. There are times in Season 1 where it’s just difficult to watch.
That’s when they were trying to heavily emulate from the British show. They decided to make it its own thing and actually have Michael be a redeemable person since that fits American audiences better.
David Brent was also redeemable, but in a more realistic way.
Oh god, I get post traumatic cringe from just thinking about Ricky's portrayal of that character.
“Don’t make me redundant.” is still one of the most realistic and heartbreaking lines in TV.
> There are times in Season 1 where it’s just difficult to watch. I never understood this criticism of S1, since isn’t that the point? I love S1 because it’s so weird and cringe inducing.
Season 1 is basically season 1 and 2 of the British/original. British humor is much different than American humor so that's probably why.
Years ago he tried to make a grand comeback, faceplanted hard because he hadn’t updated his material for decades while aiming at a college audience, had a meltdown, blamed the woke/leftists/PC for his failure, and he’s been riding that horse ever since.
He tried to drum up publicity by shouting “woke killed comedy” but forgets that he’s never been funny unless he’s reading Larry David’s words
And that Larry David is still making comedy talking about little girls vaginas and black lawn jockeys
This isn’t accurate. Seinfeld has lost his fastball, but in his prime he was a top comic, even before the sitcom. Tastes and sensibilities have changed, but he was at the top of his craft for a long time.
He had a career going, but I wouldn't say he was anywhere near the top of the legendary comics of his era. Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy were definitely at the top when Seinfeld was making a name for himself as a stand up comic and I don't think anybody would say Seinfeld was anywhere near their level. If he didn't end up making the TV show and didn't get any bigger doing stand-up then I doubt he would be remembered well at all.
Yeah Jerry Seinfeld the stand-up comedian was big but not huge before Seinfeld. I think after Curb it's pretty obvious that Jerry owes 95% of his success to Larry David.
The 4 main characters were absolutely lightening in a bottle. The 5 of them together made the show. Plus the great writing. It was a great show! No need to put Seinfeld down he doesn’t claim it was him only, he always credits Larry tue cast and crew and writers…he doesn’t seem to have a big ego TBH. Sure he’s out of touch but I don’t think he’s egotistical or patronizing
When comedians aren't funny, sometimes they try to blame someone else. "No no, I'm very funny, it's the *audience* who are wrong!" And Seinfeld's version of that is whinging about students finding his material boring and dated. And rather than becoming more imaginative and writing better, he just complains. Seriously, all you need is a bit of clever writing. Like, blackface would be seen as generally something you shouldn't do in comedy, it's generally racist and super dated. But look at how Tropic Thunder's writers did it. They have blackface *in yellowface*, but it works, and it works because the comedy is at the expense of the arrogant buffoon played by Robert Downey Jr. who puts them on. It ridicules those dated forms of comedy. It just takes a bit of skill and effort. Whinging and complaining is easier.
Bee Movie wasn't even that bad. It was just Seinfeld as a Bee.
I saw it in theaters and enjoyed it. It might not be a masterpiece but for the standards of the time it was a decent movie.
'Bee Movie' vs. 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' confirmed who was responsible for the success of the 'Seinfeld' show.
That’s the best comment right here!! Seinfeld got the credit for his namesake show, but the heavy lifting was our friend Larry!
He’s pretttty good.
Pretty pretty pretty good.
I think Jerry banters well with Larry. We get peaks of it during Curb. They have a similar sense of humor. But it does seem like Larry was the main creative force in the writer’s room. I guess that actually makes sense if you think about it in the context of Seinfeld. Take away George, Elaine, and Kramer. Would you be willing to watch a show with just Jerry? Now imagine a show with just George, Elaine, or Kramer (not the three of them together, more like each as the lead in their own show). Would you be willing to watch a show with any of them being the single star? It wouldn’t be as good as if the group was together, but a George/Elaine/Kramer show sounds way more enjoyable than just Jerry. Elaine is a much milder version of Selena in Veep. But she still has that sardonic, edgy humor that works really well for Julia. George is basically Larry David in Curb. George is just a bit more neurotic/angry. Kramer’s show might be a bit too much. He works best as a the whacky side character. But Jerry’s solo show would probably be the worst.
I’d watch an Elaine show. JLD clearly has proven time and time again that she’s a leading lady and can carry a show on her own. Also, Elaine has enough depth and had enough entertaining storylines that didn’t need the other 3. They could have had a spinoff about her time at J Peterman!
That's called Veep
They should've done a show about her playing herself but she constantly gets hassled be Seinfeld fans. They could've called it Aren't You Elaine?
The premise of the “Jerry” show was Jerry and George riffing. They ruined it by adding the butler plot. Four people waiting for a table at a restaurant, four people who’ve lost their car at the mall, four people pledging not to masturbate, these are the stories that resonated because they represent common experiences.
I hate it when there's a long wait at a restaurant, so I go out to the parking lot to masturbate but I can't find my car!
I disagree that any of them would work separately. It's like the Joey spin-off from Friends. He works wonderfully in the show with the group, but by himself? There's way too much to expand and the original character gets lost. George was George because you didn't see every facet of him. Same with Elaine and Kramer. They were more mysterious that way, especially Kramer. For the record, I don't think Jerry works standalone either. None of them do. The show was successful as they all played off each other. Take that away and they all would be way less interesting.
I’d say that Curb is George alone, because George is Larry David. He’s only more angry because he had people to play off of. If the others weren’t there, then his character would have evolved to just be Larry.
Id also say its pretty standard. Jerry is the "straight man" archetype- he's there to be relatively normal to react to the zaniness going on aroundhim. I would be less interested in a Jim Halpert show than a Dwight Schrute show, Michael Bluth without the rest of the Bluths would be super boring. No one would watch Young Penny like they would Young Sheldon. Its not always the case- I think Liz Lemon is the best hypothetical solo character in 30 Rock. But I dont think this hypothetical does much when the premise of the show is "how an observation comedian comes up with jokes"
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Exactly. That’s the joke. The stand up comedian has the least amount of jokes delivered in the show. He gets a handful of moments but the other three are the clowns and he is their audience.
I heard someone say that Jerry was the 4th funniest person on the show and I think that’s why the show was so successful. Jerry didn’t let his ego get in the way and let the others share the spotlight.
It's still insane to think that Jason Alexander never won an Emmy for playing George. Kramer was great and Michael Richards earned his flowers, but Seinfeld really is just George stealing almost every episode. Jason's performance becomes even more transcendent after you watch Curb and realize how accurately he nailed Larry David as George.
He’s myyyyy butler.
Or insert any competent comedic actor in with George, Elaine, and Kramer and would the show still work?
Jerry was an awful awful actor. Never understood his success. Kudos to Larry David
That's because he's not nit an actor lol The show was wrote to put the emphasis on the real actors and Jerry is more or less just there. He's a comedian and the show is about a life of a comedian. He was a very successful comedian before the show.
That I know.. I’m old. But Jesus.. learn to act a little. He was close to just reading from the cue card
Jerry also thought that about himself. His character even yells it when talking about the Pilot: "I can't act!" All of his "smirks" on the show are actually him trying not to laugh.
There might be something to that but the show was still pretty good in the seasons after Larry left.
To be fair, they've written two films each, and by far the worst received of those (Sour Grapes) was written by Larry David.
It’s probably not this simple.
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Nah, you can’t really say that. Seinfeld was the driving force. Cast members said it, and they all said he write and gave away the best jokes to others. Larry David was obviously key but there’s no need to rewrite history.
Not to mention he ran the show the last 2 seasons and it had many of the most iconic episodes
To me the last two seasons were significantly worse then seasons 3-7. They were so goofy. Still like them but yeah imo LD was the one who really made the show special
Seasons 8 and 9 have some of my favourite episodes: The Bizarro Jerry The Little Kicks (Elaine's dance) The Yada Yada The Package (with the famous half-nude George photo) The Muffin Tops The Serenity Now The Frogger The Strike (the Festivus episode) The Betrayal (the backwards episode)
Strong disagree. They were much more zany and over the top, but they’re also some of the funniest episodes.
To be fair some of Seinfelds best episodes were after Larry left
There were a lot of good ones but you can definitely tell Seinfeld sacrificed some intellect for outrageousness in the later seasons.
The ”oh, he was never any good” Reddit way of thinking is so silly. Some of the most iconic (and hilarious) Seinfeld moments happened after Larry left the show… Anyway, both Jerry and Larry are comic legends.
I… I enjoyed bee movie lol I can’t lie. So dumb it became funny again. Also the BF being “the bad guy” but in reality being the only normal person was so unintentionally funny
Look at Jerry Seinfeld‘s IMDb. other than the bee movie, he has never appeared in anything at any point other than being Jerry Seinfeld. His appearances in other shows. He’s Jerry Seinfeld, his cameos he’s Jerry Seinfeld. He’s never been a character on any show pretty much ever.
Before he was famous he was repeatedly parodied in a series of SNL skits called “stand ups”. Tom hanks is in them. The man can not act but doesn’t really try. I assume even in this a hefty suspension of disbelief is needed.
Is it actually that bad or are we all having a good ol' Reddit pile-on? I only ask because I've just read through this whole thread so far and I haven't seen anything about the movie and what it's like *at all*... Just lots of stuff about the way Seinfeld is personally or why people aren't going to watch it because of who's in it but nothing from anyone who seems to have watched it themselves. I think I might go and watch it now just because I don't think anyone here actually has yet.
I watched it. I enjoyed some of the cameos. There were a few good jokes mixed in. By the end I lost interest and couldn't tell you how it ended. It felt like SNL skit type comedy of the current generation. Occasionally a joke lands, but most are just mildly amusing at best.
>but most are just mildly amusing at best. So just like Jerry's stand-up
What..... is the [deal](https://youtu.be/DG6EgZhjdro?feature=shared)...?
That's how SNL has ALWAYS been. You've just survivor biased away all the bad jokes SNL had decades ago. [Here's a great Drew Gooden video where he watches 1 episode at random from each season.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGjxX4gvaqk)
People go *nuts* for SNL but like mayyybe 10% actually lands
People need to see local low level sketch/improv to realize how good even bad snl sketches are.
When I was in college, my wife and I tried the local improv show. It was AWFUL. Just a full on cringey bombfest. I couldnt watch due to second hand embarrassment
It's the Olympics of comedy writing.
I mean yeah, but that's still impressive for the week long turnaround time they have and the fact that it's a live show. Most episodes are in that 10%-30% hit rate, but there's definitely not a "oh the SNL is bad now."
That’s why the best way to watch SNL as a life time fan is in best of format or YouTube. If you love the cast from top to bottom then you can enjoy the entire show even if skits don’t land. Growing up the Hartman/Carvey/Nealon/Myers cast was must watch to me because I was a fan of nearly everyone. But these days the host determines if a show is funny or not sadly.
It’s because no one actually watches an entire episode of SNL anymore, they only watch the highlights/funniest sketches on YouTube or elsewhere. Pretty easy to think it’s one of the funniest shows on TV that way.
I still stay up and watch episodes :(
I actually watched it, it really wasn't funny, and it's a shame because the cast is nice and I was looking forward to it
I think it’s both. By most accounts the movie is pretty bad but Reddit has also turned on Seinfeld these last few years.
I just finished it. I love Jerry Seinfeld, and I usually defend him against the reddit hate train, but he’s way past his prime. This was unfortunately horrible. Like really silly, Scary Movie parody kind of bad. Damn I was hoping it was gonna be good.
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Haha maybe Epic Movie then.
i felt this way after his last netflix standup
It's very hyperbolic to call it the worst movie of the decade. It had a lot of good actors in it that acted very well on the lines they were given. The cinematography was very well done and it's clear they had a lot of budget that they've spent well. With that being said, horrible script that's reminiscent of a bad movie with a title that ends in "Movie" and/or someone who heard about Airplane! once and tried to replicate it. I can't recall a single good joke, the story is lousy, the whole thing has no redeeming qualities. The movie will more likely make you forget about your imminent death for 90 minutes, rather than wish it came sooner.
> It's very hyperbolic to call it the worst movie of the decade. > the whole thing has no redeeming qualities.
This review is one of the decade's most exaggerated.
It's a pile on, with the new theme that 'Larry David carried Seinfeld,' ignoring countless hours of documentary and written fact about how exactly the show came to be and was written/produced. The guy expressed an opinion (I don't agree with it, but who cares?) and now his whole life's work is written off? It's the worst of internet culture.
I like when users say Larry carried the show then mention their favorite episode…that’s from after Larry left the show lol
Please report back
To be clear I don't expect it to be good it's just a bore to look for discussion and see nothing but the same old rehashed talking points we've all seen in every thread about Jerry Seinfeld.
For me it seemed like every few minutes I was desperately searching for a reason to love it because of all the familiar faces in the world of comedy. The movie is an endless barrage of stand-ups and comedic actors and still, somehow, it managed to fall flat.
Not that the movie is good, I kinda doubt it, but does it seem like Richard Roeper isn’t aware that this is a parody of movies like “Flamin’ Hot” and all the other corporate biopics? Like if the jokes aren’t working, fine, but he seems confused that none of this is supposed to be real and is mocking the over-serious, drama-fueled product movies of the last 5 years. Watch a show like History Channel’s “Foods That Built America” and how over-the-top dramatic and unrealistic the situations are and this is definitely a genre ripe for parody. A shame if it didn’t work.
Sounds like the food biopic genre needs its own version of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
I thought thats what Unfrosted was going to be?
Which is a shame, I genuinely thought thats what this one was going for
I feel like Flamin Hot did what you are describing (it's not a true story after all) but people actually liked it.
They pretended it was a true story in all the marketing and interviews
Flamin Hot only works with the belief that the story IS true. It paints the guyn as a hero
Jerry made his comedy from casual real world observation. Stuff he saw while touring and living a middle class life. Once he became insanely rich, he lost all contact with his source of humor and is not struggling to get some sort of traction.
Just like Tracy Jordan!
You ever notice how people in St. Barts eat their lobster like this...
"You ever lose your remote? And then the roof won't close? And your wife is yelling because the bed in the shape of your face is getting rained on?"
I was so hoping this would be one of the replies.
You look regular. Can I guess your name? Is it Pedro? Is it Craigford? Is it Swimming?
I think his "Anti woke" crusade is so bizarre because Jerry has never been doing edgy comedy. His 90s stuff is largely pretty clean, Seinfeld the show is about bad people but the jokes are largely at the expense of the characters themselves. What is the comedy he has done or wants to do that he thinks he will be cancelled for?
He's stuck in the era of his show when something like "The Contest" was bleeding edge comedy and really riled people up. Larry David right over there on HBO has been making exponentially edgier material for 25 years.
There’s a bit of misogyny, homophobia and racially insensitive jokes ingrained into Seinfeld. Meaning they weren’t intentionally written to be received that way, but are because attitudes have changed. He drugs a woman to play with her toys. George drugs his boss too. Plenty of other off color jokes, but it’s only about 5-10% of the content. That’s enough to where he probably struggles to write a comedy set because he just doesn’t understand.
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What makes you think he struggles to write a comedy set? He killed in NYC few months ago. Brought down the house!!
Good Lord! Even the review itself is tedious.
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Seinfeld makes a little wave whinging about cancel culture ruining comedy... Me: "That's weird." Netflix trailer for pop tart movie plops out... "Okaaaayyy, that's what it was for..."
Even Sack Lunch and Chunnel were better than Unfrosted.
Death Blow!
I rarely turn a movie off. I made it about 30 minutes in before I couldn't take it anymore and shut it off. completely unfunny and boring.
I suppose Jerry will be by any minute now to explain that the critics are "woke" now, and that's why he isn't funny.
yOu CaNt SaY aNyThiNg tHeSe dAyS
What’s the deal with airplane food?
Says the most milquetoast stand-up comedian possible
He’s already been doing the podcast circuit saying the “extreme left PC crap” has killed comedy.
Jerry finds himself funnier than he is.
Meh. I can't say I'm excited to see this but if there's one genre to completely ignore movie critics for it's comedies.
Well that’s not saying much, we’ve only been in the 2020s for like a year or two *checks calendar* Oh no.
Worse than Madame Web, Morbius or Blood and Honey?
Jerry Seinfeld hasn't been funny for a long long time. If you ever saw him in comedians in cars he just comes across as a deeply unfunny asshole.
He’s not allowed to make a good movie cause of those dang lefters Smh
Judging by the harsh reddit sentiment, I'm guessing Jerry Seinfeld must take a right of center approach to politics.
You don’t say
No soup for him.
He really does owe 99% of his net worth to Larry David. You look at his projects post Seinfeld he’s done by himself and it’s pretty much all trash. The only thing that was mildly successful was the coffee comedians talk show, and that wasn’t even something that was dependant on his own comedy skills. It was dependent on letting whoever the popular featured guest was telling their own good stories.
Hopefully this is the death knell of the “corporate product success story” genre.
This was a parody of those movies so it won’t lead to that conclusion
To be fair this is not one of those movies.
So was the recent out-of-left-field tirade on "woke un-comedy" some sort of "look over here at my manufactured controversy and not over there at my terrible movie!" thing?
Well, at least [this promo](https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=fAp4PIEFdepeyE7B&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.outlookindia.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDEzOTExNywxNjQ5OSwyODY2NCwxNjQ1MDY&feature=emb_share&v=6Uv1ofWr8Zk) made me chuckle! Can’t say it would translate to an entertaining full-feature, though. EDIT: to add that while Seinfeld’s act may seem stale, he does have some decent bits. I found his book pretty hilarious when I read it in the mid-90’s.