An Unfrosted Movie Review: Can Seinfeld Still Be Funny? 

His stand up is incredibly bland but Seinfeld the show has plenty of risqué material. From the Cigar Store Indian to being molested by his dentist and Kramer being mistaken for a man with learning difficulties after anaesthesia

You forgot the quotes in "humor".

The guy does one goddamn sitcom episode about masturbation and he thinks he's an expert in transgressive humour. I think he's mad that he went all those years without pushing the line and now it's 2024 and he can't go back and be a different kind of comedian in the 90s. Meanwhile, streaming exists and he could just enjoy the freedom that comes with that, but no. He'd rather be a crank.

@@meganswaine4135 that crankiness might very well be a side-effect of ageing, in particular people growing out of the lime-light, fame and success. We have historical observations of this: "I am big. It's the pictures that got small"...

No, the genius of Seinfeld the show was that each situation that would arise was like something we could relate to, but had not really thought about or verbalized. It’s that reaction of recognition, thinking, yeah that is right, that I do experience that!

Maybe Jerry made the Bee Movie off a bet,I don't know why he did that, he didnt need the money. Larry and he made magic, no doubt.

That's my thoughts, Larry is actually the creative genius behind Seinfeld, it was his whole idea, Jerry was funny, of course he added the humour, but even those episodes mentioned, the Chinese Restaurant and Parking Garage and the contest, all were ideas originally from Larry alone. You can then see and understand that watching Curb and knowing this is what is in Larry's head whereas Seinfeld hasn't got the same creativity, he's just funny

Seinfeld was offered 110 million for 1 season...

@@DaveMcIroy Cons think money equals intelligence. That's one biggest reasons why most of them are as dumb as they are.

When you're offending the law, it's actually easier. A few arrests and you're out. But when you're fighting Hollywood and the media, it's an entirely different animal. Hollywood is the gate keeper for stars like Seinfeld. They have the money and the ability to distribute product, and they simply won't support or release content that violates their woke agendas.

I was actually thinking about that the other day and what all the legends of comedy, who were arrested for violating speech laws at the time, would think about today’s comics bellyaching about “freedom of speech”

Seinfeld went on Kimmel for this movie and he's all like, my heros are Lenny Bruce and Bill Cosby. 😅

It is not something I thought of, but it is a great point. People were jailed for working blue, for violating societal norms. Today they are not jailed, just not paid as much.

LEONARD BERNSTEIN!

It took me 6 tries to get through this, that's a record between this and Rebel Moon. I feel bad for Hugh Grant and a few more serious actors like Slater and Dinkledge here.

What consistently works for Sandler didn't work for Jerry.

@@joshyoung1580 Sandler is really bad now. Have you seen Hubie Halloween? IT was so ... lazy.

Yeah, but she had huge tits so...

I dated a 42 yr old when I was 27 but at least that was funny

This rings very true. I don't think I'd quite thought of it this way before, but that sounds pretty accurate.

Precisely. It's just sad projection. Evolve or become a fossil.

So often people say hurtful things so I press them. "If it's a joke what's the setup and the punchline? Explain to me what makes it funny?"

See also; John Cleese. He'd a real grumpy old git, who always said he voted Labour (vaguely equivalent to the Dems), but apparently hates the young, and anything not small 'c' conservative. Last funny thing he did was the movie Clockwise, and that was in 1986! Not sure pop tarts were a thing in the UK during the 60's, when I was growing up. Don't even know if they are a thing now!

@@LittleNala What about A Fish Called Wanda? That was in '88, and it still makes me laugh until I pee a little. It was a great ensemble cast, but Cleese was definitely a key player there with some classic scenes.

That is a spurious correlation.

@@LittleNala fish Called Wanda was a great comedy… I will give him credit for doing that one

Which fits because "It's Always Sunny" essentially took the "Seinfeld" premise (a group of horrible, dysfunctional people being menaces to society and each other while learning nothing from their experiences) and did it better. IASIP was one of the first big name live action sitcoms to do away with a lot of the old sitcom conventions Seinfeld was defined by, like the three-camera setup and the laugh track. In later seasons characters like Mac and Charlie started to develop legitimate depth and heart, counteracting the tendency for characters on long running sitcoms to devolve into one-gag caricatures of who they were in the earlier seasons: they zig-zagged this trope by having Dennis go from being a horndog with loose morals to a briliantly portrayed psychopath who's too close to reality for confort. Unlike in "Seinfeld," where despite all of its assertions to the contrary Jerry is still depicted as an aspirational figure who's an echelon above his friends, IASIP took Frank from a well-to-do, put together, self made businessman to the biggest derelict in all of Philadelphia (save for Cricket of course.) I could go on, but I think I've made my point. IASIP is what Seinfeld thought "Seinfeld" was and still is.

I love Rob so much. Dude's a legend.

Bill Burr can sound brutal but he's really a man with a lot of soul. Also, after seeing him in Unfrosted with a lot of hair, I think he's one of those men who actually look better bald. Wonder if he realises that.

On top of that, I doubt there is a single venue that would refuse to book a Jerry Seinfeld show--despite his "silencing."

This is one of the many reasons why George Carlin was so great, that he was aware of society and culture in both the ways it changed and how it didn't. Does any "king of comedy" last forever? No because everyone dies eventually and that makes it rather difficult to create new material, though even if we just consider the title based on their whole body of work, I'd still say no because people of the future will always have the benefit of building on the foundations of their predecessors so of course something better will come along because improvement is part of the nature of humanity, at least we aspire to that. For example, Lenny Bruce was great, but George Carlin took inspiration from him and improved on his style of comedy. There will come a time when someone does the same with Carlin as the inspiration. Also, comedy is subjective so considering only one person as a "king of comedy" misses that not only are there different types of comedy, but that comedy is also personal.

Exactly! We have at least 100X exposure to as many kinds of comedy, people are not going to spend a lifetime stuck on only one. He made untold $$$ so now he can settle back and enjoy life! I guess it's hard to realize for some that they will not be regarded as some type of authority, trendsetter in their chosen fields forever.

Seinfeld essentially took a 20 year break after this show ended. Yeah he did things now and again but mostly he wasn't producing much "comedy." Which is fine cuz the man had more money than he could spend. Him coming back is the the high school prom king trying to reclaim his cool. Buddy, your hey day is long past and what have you don't lately for people to be impressed with?

Yeah I never found him funny either.

I've recently discovered Seinfeld as an adult. When it was on tv, when I was a teenager, most of the jokes flew right over me and I never got it. But now I do! George and Kramer is literally 70% of the show. I liked Fraiser a lot when I was younger, now I find him pompous and more of a caricature than a relatable character. I guess this is part of growing up, that your taste evolve and sometimes even change.

I LOVE Seinfeld (the show). It is my favorite TV comedy. Unfortunately, Seinfeld (the comedian is just awful). I bought his stand-up CD when I was in the Army, and I literally fell asleep. I went back and watched Seinfeld and noticed Jerry is literally the least funny one. Most of the time he's just standing by as others do the funny stuff.

I never liked the show or Jerry. I assume he can write funny jokes, but I find his voice and delivery incredibly annoying. He just grates on me. He also comes off as a crappy person, overall.

Any comedian who complains about wokeness is telling you right to your face, "I am not good enough at my job to make audiences laugh, so I am blaming the audience for my failure to do the only thing my job requires me to do."

Heck danny devito join Always sunny because he wanted to make sure he didn't end up so out of the the loop, that he owuld end up like Jerry here.

It's interesting that the reason Seinfeld hates Bobcat is because Bobcat called him out for being a groomer long before the whole #MeToo movement. Weird thing is, I always liked Bobcat and never liked Seinfeld even though I knew nothing of their feud. I just somehow managed to like the right comic in that situation.

I never knew there was a feud, and now I must find out more. I've always liked Bobcat.

Anybody who writes and directs a movie in which a clown gutpunches Carol Brady can't be all bad.

Lots of Americans were making food for the Russian Army during WWII.

The Zucker brothers would have run with it where Seinfeld kept tripping and face planting.

@@ExtremeMadnessX Agreed. Revenge of the Nerds aged even worse. I find police academy aged better, not great but better.

For sure, George, Elaine, and Kramer were always the characters which carried that show.

I haven't seen it. On one hand, Seinfeld and Amy Schumer being in it didn't give me a good indication. On the other hand, it had people i do find funny like Bill Burr, Melissa McCarthy and Fred armisen. But then again, space Force had a pretty star studded cast and it flopped

I wish I had been drinking while I watched it. It was clearly aimed at boomers (of which I am one). He included 60s props and references to make nostalgia kick in and distract us from the bad writing. He included familiar faces to tell his jokes to attempt to legitimize his feeble attempts. He tried too hard to be anti-woke and offensive. I'll never get back the time wasted watching it.

Surprisingly, I like king of the Hill I couldn't believe it was a spin off of the and Butthead I didn't like Beavis and Butthead and I didn't like and Stimpy, but the hill was so much better of those Ren & Stimpy was a spinoff of Beavis and Butthead so was king of the hill most people don't realize that Ren & Stimpy was a short thing in an episode of Beavis and Butthead became its own show and Hank Hill was the neighbor Beavis and Butthead similar to Wilson in home improvement

I watched a bit of it recently. It holds up. Like, there was the freaking episode where Peggy's trying to get herself to say the names of body parts in order to teach a sex ed class and she's in front of the mirror going "Hap...piness" "VAAAAAAGGINA!!" Still makes me laugh.

I think koth still holds up because it feels honest and doesn't make the audience out to be idiots

Idk they’re different mediums and lampoon different aspects of life. I don’t see why both shows can’t just exist, one doesn’t have to be better than the other

Hey now! My generation might have enjoyed it when it was on TV, but the second JS went right wing nut case, most in my generation thought he was an a**hole and stopped liking him...

@@marcusjohansson668 Fellow Gen-Xer in full agreement! Except that I never even liked Jerry Seinfeld when he was on TV. I thought his co-stars were funny, but he was downright boring.

​@@thing_under_the_stairs It was a shock to find out that the show started out as a vehicle for his standup routine. The rest was supposed to be filler. I ended up ffwding through those - they had some in the early seasons - top-shelf cringe even they were new. At least the show had enough self-awareness to mock Jerry for not having any new material (Elaine refusing to see his performance)

Every time a movie does that, I just think of the Wolfcastle Simpson's scene of "That's the joke!"

You're right, except Friends is the whitest thing ever.

@@PuckNutty I stand corrected

They are also fishing for unquestioning right wing support, by putting it in opposition with "them".

That's not fair, some old folks like Redd Foxx were funny right up to the end.

It was people of a certain age who thought it was funny - to make fun of people. Most of the occasional characters are laughed at by the main characters and some of the scenes were 10 seconds long. Frasier was funnier and had an overall story.

It's not you. It's Jerry.

Had it's moments. Benefitted from releasing during the network TV era where there was no competition from social media. Jerry has made the mistake of getting us to look back and realize how meh the whole affair was, and joins the ranks of washed comedians whining about wokeness.

Seems hard to believe.

Yes, one of my favourite shows ever.