Jerry Seinfeld at the “Unfrosted” premiere in Los Angeles, April 2024. Photo: AP/Invision
Developing events in At Duke University last weekend, almost all of them may have come from Curb Your Enthusiasm, which famously originated from Jerry Seinfeld's '90s sitcom of the same name. American universities have a habit of inviting celebrities or leading figures in their field to give commencement addresses to students upon graduation, and on paper few are more distinguished than Seinfeld, one of the few comedy billionaires whose accomplishments are uncredited. equals in his career. field.
However, when he was about to give his speech, dozens of students simply walked out, booing loudly. Others stayed but unfurled Free Palestine flags and insulted the comedian as he delivered his address. Amid cries of “Open up, get rid of, we won't stop, we won't calm down,” Seinfeld, who one might assume has rarely had such a caustic reaction since he began his comedy career, gave a potentially inspiring speech in which he called for their listeners to work hard, listen to those wiser than themselves, and find someone to grow old with.
“Whatever you do, I don’t care if it’s your job, your hobby, your relationship, making a reservation at M Sushi, try your best,” he said. “Just pure, stupid effort, no idea what I'm doing here. Effort always brings positive value, even if the result of the effort is the complete absence of the desired result. This is the rule of life. Just swinging the bat and praying is a good approach to a lot of things.”
The cause of the protests was Seinfeld's support for Israel in its war against Hamas. In a recent interview, he stated that “the struggle to be Jewish has a long history… [there have been] thousands of years of struggle, and Israel is the most recent of them… anti-Semitism seems to be making a comeback in some areas.” He visited the country late last year and expressed his support for them in the current situation, telling the Times of Israel that he “will always support Israel and the Jewish people”; something guaranteed to enrage the pro-Palestinian portion of America's student population. Hence the rather less than hospitable response at Duke, where, ironically, two of Seinfeld's own children attended school.
If this had been an isolated incident, it would have been easy to dismiss it as nothing more than performative incivility orchestrated by a gang of attention-seeking rabble-rousers. In any case, he could hardly be surprised by the reaction, considering that back in 2015, Seinfeld advised his fellow comedians not to perform on college campuses. But the comedian hasn't been winning over fans in recent months since he launched a promotional campaign for his new Netflix comedy Unfrosted. The film, which chronicles the creation of Kellogg's Pop Tarts in the sixties, not only stars Seinfeld, but also directs, co-writes and co-produces.
This should have been a welcome relief, but instead the streaming service delivered some of the worst reviews any film has ever seen, not to mention disappointing viewing figures. It may have been Netflix's No. 1 movie, but its 7.1 million views were about a third of what the service typically gets for its new releases in its first week. As Richard Roeper put it in the Chicago Sun-Times, “Unfrosted is one of the worst films of the decade so far.”
Michael Richards, Wayne Knight and Jerry Seinfeld in Seinfeld
It's not hard to see why Unfrosted failed. It's not so much a coherent film as it is a series of not particularly funny skits that allow Hugh Grant to desecrate the sacred memory of Paddington 2's Phoenix Buchanan with a limp reprise of that great role of Thurl Ravenscroft, the disaffected Shakespearean actor who earns his crust by voicing the company's mascot Tony the Tiger. On paper it should be funny, but on screen, despite Grant's best efforts, it's staggeringly flat and tedious.
Seinfeld, clearly aware that his directorial debut was less Citizen Kane than Citizen Khan, manically devoted himself to promotional duties. He even made fun of it when he appeared on Saturday Night Live, introduced as “a man who wrote too much in the press.”
Yet, whether out of fatigue, boredom or the septuagenarian's desire to provoke, Seinfeld offended those on both sides of the political divide. He may have been poking fun at Donald Trump, calling him “God's gift of comedy,” but in widely reported remarks he made on the New Yorker Radio Hour podcast, the comedian also claimed that the recent decline in scripted comedy was “the result of the far left and PC crap, and people worry so much about offending other people.”
Maintaining his theme, Seinfeld stated, “When you write a script and it ends up in four or five different hands, committees – 'Here's our opinion of this joke' – well, that's the end of your comedy.” He may have sounded smart about it, but it not only ignores consistently outrageous sayings like “It's always sunny in Philadelphia” and, indeed, “Curb your enthusiasm,” but it also suggests that this billionaire spends too much time talking to his rich colleagues. – as he does in his famous Netflix series Comedians in the Car Getting Coffee – and doesn’t watch TV.
In the same podcast, Seinfeld said that he feels a certain degree of freedom working as a stand-up comedian rather than as a creator of a show like his eponymous sitcom. “Some comedians now have fun when they cross the line and we all laugh about it,” he said. “But again, it’s the stand-ups who really have the freedom to do it because no one else will be blamed if something goes wrong. He or she can take all the blame [on himself].”
One of the mantras of the sitcom Seinfeld was “no hugging, no studying”; its characters were believably flawed and remained that way, and unlike much more touchy-feely characters like Friends and (eventually) Frasier, there was no point where the show's main characters learned to become better people. The same thing happened to Seinfeld himself when, after apologizing at Duke, he had his own “je ne self-pity” moment. “A slightly unpleasant sense of awkward humor is normal,” he said. “It's not something you need to fix… I may not have calibrated it perfectly, but I wouldn't change it.”
Eddie Murphy and Jerry Seinfeld in the movie “Comedians in Cars Drinking Coffee” Photo: Netflix
If he weren't surrounded by booing and barking students, Seinfeld's point might have seemed elegant and subtle. The freedom to offend not only rests on America's first amendment-protected free speech rights, but also underlies all aspects of comedy, from the works of Aristophanes and Chaucer to those who post jokes on YouTube or social media today. The problem remains, however, that Seinfeld himself now seems hopelessly out of touch, secluded in huge Manhattan apartments and Hamptons mansions, where he keeps a classic car collection of more than 150 cars, said to be worth more than £80 million. .
In many ways, Seinfeld's post-sitcom career was the antithesis of that of his near-contemporary Kelsey Grammer, who struggled to find a role as iconic as Frasier Crane. Seinfeld is hardly a recluse, but he rarely starred in other people's projects except for occasional cameos lampooning himself, and his appearance in Unfrosted is notable for being the first time he portrayed another (non-animated) character. on screen in the leading role.
Instead, he seems driven by spending his days writing jokes that he then performs in low-key comedy clubs, a process detailed in his 2002 documentary The Comedian, which was released shortly after his sitcom ended in 1998. One of the funniest trailers ever made, but perhaps unwittingly, it's also a poignant look into the psyche of a man who wants to have his cake and eat it too.
Seinfeld says he appreciates the thrill and intensity of performing on stage in front of an audience that treats him just like anyone else performer, but no other performer on these stages has the luxury of private jets, multiple expensive residences around the world – complete, if the rumors are true, with a $17,000 coffee maker and a well-paid public relations staff that will always be stroke his sizable ego.
One of the reasons the Duke's appearance may have upset Seinfeld so much is that he is in many ways identical to the “Jerry” persona he projected on his sitcom for more than a decade: uptight, misanthropic and cynical. For someone who could theoretically be at the top of the A-list, he is a surprisingly isolated face in the entertainment industry.
A 2018 video that went viral showed Seinfeld, while being interviewed in the middle of a red carpet, walking up to singer Kesha and fawningly asking for a hug; he abruptly refused, moved away from her and commented, “I don't know who it was.” When told that she was not a crazy fan but one of the event participants, he said dismissively, “Well, I wish her all the best.” Kesha, for her part, later described the snub as “the saddest moment of my life”, considering Seinfeld was one of her comic idols.
That Seinfeld was one of the greatest comedic innovators, performers and writers of the last half century cannot be duplicated. Many of his catchphrases are “No soup for you!” “It’s not that there’s anything wrong with that” has long been a common parlance and has been quoted and quoted by TikTok users who weren’t even born when the show ended.
Jerry Seinfeld with one of his many classic cars, 2000. Photo: Getty
The man whose sitcom was bought by Netflix for $500 million in 2021 remains a major businessman even as his efforts to remain relevant have drawn criticism; his latest stand-up special for the streamer, 23 Hours to Kill, was derided by Fast Company as “more tone-deaf rich guy humor, told in the same style he's used since becoming a famous comedian about 40 years ago.” Dare you ask whether the angry crowd at Duke should be complaining less about Seinfeld's political positions and more about how he seems to have forgotten the art of being funny?
Seinfeld was long past the point where he needed to think more about making money. He could have funded a dozen Nefrosteds on his own if he wanted to inflict such constant torment on the world. And yet he is smart enough not to repeat such mistakes. If Duke students had listened to his speech instead of angrily protesting, they might even have noticed that he spoke very intelligently when it came to the everyday value of humor.
“I have to tell you as a comedian: don’t lose your sense of humor,” Seinfeld said. At this point in your life, you have no idea how much you will need it to get through this. Life doesn't make enough sense to survive without humor.” He concluded with some encouraging wisdom: “Even if it comes at the expense of the occasional insult, it’s okay, you have to laugh.”
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