Jerry Seinfeld, the once lauded comedian and sitcom star of the show that bears his name, has been making the news in recent days. Not only for his newest film, Unfrosted, which landed on Netflix on May 3rd, but also for his recent comments on the state of comedy (particularly tv comedy) in 2024. In an interview with The New Yorker, while discussing aspects of his own life and career, Seinfeld suddenly slammed “The extreme left” and “P.C. Crap” for ruining comedy on tv and for being too offended at jokes to find them funny.
Suddenly, the man whose biggest claim to fame since Seinfeld was a show about getting coffee with funnier folks than he found himself joining an intrepid list of comedians and celebrities from a “greater era” blaming the same things for not being funny anymore.
Well, Mr. Seinfeld, I have been part of the unlucky group to have seen your latest film, Unfrosted, which has to be one of the unfunniest film’s I’ve seen in the last year. At least.
The film follows the story of the invention of the Pop-Tart. In 1963, Kellogg’s and Post are rival breakfast companies that are scrambling to create the next best thing in breakfast cereal. Through a wild array of hijinx that include mexican and russian sugar cartels, cross-company romances a la Romeo and Juliet and striking mascots led by an intentionally over-serious Hugh Grant, the fight for breakfast pastry infamy raged on.
Seinfeld directed, co-wrote and stars in the film as Bob Cabana, the Kellogg’s executive who spearheaded the invention of the Pop-Tart. Melissa McCarthy co-stars as Donna Stankowski, and a seemingly never-ending who’s who of modern comedians including Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, Sebastian Maniscalco, Cedric the Entertainer and more appear in various roles through the film.
To my surprise, I actually think Seinfeld nailed the intended vibe of a film with the type of whimsy as this carries. Instead of opting for a more serious tone like last year’s Tetris or Air, Unfrosted takes on a sillier tone. They know the story they’re telling isn’t to be taken with so much bravado, and I commend that. We currently are in an era where corporate biopics dominate, for some strange reason. With even more on the way, I hope they can match the tone that this film brings. As directorial debuts go, I was not offended by this one as much as others, and I really don’t think Seinfeld’s direction was the issue here.
The biggest cardinal sin that the film commits, though, is that it’s terribly unfunny. And that’s not for a lack of attempts either. There are so many jokes in the film. Only two I even gave a chuckle at. I counted. It made it difficult to even enjoy the performances put to screen by many of the skilled actors and comedians that appear in the film.
Save for Grant, who gave the most entertaining performance of the film.
There were even, predictably, poop and fart jokes and a jab at political correctness via a poorly written hobo joke. Is this the type of comedy we’re missing out on with today’s culture Mr. Seinfeld? If so, then I think we can sufficiently leave it at the door.
It doesn’t help that the story is a jumbled mess at times. The film was co-written by four different folks, though: Seinfeld, Spike Feresten, Andy Robin and Barry Marder. This led to, clearly, too many cooks in the Kellogg’s Kitchen with unnecessary sub-plots aplenty. There’s even what appears to be a Kellogg’s cereal montage commercial in the middle of the film, which felt so out of place. If a more capable comedic writer had been able to get their hands on this film, I think Unfrosted could have been a much better.
Final Thoughts
Unfrosted really isn’t any good. I applaud the attempt to create a whimsical story around the creation of the pop-tart. But, realistically, this will inevitably fall down into the same endless pit of streaming service offerings that no one is entirely interested in come this time next week. Maybe you can find more from this film than I did, but for a comedy that was so genuinely unfunny, I can safely say it can be ignored.
