Jerry Seinfeld: ‘The extreme left’ is ruining comedy on television

In this Nov. 4, 2015, file photo Jerry Seinfeld performs at the David Lynch Foundation Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Jerry Seinfeld is criticizing woke culture and “the extreme left” for killing the film, TV and sitcom industry.

While promoting his new Pop-Tarts comedy movie, “Unfrosted,” Seinfeld has reserved several moments to share how be believes the entertainment industry has evolved since his adolescence.

During an appearance on The New Yorker Radio Hour, Seinfeld claimed that woke culture is pushing audiences away from television and toward stand-up comedy because stand-up is “not policed by anyone.”

He argued that television is no longer funny. “It used to be you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, ‘Cheers’ is on. Oh, ‘M*A*S*H’ is on. Oh, ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ is on. ‘All in the Family’ is on.’ You just expected there’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.”

He continued, “This is the result of the extreme left and PC (politically correct) crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.”

In a recent interview with GQ, Seinfeld declared: “The movie business is over.”

According to the comedian, “film doesn’t occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives.”

“When a movie came out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked. Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see.”

He suggested that perhaps “depression,” “malaise” or “confusion” replaced the hole left by the movie industry. “Everyone I know in show business, every day, is going, ‘What’s going on? How do you do this? What are we supposed to do now?’”

Despite Seinfeld’s claims that the movie business has lost public interest, he recently released a movie of his own. On Friday, “Unfrosted,” a movie about Pop-Tarts — directed, co-written and starring Seinfeld — came to Netflix.

Early reviews are in, and critics are not impressed with Seinfeld’s Pop-Tarts comedy.

‘Unfrosted’ is panned by critics

Seinfeld wrote “Unfrosted” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Stuck at home watching endless sad faces on TV, I thought this would be a good time to make something based on pure silliness,” Seinfeld told Deadline in 2021. “So we took my Pop-Tart stand-up bit from my last Netflix special and exploded it into a giant, crazy comedy movie.”

Set in Michigan, 1963, cereal rivals Kellogg’s and Post compete in a reckless race to invent a toaster pastry that will revolutionize breakfast, per Netflix. The movie has a “couple” of true parts, but seems to mostly be Seinfeld’s comedic creation.

“There are a couple of elements that are true that we use to begin the story, which is that Post came up with this idea and Kellogg’s heard about it and said, ‘We have to do the same thing,’” Seinfeld told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022. “And then I kind of told the story as ‘The Right Stuff’ with NASA versus the Soviet Union.”

Here is the good, the bad and the ugly of early reviews for “Unfrosted.”

The good

• “‘Unfrosted,’” in its way, is a quintessential comedian’s movie. It thumbs its nose at everything without necessarily believing in anything. Yet it has an agreeable crunch,” wrote Variety.
• The Hollywood Reporter called the movie, “gleefully silly” and said, “for those willing to put aside reality for 90 minutes, as Unfrosted does with gusto, the Netflix movie whips up a frothy sendup of storytelling tropes and clichés.”
• “As a whole, it’s not exactly a masterpiece, but amiable and funny in a way that’s much harder to achieve than it looks,” said The Guardian.

The bad

• “Seinfeld’s over-the-top, throw-in-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach makes for an uneven film, with some gags inspired, others groan-inducing,” wrote The San Francisco Chronicle. “But its 1960s period detail and constant parade of familiar faces keeps things rolling.”
• “It’s as though Seinfeld and his team crafted the jokes they wanted to tell within this world, then created a flimsy story around it to collect them all,” panned Collider. “That’s not to say the gags aren’t occasionally worthwhile.”
• “‘Unfrosted’ may be the Platonic ideal of the Netflix movie: ephemeral, edible, enjoyable, forgettable,” per The Washington Post. “The hit-to-miss joke ratio is decent — about three gags land for every one that gets stuck in the toaster.”

The ugly

• The Chicago Sun-Times slammed “Unfrosted” as “one of the decade’s worst movies.” Claiming it is surprising that “Seinfeld, one of the sharpest and most observant comedic minds of his generation, didn’t halt production halfway through, call time of death and apologize to everyone for wasting their time.”
• “Oh, well. Perhaps the best response to junk food is junk cinema,” panned The Irish Times.
• “Unfrosted” is “as bad as you’d expect,” according to The Daily Beast. “It’s content to be childishly silly rather than legitimately weird, veering between gags concerning age-old products and Jan. 6 with a mildness that keeps things pleasantly pedestrian.”
• The Daily Globe and Mail called it, “one big steaming pile” and “a distressingly laugh-free affair.”

Watch: Trailer for ‘Unfrosted’

“Unfrosted” is now available to stream on Netflix. It will not be released in theaters.

It is rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and language.