Jerry Seinfeld recently talked about his feelings on masculinity and the 1960s.
During an interview on the ‘Honestly With Bari Weiss’ podcast (per Variety), the famous comedian shared his thoughts on missing ‘dominant masculinity’ and his views on how times have changed. Seinfeld said he misses the ‘agreed upon hierarchy’ that existed in the 1960s, explaining that there was a clear sense of order back then. He believes it disappeared today:
“We have no sense of hierarchy. As humans, we don’t really feel comfortable with that. That is part of what…if you want to talk about nostalgia, that is part of what makes [the 1960s] attractive looking back.”
Seinfeld then shared who he considers a ‘real man’ and talked about missing ‘dominant masculinity.’ He says he understands the issues with toxic masculinity, but he still prefers the idea of ‘real men’ from the past:
“I always wanted to be a real man. When I was in that era, it was JFK, Muhammad Ali, Sean Connery, and Howard Cosell. That’s a real man! I wanted to be like that someday. Well, no. I never really grew up. You don’t want to as a comedian because it’s a childish pursuit. I miss a dominant masculinity. I get the toxic thing… but still, I like a real man.”
His New Film is Now On Netflix
Seinfeld also talked about his new film, ‘Unfrosted.’ The movie tells a mostly fictional story about the creation of the Pop-Tart in the 1960s, and it received mixed reviews. It currently has a 43% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 120 reviews.
Seinfeld is not bothered about the negative reviews, though. He finds bad reviews funny and enjoys reading the worst ones. He explained that he understands why people are upset when they don’t laugh at his movie, but he finds it amusing that they are disappointed:
“The only thing I want to read is the absolute worst reviews the movie received because there is nothing funnier to me than people complaining that [they] didn’t laugh. They want to laugh. I related to it. I get it. I think it’s funny that you hated it because you wanted to laugh and you didn’t laugh.”
The comedian says he learned not to care about what people think as a stand-up comedian. He just focuses on his performances, getting laughs, and moving on to the next gig rather than worrying about reviews. He doesn’t expect everyone to like his work and finds humor in their dissatisfaction.
‘Unfrosted’ is now available to stream on Netflix.
