Jerry Seinfeld: ‘I Miss a Dominant Masculinity’
'Seinfeld' superstar opens up to Bari Weiss about pop culture, manhood
Jerry Seinfeld isn’t a political comedian on or off stage.
He’s held back on Trump v. Biden, stayed silent over open border policies and has nothing to say about the minimum wage.
It’s not his style.
Lately, that’s changing.
Seinfeld has come out in Israel’s defense, shredded woke culture for hurting comedy and suggested privilege isn’t a Scarlet Letter.
Now, he’s upping the ante.
Seinfeld spoke to the “Honestly with Bari Weiss” podcast this week and shared one reason he made the Netflix comedy “Unfrosted.”
Masculinity.
The film ostensibly pits Post v. Kellogg’s in a cereal slug match for the ages. It also captures what made the ’60s special, according to the squeaky-clean comic. The era featured manly men, Seinfeld argued, the kind rarely seen today.
“As a man…”
“Are you sure you are,” Weiss asked, teasingly. “I did not hear pronouns.”
“I always wanted to be a real man, but I never made it,” he said with a laugh in his voice. He got more serious soon enough.
“In that era, it was JFK, it was Muhammad Ali, it was Sean Connery, Howard Cosell … that’s a real man. I wanna be like that someday,” Seinfeld said. “No. Look at how I dress, like an eight-year-old.”
Weiss defended the comedian’s style, but Seinfeld shared why his childish mien matters in his line of work.
“I never really grew up. You don’t want to as a comedian. It’s a childish pursuit, but I miss a dominant masculinity. Yeah, I get the toxic [inaudible] but still I like a real man. That’s why I love [‘Unfrosted’ co-star] Hugh Grant. He felt like one of those guys I wanted to be. He knows how to dress. He knows how to talk. He’s charming. He has stories. He’s comfortable at dinner parties. Knows how to get a drink, that stuff.”
Masculinity has been in obvious decline in pop culture.
The “girlboss” era of movie characters dominates film, witness this weekend’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and various gender swaps of beloved franchises. Female leads eschew obvious romances with their male co-stars.
The ’80s alpha male Hollywood heroes are no more. Yet there’s still an audience for aging ’80s stars like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Think “Tulsa King” and “FUBAR,” respectively.
That, apparently, includes a certain Jerry Seinfeld.
It all started with the word police coining the phrase “toxic masculinity”, as if to suggest that there’s no such thing as “toxic femininity” or that it’s not equally as bad.
Dude’s gonna be wearing a MAGA hat within 6 months. You heard it here first, folks.
i’m glad he’s finding his political legs. the country needs more men like him(and younger ones too) to speak up.