Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up joke about the invention of Pop-Tarts is getting new life in his new Netflix production, Unfrosted, Deadline confirmed Wednesday. The comedian will star in, direct and produce the film comedy he co-wrote with Spike Feresten and Barry Marder, and Netflix has committed to a green light and a production start scheduled for next spring.
Seinfeld explained the inspiration behind Unfrosted came from the pandemic-related depression that hit across the world over the past year-plus. “Stuck at home watching endless sad faces on TV I thought this would be a good time to make something based on pure silliness,” he told Deadline of creating the film from his prior joke. “So we took my Pop-Tart stand-up bit from my last Netflix special and exploded it into a giant, crazy comedy movie.”
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Seinfeld’s Pop-Tart joke gained quite a bit of attention when it first premiered in his stand-up special 23 Hours to Kill on the streamer. He deconstructed the joke in a video for The New York Times, remembering as a child being awestruck by the breakfast food for the first time. “How did they know that there would be a need for a frosted fruit-filled heated rectangle in the same shape as the box it comes in, and with the same nutrition as the box it comes in?” he marveled.
Seinfeld has a close relationship with Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos, signing a lucrative deal in 2017 with the streamer that brought his series Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee to the streaming service. Later this year, Netflix will also have the global exclusive streaming rights for the iconic sitcom Seinfeld, previously announced in 2019 to be leaving Hulu at midnight Wednesday after five years.
While the show leaves Hulu now, Vulture’s Buffering reported it won’t be an immediate turnover to Netflix, with Seinfeld expected to drop on the new streaming service in September at the earliest, leaving the show without a streaming home all summer. Buffering proffered that the months-long delay will allow Netflix to build a new marketing campaign for its global streaming rights of the show and create more interest for the show when people are starting to wind down from their summer travels as the coronavirus pandemic begins to wind down nationwide.
