How Jerry Seinfeld channeled his lifelong love of Pop Tarts into a Netflix movie

It seems Pop Tarts have been on Jerry Seinfeld’s mind for decades. He humorously claims “the back of (his) head blew right off” when the toaster snack was invented in the 60s. Now, a movie directed, co-written and starring Seinfeld about the creation of Pop Tarts is coming to Netflix.

Long before he wrote, “Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story,” Seinfeld made the toaster pastry the star of a stand-up routine — which was basically a long-winded account on his childhood devotion to the breakfast snack. He claims he spent two years on the comedy bit because “to waste this much time on something this stupid, that felt good to me,” per an interview with the New York Times.

“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?” Seinfeld joked with the Times in the pre-recorded 2012 interview.

Seinfeld’s ongoing comedic interest in Pop Tarts had a resurgence in 2018, when he shared his idea for a movie centered on the invention of the toaster snack via social media.

“At one point I was thinking about an invention of the Pop Tart movie,” Seinfeld wrote on X. “Imagine the drunk on sugar-power Kellogg’s cereal culture of the mid-60’s in Battle Creek, MI. That’s a vibe I could work with.”

During the pandemic, Seinfeld kept at work. And, once again, he put Pop Tarts at the heart of his comedy.

“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.”

The movie, “Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story” is directed by Seinfeld, who co-wrote it with “the same lunatic writing team that gave you the uncomfortable hit ‘Bee Movie,’” aka: Andy Robin, Spike Feresten and Barry Marder.

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.”

Seinfeld assembled a stacked cast of comedians and actors to star in the movie, including: Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, Amy Schumer, James Marsden, Fred Armisen, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater, Dan Levy, Bill Burr, Jack McBrayer, Thomas Lennon, Bobby Moynihan, Adrian Martinez and Sarah Cooper. Seinfeld will also star in the film — his first movie role since “Bee Movie” in 2007.

Related

• Jerry Seinfeld tried being a fashion mogul. The internet laughed

• ‘Something is going to happen’ with the ending of ‘Seinfeld,’ Jerry Seinfeld says

When does ‘Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story’ come out?

“Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story” comes to Netflix on May 3, 2024. It is understood the movie will not have a theatrical release.