Jerry Seinfeld apologizes for the ‘uncomfortable’ sexual undertone of Bee Movie

Jerry Seinfeld shared a joking apology for the oddly sexual undertones that some viewers have found in his film Bee Movie on Friday. 

The 67-year-old comedian revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that he’s well aware of how fans of the 2007 animated movie have detected a strange romance between his bee character and a human woman, played by Renée Zellweger.

He apologized for the ‘uncomfortable sexual aspect’ of the family friendly movie while joking that it was ‘really not appropriate for children.’

Seinfeld was visiting Fallon to promote the release of new 4K remasters of the original Seinfeld episodes which are now streaming on Netflix.

During his appearance, Fallon complimented him for looking younger than his age, which led the comedian to bemoan how long he had to work before becoming famous, which led to him being older than some fans realized.

‘I had three kids. I had to straighten their insane a**es out, and then I had to make a movie with a bee,’ he continued, before opening up about memes and jokes that have suggested their a sexual undertone to Bee Movie.

Although there’s no explicit romance or sexual content in the film, some eagle-eyed fans have suggested there are hints of a romance between the bee Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) and the florist Vanessa (Zellweger). 

Reading into it: Although there’s no explicit romance or sexual content in the film, some eagle-eyed fans have suggested there are hints of a romance between the bee Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) and the florist Vanessa (Zellweger)

Unintended: ‘I apologize for what seems to be a certain uncomfortable subtle sexual aspect of the Bee Movie,’ he said 

‘I apologize for what seems to be a certain uncomfortable subtle sexual aspect of the Bee Movie,’ he said, jokingly. 

‘[It] really was not intentional, but after it came out, I realized this is really not appropriate for children. Because the bee seems to have a thing for the girl, and we don’t really want to pursue that as an idea in children’s entertainment,’ he said.

At the time of its release, Bee Movie was seen as a failure for earning only mixed reviews and a small profit.

Currently, it has a 49 percent rotten score from critics surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes. 

Since its release, Bee Movie has become a favorite of meme makers online, though the fervor for the film has died down somewhat in recent years.

Taboo: ‘[It] really was not intentional, but after it came out, I realized this is really not appropriate for children. Because the bee seems to have a thing for the girl, and we don’t really want to pursue that as an idea in children’s entertainment,’ he continued

Meme fodder: Some fans have pointed out odd lines of dialogue that make it look as if there’s a sense of attraction between the bee and the human woman, but many others have created surreal and even disturbing memes from the children’s movie

Some fans have pointed out odd lines of dialogue that make it look as if there’s a sense of attraction between the bee and the human woman, but many others have created surreal and even disturbing memes from the children’s movie.

In a 2017 interview for The New Statesmen, Bee Movie co-writer Spike Feresten admitted that the writer sometimes introduced romantic elements into the film unintentionally.

‘They would just be Barry and Vanessa, and we would write this dialogue for Barry and Vanessa, and read it over and have to remind ourselves, “Well, this is a tiny bee saying this, and the tiny bee is fighting with her boyfriend.” So let’s dial it back to “friend,” and make it less romantic, because it’s getting weird.’

He added that the film tends to polarize viewers, who either are ‘entertained or repulsed’ by it, though an ‘interspecies love affair’ was something the writers wanted to avoid delving into.

Late last week, Seinfeld showed off a new side of himself when he put on a hilariously bulky suit to make himself look like a Lego figure to promote Seinfeld’s debut on Netflix.

In the clip, narrator Bryan Cranston jokes that the original series was ‘inspired by the wildly popular Lego set model,’ hence Seinfeld’s crazy costume.

Bricked out: Jerry Seinfeld was turned into a Lego version of himself in a promotional video for Seinfeld’s arrival on Netflix that was shared on Friday