Jerry Seinfeld’s Pop Tarts’ origin movie, Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, has cast Bill Burr as President John F. Kennedy, a surprising move that is actually a genius bit of casting. Jerry Seinfeld’s directorial debut releases on Netflix on May 3rd, and was co-written by the comic and his Bee Movie collaborators Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, and Andy Robin. While Seinfeld’s Pop-Tarts movie is based on the true story of the rivalry between Kellogg’s and Post, Unfrosted actually originated from an old Seinfeld routine about Pop-Tarts. This means that Unfrosted will prioritize comedy over historical fact, which is presumably where Bill Burr’s JFK comes in.
Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story feels like the apotheosis of Jerry Seinfeld’s breakfast obsession. Not only does it comedically tell the origin story of Kellogg’s Pop Tarts, it also features multiple cereal mascots. For example, Hugh Grant plays Frosties mascot Tony the Tiger, while Rice Krispies mascots Snap, Crackle, and Pop are all seen in the trailer, too. How President John F. Kennedy fits alongside these cereal mascots is anyone’s guess at this stage, but the casting of Bill Burr emphasizes Unfrosted‘s absurdist sensibilities.
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Bill Burr’s Role As JFK Just Made Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted More Interesting
The trailer for Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story shows that Bill Burr was inspired casting as President John F. Kennedy. Burr nails the look and Boston accent of JFK, and the idea of Kellogg’s consulting a sitting US President about the design of Pop-Tarts is utterly absurd. The inclusion of Bill Burr as JFK in Unfrosted is, therefore, a pretty good sign that Jerry Seinfeld’s movie will be a comic exaggeration of the likely very dry true story of Pop-Tarts’ origins.
From Air to The Beanie Bubble, there have been a number of corporate biopics released in recent years. Many of these movies, while entertaining, have been fairly straight depictions of deal-making, contract-signing, and people getting very rich. Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story is very clearly not interested in these elements, and is instead amplifying the fight for America’s breakfast tables into something more akin to the space race. Therefore, Unfrosted feels like a satirical riposte to these more serious corporate movies, giving it appeal beyond the talent involved.
Why John F. Kennedy Is Involved In Netflix’s Pop-Tart Movie
From the opening shot of a Pop-Tart launching from a toaster like a space shuttle, the trailer for Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story draws multiple comparisons with the race for the Moon. When Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan and Melissa McCarthy’s characters visit the White House, they’re told by JFK that “we have to beat them“. It’s a ludicrous joke that effectively makes Kellogg’s the avatars for NASA and the US government and Post avatars for the Soviet Union and Roscosmos. Later in the same trailer, Jack McBrayer is seen walking down a silvery tunnel, dressed like an astronaut, further emphasizing the metaphor.
Given that Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story started life as one of Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up routines, it makes sense that expanding a comic riff into a feature-length movie will become the shaggiest of shaggy dog stories. That’s why something as banal as the design of breakfast pastries is exaggerated into having major national importance, with input on its creation from JFK himself. Juxtaposing the creation of the Pop-Tart with the race to put a man on the Moon is exactly the sort of comic flourish that fans should expect from Jerry Seinfeld’s directorial debut.
