While giving a commencement speech for the graduating seniors at North Carolina’s Duke University in 2024, Jerry Seinfeld made the odd decision to apologize for his 2007 animated film Bee Movie.
“I made a cartoon movie about bees you may have watched as a child,” Seinfeld told the students in attendance that day. “If any of you felt slightly uncomfortable about the sexual undertones in the relationship between Barry the bee and Vanessa, the florist who saves his life, I would like to apologize for that now,” he continued. “I may not have calibrated that perfectly.”
Fans of the DreamWorks cartoon have cracked jokes for years regarding the romantic tension Seinfeld’s Barry B. Benson clearly has with Renée Zellweger’s Vanessa, who’s a human.
Jerry Seinfeld Wouldn’t Change Bee Movie, Even Though It’s a Little Creepy
Seinfeld’s reference to the film was made as part of a larger statement about not losing your sense of humor. From Seinfeld’s perspective, awkward jokes are OK and don’t need to be fixed. That’s probably why he says he wouldn’t change Bee Movie, despite acknowledging its flaws.
The speech wasn’t the first time Seinfeld touched on the subject, however. While appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2021, the comedian also took the time out to say that he was sorry to his fans. “I apologize for what seems to be a certain uncomfortable, subtle sexual aspect of the Bee Movie,” Seinfeld began. He went on to say that the perceived subtext “really was not intentional.”
After the film was released, Seinfeld said he realized that it wasn’t very appropriate for children. “Because the bee seemed to have a thing for the girl,” Seinfeld explained. “And we don’t really want to pursue that as an idea in children’s entertainment.”
You can check out his apology for yourself in the video below.
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