Not another Bee movie

Before the launch of the most pervasive and off-putting advertising campaign in recent memory, Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie actually didn’t look half bad. That’s our excuse for interviewing him, anyway. Seinfeld sat down with The Muse to talk about the film, his obsession with bees and comedy in general.

Was some of the genesis of this movie in your act? You’ve always had animal jokes, jokes that involved animals speaking.

Yes, I do. I really do like to make animals come to life, and I thought this would be the ultimate expression of that to do it in a feature.

But, why bees?

There’s something very sophisticated and interesting about bee culture to me. Just the geometry of the hexagon in the beehive, in the honey comb, it’s the most perfect geometric structure. That’s what they use in carbon fiber and when they make spaceships, everything is a hexagon because it’s the strongest shape. And, they make honey, which is this wonderful, interesting, beautiful little product. There’s no insect that does anything even close to this.

And, the graphics, the stripes, the flowers and the beehive — they’re all crammed in there. I live in Manhattan, and it just reminded me of Manhattan, what’s inside the world inside the hive. These crowded little pathways, everyone living in a tiny apartment and working and racing all around and so busy and hyperactive. It just struck me as very human-like.

What sets this animated movie apart from others?

I’m in it, [but also] I tried to bring my comedic sense of what’s funny and conversation . . . I haven’t seen every animated movie, but one of the things I wanted to see in them that I haven’t seen is certain kinds of quiet conversation and real acting between the characters as opposed to all kinds of crazy action. So, I don’t know, just my attitude, I guess.

You’ve said that comedy is a sport and not an art. After spending four years crafting this movie, do you still feel that way?

Oh, yeah. We keep score. The laughs are like runs for us. It’s not about, “What did you feel?” It’s about, “How big was the laugh? How many were there?”

During your conversation with Garry Shandling in the Not Just The Very Best of the Larry Sanders Show DVD, he says humor is about dysfunction, but you disagree, saying, “Well, god forbid people have talent.” So, what is the source of humor?

Crankiness is an ingredient that has to be in all good comedy. I don’t know why, but any funny person I know has to be a little bit cranky.

What was your writing process like for this?

I got together with a couple of guys from the sitcom, and we wrote it the same way we wrote the sitcom — we would just sit around. We had more time, though, so we could talk about sports more and work less.