Every generation thinks the one(s) that comes after is coddled and/or entitled (although we do have to wonder how millennials expect to live in houses made from avocados). “Kids these days” prefaces a lot of observations and jokes, two things that Jerry Seinfeld knows plenty about. But in the first trailer for the first of two Netflix stand-up specials, Seinfeld actually goes on about being a kid in the days before parenting books and blogs, a time of sugar-coated cereals (Cookie Crisp, anyone?) and a lack of oversight that bordered on negligence. Is it an oblique way to shit on today’s youth, who get love and attention? Maybe. But Seinfeld also loads up the sock joke and reflections on his dad’s moving skills, so you don’t have to worry about the whole special being a lecture on how good you have it compared to a wealthy 63-year-old man.
The special was filmed at the venerable Comic Strip in New York City, and has lots of never-before-seen material like childhood videos and a legal-pad library full of Seinfeld-scribbled jokes. Jerry Before Seinfeld takes the Netflix stage on September 16.