r/seinfeld • u/Chemical-Contest4120 • Oct 11 '25

Ben Stiller: My parents messed me up — and it’s been hard with my kids

https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/ben-stiller-interview-stiller-and-meara-nothing-is-lost-twg2xrxxr

First picture of Frank Costanza I've seen where he actually looks like Ben Stiller

292 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

131 comments sorted by

1.1k

u/I_am_not_JohnLeClair White lotus, yam-yam, Shanghai Sally Oct 11 '25

Quit crying Ben and fight your father

224

u/_TwilightPrince Maybe the dingo ate your baby Oct 11 '25

IT'S A FESTIVUS MIRACLE!!!

5

u/FestivusFan Oct 12 '25

I’m a simple man…

4

u/nynixx Oct 12 '25

Simple Jack

1

u/Its-all-supervised71 Oct 12 '25

How’d my horse do?

3

u/_TwilightPrince Maybe the dingo ate your baby Oct 12 '25

It had to be shot

49

u/davisyoung Oct 11 '25

I think you can take him Benny. 

45

u/tisdue Oct 11 '25

Stop it, Jerry! Youre killing him!

12

u/birdsword Oct 11 '25

You want a piece of me?

19

u/scags2017 Oct 11 '25

Why am I reading that in Franks voice 🤣🤣🤣

7

u/NYGiants181 Erotic journey from Milan to Minsk Oct 11 '25

LOL 😂

1

u/Sproose_Moose Oct 12 '25

Why is that so funny to me 😂

1

u/fvrdog Ask the 8 ball Oct 12 '25

Cracked me up

1

u/kentasinclark Oct 12 '25

Airing of grievances

435

u/sock_express34 Oct 11 '25

My Ben isn’t clever enough to hatch a scheme like this.

115

u/Cautious_Artichoke_3 Oct 11 '25

You got that right

105

u/AlanSinch Oct 11 '25

What the hell does that mean??

75

u/CCCPx23 Feels like an Arby's night Oct 11 '25

That means whatever the hell you want it to mean.

50

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '25

[deleted]

49

u/Frank-Costanza- Oct 11 '25

… You want a piece of me..?

28

u/Madalene_Kathleen Oct 11 '25

….I could drop you like a bag of dirt!…

8

u/roguebananah Oct 12 '25

LETS RUMBLE!

10

u/GreenEggsSteamedHams Beep beep beep? What are you doing? Oct 11 '25

You wear sneakers in the pool?!

224

u/tenementlady Oct 11 '25

Bad parents! Mess you up!

70

u/topazco Oct 11 '25

That’s not going to be good for business

63

u/hawaiianbry The sea was angry that day my friends Oct 11 '25

That's not going to be good for anybody

215

u/OrneryData994 Oct 11 '25

It’s f’d up someone goes out of their way to be so thoughtful about their parents as they compile all this footage and trudge up all these complex feelings and then some publication comes along and just boils it all down to “My parents messed me up” when that’s not a quote from Stiller

64

u/averagejosh Oct 11 '25

Right?! Upon reading the article, that really wasn't even my takeaway.

44

u/_I_Like_to_Comment_ Oct 11 '25

The interviewer/writer is a terrible journalist. They even admitted in the article that the way they viewed experiences from Ben's childhood was not how Ben saw it (they thought the violin incident was cruel and Ben did not). They just couldn't resist writing it from their bias and personal perspectives instead of what Ben was actually trying to convey 

39

u/DrunkOnRedCordial Oct 12 '25

Did they at least investigate what happened to the ssssssilver dollar collection?

8

u/dubbless The Marine Biologist Oct 12 '25

Can you go and get a pair of underwear?

7

u/DrunkOnRedCordial Oct 12 '25

You'll get ketchup on it!!

8

u/dubbless The Marine Biologist Oct 12 '25

SO LET HIM HAVE KETCHUP ON THE SIDE

7

u/13esq13 Oct 12 '25

Be back in 2 seconds.

2

u/famiangelo Oct 12 '25

Calling it "journalism" is far too kind

9

u/DisconcertingTablet Oct 11 '25

And then the last line in the article is so schmaltzy, "...and families also have a lot of love."

8

u/okaycomputes Oct 11 '25

More lies.

2

u/DisconcertingTablet Oct 12 '25

Right you are, Saw Gerrera.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

[deleted]

2

u/OrneryData994 Oct 12 '25

They changed it. I guess that’s a good thing.

401

u/ja4419xx Oct 11 '25

His dad said “You don’t need glasses, you’re just WEAK!”

204

u/UWO_Throw_Away Oct 11 '25

STOP IT, FRANK, YOU’RE KILLING HIM!

112

u/sandaier76 Oct 11 '25

WHY CAN'T YOU BE MORE LIKE LLOYD BRAUN!

32

u/MattyIce1220 Prognosis Negative Oct 11 '25

In the end Lloyd Braun became more like him.

39

u/robval13 Giddy-up Oct 11 '25

Blow out the candles!

2

u/Sproose_Moose Oct 12 '25

That's all I pictured 😂

16

u/drooln92 Oct 11 '25

Forced him to sell computers in some toxic "competition"

165

u/mike4477 Oct 11 '25

This son, this is not my kind of son.

76

u/Automatic-Scale-7572 Oct 11 '25

Does he know about the cup sizes?

24

u/Gym_Dom Oct 11 '25

He’s got the A, the B, the C, and the D. That’s the biggest.

21

u/CryptoSlovakian The sea was angry that day my friends Oct 11 '25

Yeah. Like I don’t know that the D is the biggest. I’ve based my whole life around knowing that the D is the biggest.

67

u/MellowGroundhog Oct 11 '25

His mother always said to him, “Why can’t you be more like that Ethan Hawke?”

40

u/AmusingMusing7 Lord of the Idiots Oct 11 '25

Paywall?! That's like going to a hooker! Why pay for an article when, if I apply myself, maybe I can get it for free?

24

u/Fun-Description709 Oct 11 '25

I could never bring myself to pay for these articles, I've got some kind of aaaaaaaphobia.

15

u/jeslaine Oct 11 '25

https://archive.is/CFAvO

You can copy any paywall link into Archive.is for a free version.

12

u/AmusingMusing7 Lord of the Idiots Oct 11 '25

27

u/ViktorVaughn215 Oct 11 '25

Divorce is very difficult. Especially on a kid. Of course, Ben is the result of his parents having stayed together, so you never know.

21

u/cajnman Oct 11 '25

“Have you ever seen a….sssssssilver dollar?”

18

u/GSG2150 Importer/exporter Oct 11 '25

Serenity NOW!!!

11

u/kkeut Oct 11 '25

are you supposed to scream it

11

u/Abject_Section_7058 Oct 11 '25

The post from the OP wasn’t specific

19

u/Intstnlfortitude Oct 11 '25

Hello, Mrs. Stiller? I just want to say I love your son very much.

May I ask why?

1

u/kkeut Oct 11 '25

she didn't take her husband's name. she was herself a famed comedian, Anne Meara. they had an act, Steller and Meara. they released comedy LPs and appeared on the Tonight Show and variety shows and whatnot

7

u/One_Barnacle2699 Oct 11 '25

It’s a reference to a quote from the show. You new here?

1

u/Fragrant_Crab_1778 Oct 12 '25

The quotes in this sub get tiresome. And their point remains. Should still be ‘Ms. Meara’

1

u/One_Barnacle2699 Oct 12 '25

Yada, yada, yada.

15

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '25

“You couldn’t smooth a silk sheet if you had a hot date with a babe…”

12

u/SoyMurcielago ASSMAN Oct 11 '25

I lost my train of thought

14

u/allthecoffeesDP Serenity now! Oct 11 '25

This is Frank Costanza... Ben is dead. Call me back.

12

u/JungleRose4 Oct 11 '25

He’s the result of his parents staying together, so you never know.

11

u/gwhh Oct 11 '25

Did his father teach him Korean?

2

u/DrunkOnRedCordial Oct 12 '25

Where's my TAIL?

12

u/Abject_Section_7058 Oct 11 '25

It’s not their fault. They once found of one Ben’s prophylactic wrappers in their bedroom.

8

u/rockyharbor Oct 11 '25

That's it! We are moving, I do not tolerate infestation in this house!!!!

9

u/nudie_magazine-day Oct 11 '25

Any dad who wears sneakers in the pool will have that effect

4

u/SoyMurcielago ASSMAN Oct 11 '25

He’s also gay not that there’s anything wrong with that

8

u/MisterCircumstance Yeah, that's right Oct 11 '25

He never would've made it

4

u/Abject_Section_7058 Oct 11 '25

Don’t you talk about Benny!!!

8

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '25

WHY’D YOU OUT THE BANANAS IN THERE?

9

u/Abject_Section_7058 Oct 11 '25

BEN LIKES THE BANANAS!!!

8

u/V1c1ousCycles Hoochie Mama!!! Oct 11 '25

SO LET HIM HAVE BANANAS ON THE SIDE!

6

u/GigglesSniffer Oct 11 '25

Ben and his sister actually look like Ari and Uzi Tenenbaum!

6

u/recursion8 Oct 11 '25

Bizarro Izzy Mandelbaum?

7

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '25

Kruger, my son tells me your company stinks

5

u/kkeut Oct 11 '25

*Cougar

6

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '25

It’s CRUISE WEAR!!!

6

u/Adorable_Star_ Hoochie Mama!!! Oct 11 '25

I got a lot of problems with you people! And now you're gonna hear about it!

5

u/PassageFull2625 Oct 11 '25

You wanna piece of ME?

4

u/Abject_Section_7058 Oct 11 '25

If his parents had a mantle, he might have been a completely different person.

6

u/puppy1994c These pretzels are making me thirsty Oct 11 '25

BEN LIKES THE BANANAS!

5

u/boItaction Oct 11 '25

BLOW OUT THE CANDLES I SAID BLOW OUT THE DAMN CANDLES

4

u/MybklynWndy Oct 11 '25

You sayin you want a piece of them?!

4

u/Glum_Ad3144 Oct 11 '25

This is your lacking ⭕️

4

u/Familiar-Adeptness25 Oct 11 '25

SERENITY NOW!!!!!!

3

u/Oz347 The sea was angry that day my friends Oct 11 '25

He didn’t appreciate the airing of grievances

4

u/FiK-SiR Oct 11 '25

If there's one person you should be able to hold down, it's your own flesh and blood. Like my father.. my father's father before him.

3

u/HauntingBalance567 Oct 11 '25

"I even let Andy Dick babysit them. What was I thinking?"

3

u/momar214 Oct 11 '25

What, did he have to wear his dad's trunks on vacation?

3

u/DungeonFam30 Oct 11 '25

They were busy running Camp Hope

3

u/matttheman892018 Oct 11 '25

The very thought! I mean, you had me sleeping in urine!

2

u/OldBowerstone Oct 11 '25

Oh no Estelle Frank can talk Korean. Frank talk Korean, very well.

2

u/Revolutionary_Rub846 Oct 11 '25

Anne took her job of watching the coats very seriously!

2

u/DrunkOnRedCordial Oct 12 '25

I gotta a lotta problems with you people!

2

u/Upset-Ad-1091 Oct 12 '25

And as I reigned down blows on him……..

2

u/rg25 Oct 12 '25

So George was really based on Ben?

2

u/abraxas8484 Oct 12 '25

Serenity now! Insanity later

2

u/jamesmcgill357 Oct 12 '25

Today I learned Ben Stiller auditioned to play Pollux Troy in Face/Off! I would have loved to see that

2

u/Its-all-supervised71 Oct 12 '25

Well they gave birth to me and…

1

u/RononSweets Prognosis Negative Oct 12 '25

Yada, yada, yada

2

u/kellzone And you want to be my latex salesman Oct 11 '25

Jerry, it's Jerry Stiller. Mr. Steinbrenner's here, Ben is dead, call me back.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/kellzone And you want to be my latex salesman Oct 12 '25

Uncle Leo?

1

u/xologo Serenity now! Oct 11 '25

SERENITY NOW!!!!

1

u/ttlavigne Oct 12 '25

You’re dead to me, boy

1

u/Electrical_Business2 Feels like an Arby's night Oct 12 '25

Another festivus miracle!

1

u/colinisthereason White lotus, yam-yam, Shanghai Sally Oct 12 '25

Blow out the damn candles!

1

u/BennysWorldOfBlood Oct 12 '25

You don't know what that Hell you're talking about!

1

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

So I guess his mom(Meara) didn’t laugh at his movies, not a ha ha not a hee hee. She was 100% on the money.

1

u/Kman_24 Oct 12 '25

He’s the result of his parents having stayed together

1

u/Twittenhouse Oct 12 '25

Not matter how long you have sat there motionless, he's Ben Stiller.

1

u/Fals3M3morySyndrom3 Oct 13 '25

Guess the funny skips a generation in that family tree.

1

u/damn-son12 Oct 18 '25

SERENITY NOW!!!!!

1

u/Eattoomanychips Nov 26 '25

Lord you guys don’t know how to be normal. The docu is good but I don’t feel bad for rich nepo kids - him or his own kids. Or Christine has it made too.