How Jerry Seinfeld tricked Chris Rock into starring in The Bee.

Jerry Seinfeld’s greatest achievement was not his 90s sitcom Seinfeld, but him 2007 animated comedy. Bee Movie which tells the groundbreaking story of a talking bee who somehow seduces a human woman. Seinfeld’s second best achievement was getting comedian Chris Rock to play a mosquito named Mooseblood in the same movie; it was a role that Rock didn’t seem too interested in, at least when Rock’s words in a 2007 interview should be believed.

“He told me it was, but what he actually told me (director Steven) was that Spielberg was going to be in it, and when I got there, Spielberg was gone,” Rock explained. “So he owes me. I don’t know how. I’ll just keep that chip and just figure out when I can cash it in.”

Of course, Chris Rock was just one of the many celebrities who were inexplicably involved in the Bee Movie. He is joined on the film’s roster by Ray Liotta and Sting as themselves, John Goodman as the villain, Oprah Winfrey as Judge Bumbleton and Patrick Warburton as the guy who gets cuckold bee. It was a wild, star-studded movie that certainly didn’t hurt Chris Rock’s career. It also wouldn’t be the last time Seinfeld directed something this stupid.

“‘B Movie’ is pretty good,” Rock said in the same interview. “It’s a little better than Shrek.

Mooseblood’s role in “B Movie” is quite short. He meets Barry while traveling on a truck carrying honey. They talk for a bit before Mooseblood notices a truck carrying blood and decides to jump over to that vehicle instead. (He’s greeted by a bunch of other friendly mosquitoes.) Mooseblood’s real contribution to the film is thematic: he’s there to subtly lay the groundwork for the film’s central thesis that moderation is the best policy for most problems.

Barry later learns that while it’s wrong for humans to exploit bees, it’s also wrong to cut humans off from honey altogether, as this will cause bees to become lazy and flowers all over the world to stop getting the pollination they need. However, in this scene, Barry is simply being introduced to the life of a mosquito; while bees live in overly cohesive collectivist societies, mosquito society is a libertarian dream where “every mosquito is for itself.” No way of life is entirely satisfactory, the film argues; Similar to the compromise between humans and bees, a middle ground between bee and mosquito lifestyles would be best for Mooseblood and Barry.

Mooseblood appears later in the film for a light joke about becoming a lawyer. “I was already a bloodsucking parasite,” he tells his new client, “all I need is a briefcase.” Sure, it’s a cynical joke, but it’s an upbeat note for Mooseblood’s character to end on. Just as Barry finds a healthy compromise between total bee docility and total bee freedom, Mooseblood finds a way to help other people while staying true to his individualistic anti-mosquito code. It may not be very pleasant, but the ending of Mooseblood is really sweet.