“Curb Your Enthusiasm” offered a symphony of social disaster across 12 seasons and nearly 24 years on HBO, eliciting laughs and chills at the misadventures of the serially inappropriate Larry David. David, playing a version of himself who could get away with saying and doing the kind of things that would give most people a punch in the nose, reveled in pushing the conventional boundaries of television comedy acceptance, at least in the first years of the program. when shock was more possible than today.
In the wake of “Curb's” April swan song, which found Larry in court defending himself against the aggrieved parties of an era, we thought it might be a very, very, very good idea to recount some of the best moments and episodes of ” Curbing the Awkwardness. To get an inside perspective, we asked three writers on the series, Carol Leifer, Steve Leff, and Nathaniel Stein, about their favorite encounters and scenarios of shame and infamy.
Carol Leifer
Leifer was attuned to David's sensibilities even before “Curb,” having worked as a writer and story editor on “Seinfeld” (created by David and Jerry Seinfeld). The first “Curb” episode he mentions is “The Doll” (season 2, episode 7), in which Larry cuts a small doll's hair, takes care of a bathroom that doesn't have a lock on the door, and has to pouring water without stopping underneath. doctor's orders. Like all “Curb” episodes, this one culminates in a convergence of plots, when the girl hugs Larry, who, without pockets, has stuffed a bottle of water down his pants. Emotional trauma ensues.
“As a viewer of the show, I definitely thought, 'Oh, okay, we're in some really interesting territory now,'” Leifer says. “It's incredibly edgy and misguided, but Larry gets his way. If you presented that in a room now, people would say, “There's no way you can do that.” And everything turns into laughter, which is the genius of the program and also the genius of him as a character and actor.”
Leifer remembers the phrase David used to reject plot ideas he didn't like for “Seinfeld”: “I could see that on another show.” “Curb” was full of ideas that I couldn't see in another program.
Steve Leff
Some of Leff's favorite moments in “Curb” revolve around race, particularly Larry's talent for saying exactly the wrong thing to black people and their loved ones. This was evident even before JB Smoove joined the regular cast as Hurricane Edna refugee Leon Black in 2007 and remained a fan favorite until the series finale this year.
Leff points to “Affirmative Action” (season 1, episode 9) as a prime example. Larry meets Richard Lewis at the beach, where they meet Dr. Grambs (Gregg Daniel), who is black, out for a run. When Richard introduces the doctor as his dermatologist, Larry responds with a deliberately unfunny affirmative action joke. Grambs is appropriately offended. Later in the same episode, Larry meets with a Black Line producer whom he did not hire for his film, “Sour Grapes”; She accuses him of racism. Of course, these two stories fit together at the end of the episode.
“I didn't mean any ill will toward the doctor,” Leff says. “Obviously it didn't go well. But she didn't say it behind her back. Larry is not racist. He sometimes he's an idiot. As he tells Richard: “Sometimes I say stupid things when I'm with black people.” “He owns that.”
Leff sees the affirmative action incident as one of many examples of Larry making bad decisions, rather than experiencing bad luck: “He chooses to make this joke. In Larry's own words: “He was just trying to be nice.” For some reason, he thought it was a friendly way to ingratiate himself with this African-American man. That is his work.”
Nathaniel Stein
Stein was a “Curb” superfan before joining the series as a writer. “The only reason I can contribute anything to 'Curb' is because I've seen the episodes 50 times each,” he says.
One of Stein's favorites is “Chet's Shirt” (Season 3, Episode 1), which features another of Larry's great talents: lying. Here, Larry has begged for a social engagement with his dentist, Dr. Blore (David Pasquesi), by lying about an out-of-town trip. As bad luck would have it, Larry runs into another of Blore's patients, Burt Bondy (Chris Barnes), at a clothing store when he is supposed to be out of town. As if that were not enough, Larry is punched in the mouth (perhaps on purpose) by Ted Danson's daughter, who was swinging on a piñata at a birthday party.
Bondy has told Dr. Blore that he ran into Larry, who was in town. Larry needs emergency dental work. You think you can see where this is going. And yet, the results are still unexpected and fun.
Stein has become something of a student of Larry's lies. “A lot of this is about getting caught lie,” he says. “You never know exactly how it's going to happen and it often happens in a way that you don't think it's going to happen. However, there are also times when you don't get caught. Sometimes he lies for no reason and gets away with it. And I love that.”
Larry is the lying, socially inept, passively offensive curmudgeon you couldn't stand in real life. And we will miss him very much.
