Life imitates art imitating genitals as Curb Your Enthusiasm billboard gets vandalized

In an act of synchronicity so perfect that HBO’s marketing department couldn’t have planned it better if they tried, a billboard for the network’s Curb Your Enthusiasm has been defaced in Los Angeles, in almost exactly the same way a fake version of it was defaced in the TV show—i.e., by having a bunch of dicks spraypainted on it, pointing at star Susie Essman’s mouth.

And, again, it’s almost like HBO wanted this to happen, given that the billboard, for Essman’s character’s “Catch As Caftan” business, was put up shortly after the airing of “Gettysburg Address,” in which Larry David is delighted after his frenemy Susie’s billboard gets this very standard approach to vandalism. Also, series star Jeff Garlin, who plays Essman’s husband on the show, literally asked for people to go do it on Instagram, and then congratulated the group who pulled it off, which is kind of telling.

Said group, known as INDECLINE, even gave an interview to TMZ about the graffiti, a relative rarity in the world of doing very public crimes, where they thanked David for inspiring them. “A few nights ago, we watched in awe as one of our favorite pastimes, ‘billboard liberation,’ was incorporated into the latest episode. We received a flood of texts and DMs about the existence of the billboard in Los Angeles and even saw that Jeff Garland (sic) was on Instagram calling for it to be altered. So, as a thank you to Larry David, for his contribution to the field of art imitating life, we give you our contribution to the practice of life imitating art.”

Curb has intersected with the real world on more than one occasion—most notably with the famous incident where the show’s cameras provided a murder alibi for a man facing a death row sentence, as chronicled in the documentary Long Shot. So far, per TMZ, nobody has reported the vandalism as a crime, even though the “perpetrators” in question were nice enough to sign their work.