What’s your most relatable Curb Your Enthusiasm gripe?
Before the HBO series bows out on Sunday, we revisit the times we felt seen by Larry David
TV Features Seinfeld
Larry David Photo: John P. Johnson/ HBO
It feels pretty (pretty, pretty…) weird to say goodbye to Larry David’s singular HBO comedy. Curb Your Enthusiasm has been something of a constant over the last quarter century (if you include the excellent special that spawned the series). And even if we didn’t watch every episode live and even if there was that six-year break between seasons eight and nine, Curb has always felt there, picking apart life’s little annoyances and hovering in the pop-culture landscape somewhere. So, to toast the series before its finale on April 7, we asked: What’s your most relatable Curb Your Enthusiasm gripe? Here are our picks, in order of when they aired on the show.
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I’m still on LD’s side about the nickname thing. If you have a cutesy little name that your close ones call you, I consider that a pet name, and I expect a sing-song-y voice to accompany it every time it’s uttered. Because if I’ve just met you and see someone call you by your nickname, how am I supposed to know what you prefer being called?
On a mostly unrelated subject, I hate it when TV personalities call athletes and entertainers by their nicknames. You don’t know them!
You know when something subconsciously bugs you but you don’t really think about it? This. “So CP3, I gotta ask you..”
Continuing the trend, I hate when people refer to someone else that I barely know/just learned their name by their nickname, as if we’re just supposed to know who they’re talking about. Bonus points for absolutely giving other people the impression that the person in question is ok with being called the nickname by strangers!
I am super super white. The group of mostly black guys I hung around with in college had a nickname for EVERYBODY, and that’s all they ever called them. I heard a lot about “Mexican Sean” before I ever met him, and once I finally did I learned very quickly he was NOT cool with being called that by a white guy. Older wiser me knows better, but young dumb me is all “hey you must be Mexican Sean” and it was super awkward. I explained myself and he eventually warmed up to me but that was a life lesson for sure.
Probably the chat and cut. In college I missed seeing a sneak preview of “Mean Girls” that I had waited an hour in line for because some people chatted and cut.
Don’t worry, those people are going to the worst depths of Hell.
Sounds like THEY were the REAL sneak preview of Mean Girls…
Easy. My biggest gripe is that I’m dead.
ah, Freddie’s a perfectly serviceable replacement.
I also believe lemons are a fungible citrus.
There’s an article over in Slate about how conservatives are just now discovering that Larry David (both IRL and “Larry David” as portrayed on Curb) is liberal and they’re getting all pissy about it and my god these people are fucking stupid. The cultural illiteracy of these people knows no bounds. It is no wonder we are where we are as a nation when 40% of the population shits the bed on understanding a 26-minute episode of comedic television. https://slate.com/culture/2024/04/curb-your-enthusiasm-season-12-larry-david-trump-politics.htmlYou stupid fucking morons. You cows. He doesn’t like you. No one likes you. Larry David doesn’t like you, Taylor Swift doesn’t like you, Bruce Springsteen doesn’t like you, America’s Dad Tom Hanks doesn’t like you, Beyonce definitely does not like you. No one with any wit or talent enjoys you, your presence, or your views. You get to have Kid Rock, James Woods, and the banjo player from Mumford & Sons. That’s it. Shut the fuck up. You have mashed potatoes for brains. If you can’t understand music or television or entertainment of any kind then stop consuming it and shut the fuck up and go live in a fucking hole in the woods you goddamn imbeciles.
That’s amazing. It’s not even like Larry David remotely tries to hide it. He has openly mocked conservatives in recent seasons and included storylines about liberal charity events for no reason other than that’s what he spent time doing IRL in the earlier seasons. That’s why basing your entire identity around being aggrieved and cultural politics is a terrible idea.
FFS can’t we talk about a TV show without someone dragging politics into it?
This show?
David has previously been asked if he is concerned about “alienating” conservatives with jokes about Trump his supporters. The comedian and co-Seinfeld creator replied: “Alienate yourselves! Go, go and alienate! You have my blessing”, before adding: “No, I could give a fuck.”
I think this was the second (maybe third?) season, but there was one where Larry only thanks the husband for picking up a check at dinner, instead of the wife as well, on the grounds that she doesn’t work. Realistically, it could never be implemented and we’ll all have to go on thanking both of them, even if only one of them has a job. Still…dare to dream.
maybe I just don’t end up in many situations where someone picks up the check at a meal (splitting checks has become a lot more common in the last 20 years, and venmo abets where an establishment may not), but I’m absolutely drooling for details about how this affects your dining experience.
As with all Curb things, there’s a principle involved. Larry doesn’t feel she should have to thank someone for paying who didn’t contribute financially.
Both of you are dumb as a box of hammers.
Charming as always. I feel like you’re someone who has their pronouns in their linkedin bio.
I have neither. Thanks for playing.
I said it above, but this is not how normal people interact. What well-adjusted person would walk up to other people they don’t know and say “both of you are stupid”? It seems like a reasonable, if maybe unrealistic, standard to apply to anonymous comments, I think.
“What well-adjusted person would walk up to other people they don’t know and say “both of you are stupid”?”*raises hand*
That doesn’t sound like a well-adjusted thing to do, unless they’re in your space and you’re kicking them out
No, I do it because it’s more fun to watch people FAFO after they’ve learned how dumb they are.
What well adjusted person hopes for a day when he can only thank the man in a couple for dinner?What well adjusted person whines about other people posting their pronouns?
My point being more that I can’t divine a real-world situation where one person in a couple puts down their card to pay, you say “thanks” to them, and the other member of the couple goes “ahem…?” I’ve never seen anything remotely like that beyond the made-up situation on tv.
Okay. That’s your life experience. This conversation has officially gone on too long.
so this never actually happened to you. got it lol
It did, actually, not that that was necessarily the point. Don’t really get the unpleasantness based on absolutely nothing. This is not how normal people interact.
I think I’m getting irked because I basically asked three times “how’s this relatable? (in a thread about what is or isn’t relatable, so I’d say that is necessarily the point) Have you really been in such a situation?”, and every time you’ve been terse, evasive, and now flat-out condescending. Which, I guess, is normal for you.
I explained that it was a matter of principle for the character, then I said that I guess you hadn’t experienced it, which is fine, and then I said I had, thus making it relatable for me. Don’t know what else I can do, even though by that time you continued to be rude throughout.
“I only thank the breadwinner of the family, even when they ask *and they’re always asking*;” what a weird, Andrew-Tate-ass take
The refolding the jumper in the clothes shop and being told off by the assistant really stuck with me.
You think I’d send anyone to this piece of shit store?”
The one that I agreed with was an episode where they were at the country club grabbing breakfast before a tee time and Richard Kind asked for caramelized onions for his eggs. I was on Larry’s side when he proceeded to flipped out on him. Do you know how long it takes to caramelize onions?
Larry wanting to switch therapists after seeing his at the beach in a thong. I can relate because my long-time family doctor is clearly going through some shit and recently transformed into a 90s beach bum – shoulder-length bleached hair, puka necklaces, leather bracelets, and an extremely orange tan. He’s a good doc so I don’t think I’m going to switch, but man, it’s tempting.
I’ve had to bounce off of two different GPs because they can’t keep their mouths shut about how awesome libertarianism is.
My children’s previous pediatrician outed herself as an anti-vaxxer which was an immediate deal breaker for me
Yikes. That should be a deal breaker for anyone.
Same reason we’re changing our CPA.
Just don’t pay. Then dare them to use the laws of the government to try to collect.
I like the cut of your jib
It’ll be like that bit where Father Ted realises he’s told Pat Mustard to use artificial contraception.
This has never happened to me as I’ve never donated a wing to a library/hospital/what have you, but my favourite Larry David gripe is probably still ‘The Anonymous Donor’. Larry donates a wing to a library(?) which is named The Larry David Wing. Ted Danson donates a wing as well. It’s labeled ‘Anonymous’ but he still makes his rounds subtly letting people know it was him. It’s such a simple premise, but it’s brilliant. “That’s not anonymous! You know what, Ted? Go fuck yourself!” Gets me every time.
Having started re-watching the show from the beginning, I gotta say the inconsistent policies at the doctor’s office about what patient is seen when regardless of scheduled appointment time really spoke to me.
I haven’t seen the episode, but I hope part of it is questioning how a doctor can already be an hour behind schedule at 10AM.
PIG PARKERS
This is an obvious one, but in the same roadside memorial episode where he gets mad at the woman at the front of the line for sampling all of the flavors at the ice cream store. Of course, the woman ends up not buying anything. He tells her she’s abusing her sampling privilege. This also makes me see red.
Only job I was ever fired from was a mall ice cream shop where I would give my friends nearly full scoops balanced on top if the tiny spoons. After one such donation I saw the manager looking at me through the little window to the back and knew I was cooked. Not good for yields, apparently.
That was the first one I thought of. It’s especially rude when there’s a line.
On a different note, the LEAST relatable Curb ep that stuck with me was the one where they went to a beach and Cheryl’s friend took Larry’s jacket out of his car (???), got it covered in s’mores chocolate like a 6 year old (???), and then everyone got mad at Larry (???). I MUST know what real-life event inspired that story, because no one in that episode is acting like any person I’ve ever seen lol, the way the events escalate makes no sense
People who have no limit tasting ice cream befor ethey buy. I don’t know what episode that was but I agree with that forever.
In terms of least relatable, I’ve been watching some of the earliest episodes of Curb, and though I love the show and have (probably) seen every episode, I forgot how cringier some of the early ones are. Take Season 2 ‘The Doll’ as an example:- Larry and Cheryl attend a cocktail party thrown by the president of ABC. Larry asks to use the washroom, only to find there’s no lock on the door. Rather than asking about this, he decides to tour the rest of the house uninvited to look for another bathroom. Something I feel he’d gripe about.- He finds their very young daughter in her room playing with her doll and asks to use her washroom, something no one would ever do.- He engages the girl and she explains the doll’s hair is too long and asks if he would cut it for her. He obliges instantly, something no one would ever do.- Cheryl asks Larry to guard the unlocked bathroom while she uses it. The girl flips out about the hair and Larry is distracted enough to stop paying attention to the bathroom door. During which time, the president of ABC – the guy whose house it is, who is throwing the party, the guy who knows the door has no lock on it – barges through it without knocking, despite there being dozens of people around who could be using it at any time. Something no one would ever do.- Larry asks Cheryl to guard a public women’s restroom for him. She gets a bit of revenge and walks away. After sticking a water bottle down his pants to cool his crotch, the same little girl walks in. Rather than scoot right past her, Larry engages a little girl in a women’s restroom. Something no reasonable non-deviant would ever do.