Why Larry David matters.

Robert Beers

There are those among us who have an inner Larry David.

We want to be more candid than these massively sensitive times allow. At the same time our, or at least my, excessive neurotic tendencies have to be kept largely to myself. Even though moments of high anxiety may be slightly noticeable. And, of course, we all have codes of conduct we follow even if no one else sees our versions of certain truths.

And this seems to be the key to most stories on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry has his ethics and a code of conduct that inevitably contrasts with most of the rest of the planet and all it takes is the right set of unfortunate circumstances and you have ‘a Larry David Moment’.

One of my favorite sets of such unforeseen circumstances came when Cheryl, his wife on the show, a Christian, had her parents from Tallahassee come to the Davids’ house in Southern California for Christmas.

For the Jewish Larry having a 20-foot Christmas tree in the house was problematic. He was also bemused about the caroling, the presents and the rest. And then it turned out that Cheryl’s family, from Tallahassee, apparently had a holiday tradition of baking a nativity scene from gingerbread on Christmas Eve before going to church.

That night, Larry, home alone, got a little hungry and while roaming through the kitchen made a stop at what he thought was a pile of Animal Crackers.

Upon returning home Cheryl’s mom, dad and sister were devastated over the fact that Larry “Ate the baby Jesus.”

Then things took a turn for the worse when Larry, trying to made amends, hired a live nativity, a manger scene group from a nearby church,  to come to his house after the morning service.

While they were setting up outside the front of his house Larry made a causal comment that Mary, or rather the woman playing her, had a great figure,

The fellow playing Joseph took offense to that and other remarks and he and Larry ended up tussling on the ground just as the Tallahassee-ites and Cheryl drove into the driveway.

Good intention, unfortunately circumstances. Could happen to anyone.

Cheryl Hinds

In another instance Cheryl had a bad cough so she asks Larry to stop at the health food store for some colon cleanser to take care of it.

So he asks why and she explains that it will cleanse the whole system and cure the cough. Larry looks dubious but goes to the health food store where he makes a statement that resonates with me anyway: “Health food stores always make me feel so unhealthy.’

Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Wanda Sykes, and Richard Lewis all have recurring roles as characters based upon themselves. And they all get into wonderfully twisted situations usually due to Larry.

But not always. Richard Lewis, who says he feels under the weather 98% of the time, ends up falling in love with a Christian Scientist. For a committed hypochondriac Lewis has problems with a girlfriend who does not have a medicine cabinet.

Larry, Ted Danson, Michael York and others invest in a new restaurant. Two days before it opens Larry fires the chef because he was wearing a toupee. Larry accidentally breaks the thumbs of LA’s most famous restaurant critic who nonetheless recommends a new chef who it turns out has Tourette’s Syndrome.

So mid-evening the chef lets out a long tirade of profanity. Larry, trying to take the edge off the chef’s outburst responds with his own sizzling repertoire of cursing and everyone in the restaurant joins in with a chorus of profanity. Life is complicated on Curb Your Enthusiasm but Larry David often finds ways to get to the heart of the problem even if his answer only appeals to Larry David.

There are long discussions of the rules of life, which have real gravitas in Larry’s world. For example, what is the cut-off for making phone calls? Depending on age of the children, if any, in the house…..8:30,9:30, 10?

I have tried, rather unsuccessfully, here to capture the humor of Curb but the attraction is a character who sometimes says what many of us may think. He wrestles with life, stumbles through it and somehow has not alienated everyone in his life, try as he might.

And he and the program are just as popular on this side of the Atlantic as it is on HBO.

And every year the real Larry David says he has had enough and this season was the last.

But  Jeff Garlin who plays Larry’s best friend and manager on the show has let it slip that Larry is hard at work on a season 8 for later this year.

LD:  Hear the birds? Sometimes I like to pretend that I’m deaf and I try to imagine what it’s like not to be able to hear them. It’s not that bad.

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