Why We Need Larry
David returns to remind us we’re our own worst enemies
GOD, it’s good to have Larry David back. Before last weekend’s ninthseason debut of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the impresario behind it and “Seinfeld” had been on a bit of a hiatus. Six years have passed since the eighth season of “Curb” ended, and his only major work in that timeframe was 2013’s “Clear History,” an amusing but slight HBO movie.
He’s not a moment too late: David’s brand of self-centered, observational absurdism is, perhaps, exactly what we need in this moment when everything seems in flux and the world feels as if it’s flying out of control.
We need the guy who squabbles with a deli owner over what, exactly, should go on a sandwich bearing his name and the guy who awkwardly hosts a Seder dinner with a Holocaust survivor and a contestant on Survivor.
We need the guy who trips up Shaq while sitting courtside at a Lakers game, the guy who makes a donation to a hospital and then gets upset when an anonymous gift-giver earns more praise.
In short, we need someone who reminds us that our problems are, for the most part, internally directed: As much as we might want to rant and rave about the unfairness of the world outside our windows, we are all our own worst enemies.
Some have suggested that David’s brand of humor is past its expiration date, that the world has changed too much since “Curb” last aired. But it’s not like we need yet another reminder of The Way Things Are Now.
Spare us another late-nighter getting on his soapbox to yell at the rubes about health-care reform or giving a picture of the president the finger. Save us from the shoddy impersonations of Donald Trump on sketch shows grasping for relevance in the YouTube era.
I hate the president as much as the next establishment coastal RINO cuck, but that particular co- medic marketplace is flooded at the moment.
No, what we need is a reminder that for the vast majority of people, it doesn’t particularly matter who the president is or what nonsense he’s up to on any given day — especially since his unique blend of bombast and incompetence has led to little of his legislative agenda being enacted, or few substantial rollbacks of his predecessor’s successes. Enter Larry David, a man who has never seen a situation he can’t make a little bit worse.
He’s still manufacturing stupid feuds with celebrity pal Richard Lewis and keeping track of what’s cool with the aid of Leon (J.B. Smoove).
He’s still trying to figure out how to fix his personnel problems — in last week’s case, an assistant whose bowel issues led to absences from work — with the minimum of personal responsibility.
He’s still flummoxed by everyday objects (soap bottles) and social conventions (who gets to be the bride and who gets to be the groom in a lesbian wedding). He’s still accidentally getting into trouble with all the wrong people (though a literal fatwa is a new one for our hapless hero).
In other words, nothing has changed for Larry David in his six-year absence, just as, fulminations aside, nothing has really changed for virtually all of the people who most closely resemble Larry David: middle- to upperclass liberal white folks who opposed Donald Trump’s ascension to the presidency.
The closest “Curb” has gotten to partisan politics over the years was when Larry refused to sleep with a co-star who had voted for George W. Bush — and even then, the joke was on David and his neuroses, the way his own issues get in the way of his hopes and dreams.
We’ve all got a little Larry in us, a little internal voice that keeps happiness at bay; it’s been too long since he reminded us of that simple truth.