Curb Your Enthusiasm - General Discussion

[Thrifty]

5 hours ago, scrb said:

Didn't Larry sour on her when she dumped candies into the popcorn?

Then he talked about how he can't date her because he has to see her all the time.  Well strictly not true.  He can arrange not to be home when she comes around with the mail or just keep the doors closed and stay away from wherever his mail box is, let Leon collect the mail.

Larry soured on her when he arrived in the theater late, couldn't see her due to the darkness, and she refused to beckon to him.  Then they had that fight and it just went downhill.

[Thrifty]

What was up with that cannon in the Revolutionary War re-enactment?  What lunatic decided to provide live ammo?  And is this the first time Larry has bothered someone to the point of attempted murder?

Edited October 30, 2017 by Thrifty
punctuation

[hoodooznoodooz]

22 minutes ago, Thrifty said:

What was up with that cannon in the Revolutionary War re-enactment?  What lunatic decided to provide live ammo?  And is this the first time Larry has bothered someone to the point of attempted murder?

It's possible! Susie always looks like she is THIS close to killing him, but this is the first time we've seen the attempt executed, I think.

Optimum gave me a summary of, Larry commits a faux pas with Sammi's fiancé. When doesn't Larry commit a faux pas?

[Blakeston]

I didn't care for the cannonballs. I wouldn't say this show is 100% realistic, with all of the crazy coincidences and bad luck Larry has, but almost all of the events have been things that, individually, might actually happen in real life.

[ganesh]

I tend to think "thank you for your service" is much more about the people saying it than the people being thanked. 

[bilgistic]

My mother is all about the "thank you for your service". My dad is a Vietnam vet, so I'm sure that plays into it, and I always make sure to thank him on Memorial Day and Veterans Day because I recognize what a horrible experience that was, and how our country treated the vets that came home. My grandfather (Mom's father) was in WWII. The wars of the past 25 years have been differently motivated IMO, so I have mixed feelings about them. I don't want to get too deep into political talk than I already have, but yeah, I don't think it's obligatory to thank vets for their service. It's a career path since the draft was lifted, not a sentence.

[Milburn Stone]

58 minutes ago, bilgistic said:

My mother is all about the "thank you for your service". 

Larry is more about the "you knew what you were signing on for."

[Mindthinkr]

Party of one here. When I was watching Larry at the CC gate talking to Sal all I could focus on were the funny wrinkles on the back of his (Sal's) neck. 

Edited November 3, 2017 by Mindthinkr

[cpcathy]

Joe Regalbuto has really aged. That's all I could focus on.

Edited October 31, 2017 by cpcathy

[MaggieG]

The whole exchange with the waiter about the face the chef made cracked me up!

[Cupcake04]

On ‎10‎/‎31‎/‎2017 at 7:45 PM, cpcathy said:

Joe Regalbuto has really aged. That's all I could focus on.

Me too.  Took me half the show to figure out who he was and where I knew him from.  It was his voice that made me go "I know him...how do I know him"  I think he has aged pretty well it's just that I have never seen him with the gray hair but his voice is distinctive, at least to me.

[ganesh]

If someone like the fiance stood there and waited for me to "thank him for his service"? Nope. Of course, Larry could have just said "welcome back." He's right of course. Part of the problem is we deify anyone in the military. Leon ending the episode on it was the best part. 

I loved the whole fight about "save the date" because Larry is right. Just send the invite so I know to save the date. Whenever she and Larry go at it, the actors look like they are enjoying themselves immensely. Which is why I like Richard Lewis and Larry. "What is this? Dragnet?" totally looked like it broke Larry up.

I didn't think the "Asian looking" baby was going to be a pay off at the end. Larry's smug glee stole the scene. 

[cpcathy]

I do get a kick out of when Larry smiles or is amused by one of the other actors. Ted Danson has said Larry is very generous with a laugh.

[Thrifty]

I kinda think "Thank you for your service" is a lot like saying "God Bless You" when someone sneezes.  So many people just do it out of a sense of politeness and social pressure.  Most of them aren't really even that religious, and even if they were, a sneeze is such a mundane thing to ask for a blessing over.

[Mindthinkr]

I will thank someone for their service because I have had family members serve and know that their lives depends on these other people that truly have their backs in the face of danger. 

[Pike Ludwell]

I too am sick of people having to say certain things, which should otherwise be assumed. "Thank you for your service." or a politician on TV asked a question and before answering says "first let me say how wonderful it is to be here in this beautiful city." or "let me first say how sorry I am about the tragic loss of life in Las Vegas" (or wherever). Let's just  assume all that stuff, because quite frankly it looks a lot of the time like they are just saying it (and wasting my time) to score points with the listeners. Also, more controversially, I would add saying the Pledge of Allegiance before classes or meeting, and singing the national anthem at sports.  Let's just assume we're all patriotic and anyone who's not would just fake it anyway.

Edited November 3, 2017 by riverclown

[ganesh]

Alternatively, as it was shown on the show, people flying off the handle if you *don't* say anything. And the scene was dumb (intentionally) with everyone of the 4 people in the room saying it. Richard Lewis or the next person could have just said, "I think all of us here thank you for your service," and then "yes," handshakes, "welcome back", and it's done. I think that was Larry's point with the scene. 

[allthatglitters]

On 10/1/2017 at 9:13 PM, Milburn Stone said:

I pretty much liked it. It was good to see Nasim Pedrad again. I thought (real-life) Larry was smiling a bit too much in the whole first half of it, in his amusement at the moves and line readings of his fellow actors. That made it hard to buy him as the miserable excuse for a human being we're obviously supposed to conceive of him as. But once (character) Larry entered into a panic from the fatwa issued on him, (real-life) Larry sold it.

This is the most off-putting part of the new season for me. Who directs these episodes? Are they too afraid to tell Larry how self sabotaging that is to not only his own character, but to the engagement of the audience? It deflates any punchline by the paying no heed to suspension of belief. Which even in a comedy, you need. Maybe even more so because the story lines are so absurd to begin with.

I agree, its not a deal breaker. I will overlook it because the show is so funny regardless. But not only does that kind of lazy acting on his part take you out of the narrative because instead of seeing 'show Larry' we see Larry David, milking out another season and feeling pretty good about himself because if it. It looks like he's enjoying himself, nothing wrong with that normally, but as a TV character it throws him out of character.  And you can see it throws other actors out of their characters too which is unfair. This isn't SNL where you can forgive the occasional inadvertent laugh by the actors as its a live, quickly rehearsed show. But you expect a little more professionalism from an edited, crafted TV series.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 10/2/2017 at 9:51 AM, Thrifty said:

I liked the scene with the door holding.   I have been thinking about that scenario for a very long time and how it would work well in an episode of Curb.  It didn't play out the way I'd hoped though.  My conception doesn't really consider the genders of the people involved.  I just hate the entire practice of holding doors open for people who have two functioning, empty arms.  And I hate when people hold the door open for me, because then I'm obligated to thank them even though they didn't do anything for me.  It's even worse when they open the door and I'm so far away that I have to pick up my pace for them.  I've made a practice of lingering about 50 feet away from any door that has people walking through it.

I'm pretty sure I bitched about this on the pet peeves thread, but my biggest annoyance is when a man holds the door open for me by stepping aside and having me go in first.  Now I'm next in line inside, which is all kinds of awkward because I wasn't there first, so I feel obligated to tell him he can go in front of me and he usually declines but dammit he was there first and should go first.  It's just so ridiculous. 

But I've stopped being polite.  If someone steps aside and holds the door for this able-bodied person, instead of just propping it open so I can grab it easily, then he loses his place in line.  Maybe he'll learn a lesson. 

 

On 10/30/2017 at 3:54 AM, Thrifty said:

I loved that scene.  I'm absolutely with Larry on this issue.  If you want to thank a veteran, that's fine.  It's custom, but it should never be obligatory.  I went to a commuter college, so the a lot of the student were adults older than the typical college.  For one of my classes, during the introductions, one of the guys mentioned that he had been in the military.  After he was done, another student (who I always found annoying in a way I can't articulate), said to the military guy "thank you for your service" and went to shake his hand.  Then the teacher and a few other students said the same thing.  The military guy squirmed a little and said "uh.... thanks".  The situation clearly made him uncomfortable.

It's making me incredibly uncomfortable just reading about it.  I can't imagine having to witness it in person.

And why is it a custom?  We certainly didn't have a custom of thanking returning Vietnam veterans, including most notably the ones who were drafted and didn't even want to fight a war he couldn't even feel good about. 

And at the risk of totally alienating my fellow curmudgeons, I'll say that I feel the same way about worshiping firemen and policemen.  Yes, I know it's dangerous and I'm glad somebody wants to do it, but last time I checked, you chose to do that and you get paid, and handsomely compared to some jobs.  I swear, if I ever meet a garbageman socially, I'm going to thank him for his contribution to our society, and it will be sincere.

 

Quote

But I wanted to yell at Susie, "Why do you want Larry at the wedding? You hate him. Jeff won't care. Larry doesn't care if he's not invited."

So true.  But that's classic Curb--foisting the "right" thing on Larry even though it's not what he wants.

I know it says a great deal about me, but I spend most of every episode marveling at how Larry and I are on the same page about so much. 

[ganesh]

I think Susan would want as many people as she can get at the wedding to say how huge the attendance was. 

14 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

And why is it a custom?  We certainly didn't have a custom of thanking returning Vietnam veterans, including most notably the ones who were drafted and didn't even want to fight a war he couldn't even feel good about. 

And at the risk of totally alienating my fellow curmudgeons, I'll say that I feel the same way about worshiping firemen and policemen.

Yeah, it was said upthread, not everyone joins up with the most noble of intentions. My friend went into the army to get the healthcare. That's it. 

[Mindthinkr]

3 hours ago, allthatglitters said:

Who directs these episodes?

Larry David directed that last episode. 

Edited November 5, 2017 by Mindthinkr
Spelling

[woodscommaelle]

If ever there was a perfect sounding made-up Jewish holiday, Sukutis it is (spelling may vary).

[hoodooznoodooz]

Why was Marty wearing that jacket at the dinner table during Marilyn's party? It looked like a lightweight outdoor jacket. 

The dirty car ending was a little disappointing.

Edited November 6, 2017 by hoodooznoodooz

[scrb]

Accidental Text on Purpose was terrific.

Yeah I doubt concierge service has a saleswoman in the changing room with a male client.

Amazingly, Larry wasn't the one who behaved the most despicably this episode!

Marty really let loose when he said what he really thought of the filtered tap water.

[bilgistic]

It was unfiltered tap water. I can barely stand my city's tap water. I use a Brita pitcher.

"It's like I stuck a straw up a frog's ass!"

[Joimiaroxeu]

Heh, LD is clearly not a fan of United airlines.

Premature honey.

Whatever Super Dave Osborne has been doing to his face, he probably needs to ease up on it.

[cpcathy]

Super Dave doesn't even look human anymore!

[Thrifty]

Susie and Jeff's marriage is so perplexing.  They are openly hostile to each other.  They seem to hate each other, but they won't get a divorce for some reason.  I can see why Jeff won't.... he's got a lot to lose financially.  Maybe Susie just enjoys being in a position where she can be rotten to Jeff.  Also, a divorce she would get, what, 50% of Jeff's assets.  As is, she has access to 100% of them.

 

Jeff didn't want to drive Susie to the airport, and he openly stated he didn't.  Susie didn't care.  So why did Jeff go through with it?  What are the consequences if he doesn't?  Will Susie find some way to be even more horrible to him?

 

It's especially interesting that of all these marriages, the most acrimonious one is the one that is still intact.

[mjc570]

That was great, I liked pretty much everything.  I especially like how Larry and Richard play off each other, and for some reason, Marty always cracks me up, I guess because he says everything with such a straight face.

I'm probably in the minority, but I really like Susie - she really is the only one who tells it like it is, and calls Larry out when he deserves it.  I think the marital dynamic between her and Jeff, while somewhat exaggerated, isn't (completely)  unrealistic - my husband and I do things for each other that we might prefer not to as a matter of convenience because that's what marriage (to us) is.   So, I can see that Susie would expect Jeff to drive her, but in real life  I would also expect him to see if there was a way to accommodate both of them. 

I didn't recognize the dirty car neighbor - was there some joke (beside the car thing) about who is is?  I had to laugh at the school kids reading LArry's car.  Larry really is a dick, on so many levels.  That's not to say that's right so often, though. 

[ganesh]

23 hours ago, scrb said:

Yeah I doubt concierge service has a saleswoman in the changing room with a male client.

I found that hard to believe. What if a client doesn't wear underwear? I don't care if they don't care I change in front of them, but they seems a stretch. 

I'm surprised they're wasn't payoff worth the woman on the plane. I wouldn't have switched seats. I would have said, fine, get up as much as you want. 

I have filtered water. It's better for your pets. Richard Lewis' crack about the goldfish killed me. The whole honey montage at the restaurant was hilarious. 

I didn't think Susie was going to fall for the text either. 

[Cotypubby]

The last episode was great except there didn't seem to be any payoff. I was expecting something else to happen with the woman drinking all the water and the dirty car guy was just kinda random. If that was a callback to another episode, I don't recognize the character.

The perfume spritzer was also something already done on Seinfeld.

The tap water where I live is the best in the country so I couldn't really relate to that scene but it was hilarious hearing all their descriptions of the water! 

[MaggieG]

"I have a medical condition!" I did love Larry yelling at her that she didn't get up at all

[Mindthinkr]

I had a few giggles during this episode. The scene on the plane was so much of what happens to me! I'm small so people thinks that it gives the right to my unused space. Uh no. 

I loved Elizabeth Perkins line that she was ready to stab someone. Larry sabotaged a few relationships but why do they listen to him when they know what he's like and the fact that he's very much single? 

[Thrifty]

When Larry was saying that the knife made him want to stab, I was saying "Not those puny little steak knives.  A big hunting knife or short sword or dagger, sure."

[Milburn Stone]

I thought this was a fantastic episode. A subtlety I appreciated was its implicit social criticism of the entire "too much money" Brentwood/Pacific Palisades/Santa Monica set. LA tap water may not be the best, but it really is not that bad! The fact that every single one of the characters (other than Perkins) judged the water putrid is an indictment not of the water but of the lifestyle they've grown accustomed to.

Edited November 8, 2017 by Milburn Stone

[hoodooznoodooz]

Susie is still attracted to Jeff after so many years of marriage and how pissed she gets at him all the time?

[hoodooznoodooz]

Larry did a pretty good job imitating that Asian bus passenger. 

ETA: I am Chinese. My parents were immigrants. 

Edited November 13, 2017 by hoodooznoodooz

[scrb]

Of course Larry is going to accuse someone else of being an asshole.

Then pretends to have Aspergers to get excused for his behavior.

But he owns it, says he has has no inner light.  

Now can he write a plot which isn't driven by him offending ot mistreating people?

[bilgistic]

A lot of the appeal of this show for me is that Larry David writes the main character as man who knows he's a jackass. The character also says whatever he thinks, which is unchecked privilege, something a lot of us would like to have.

I gasped at Larry telling the mechanic that he didn't think he was black on the phone, his mocking the Asian lady on the bus, and his pretending to have Asperger's. I had horrified second-hand embarrassment and mortified laughter.

I really enjoy the moments of balance like Larry getting a one-star Uber rating, his date's son interrupting them and having to come along with them on their next date, and Leon breaking the HVAC because if having hot yoga sex in Larry's house.

I see that Susie's "Soap's On" business is still happening.

[Ms Blue Jay]

This episode was so fucking good.  I spent the entire thing with a huge grin on my face.  When it came to the woman on the bus, my god.  I laughed until I cried.  Lauren Graham and Ron Funches. What quality of guest stars.  Incredible

[StatisticalOutlier]

I swear, Larry and I were separated at birth.  I'd like to do yoga, but I just can't handle the "namaste" thing at the end; it makes me cringe.  I also don't sing "Happy Birthday" in a group because it's always a dirge.  AND I rode this bus this week for the first time in years.

This episode was pretty much perfection.  Y'all haven't mentioned Leon answering the door, and Larry hiding behind the HVAC guy.  I did not see that coming.

[bilgistic]

I also hate singing "Happy Birthday". I know I'm a horrible person. I understand doing it for a kid, but for a grownup, and especially in public, let's just not. And please don't make the waitstaff do their ridiculous song and bring over the giant hat or whatever.

Skip it at work, too. Let people have their birthday off and don't act like an asshole about it. Give them a gift card to Target from the company and be done with it. No one wants to go to lunch with their coworkers. No one wants shitty grocery store sheet cake either.

I'm a delight.

The guy with the car that Larry hit was a douche. Most people won't leave a note. His reaction to Leon was perfect.

[hoodooznoodooz]

6 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I also hate singing "Happy Birthday". I know I'm a horrible person. I understand doing it for a kid, but for a grownup, and especially in public, let's just not. And please don't make the waitstaff do their ridiculous song and bring over the giant hat or whatever.

Skip it at work, too. Let people have their birthday off and don't act like an asshole about it. Give them a gift card to Target from the company and be done with it. No one wants to go to lunch with their coworkers. No one wants shitty grocery store sheet cake either.

I'm a delight.

The guy with the car that Larry hit was a douche. Most people won't leave a note. His reaction to Leon was perfect.

I'll raise you, and say that I think making a big deal about birthdays, for anyone over the age of 21, possibly even younger, is annoying. I'll allow the milestone birthdays, 30, 40, 50, etc. But every friggin' year?

I might have to rewatch, but I'm surprised "Kevin" mistook Leon for Larry, since their voices are so different. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

"You wanna drive this bus, sir?"
"Is that an option?"

Rhetorical questions. It's what's for dinner.

I'm okay with Larry being a bit of a misanthrope but AFAIC he can dial back the kinds of racism and other cultural bigotry that were on display in this episode.

[wendyg]

I think of Jeff and Susie as an updated Basil and Sybil Fawlty.

Re birthdays: 64. 64 is a big birthday since the Beatles.

[ganesh]

I thought the scene with just Larry and Susan was fantastic. They opened when she was just bs-ing with him about stuff, and it gave some depth as to them actually being friends. They both looked like they were having a blast about the whole 'you're a 2' conversation.

Actually, both of their scenes killed. Yelling about being upstairs in the house and then screaming about Eddie Haskell. 

The continuing call back to the fatwa and it being a turn on is a fantastic recurring gag. 

I usually agree with Larry on most things, but 'hey you're black' and the thing about the Romanian women was just being a jerk for the sake of it. I'll give him the namaste though. That's obnoxious.

Edited November 13, 2017 by ganesh

[Pike Ludwell]

As to the Aspergers thing I've often thought Larry actually is on the spectrum. I don't think he needed to put of that act with the mechanic. Just be himself!

[Pike Ludwell]

I think the deferential interactions with African Americans were exaggerated but there is enough truth to them to be funny. I've known plenty of people who put on a very noticeable extra friendly/helpful/deferential attitude when among African Americans. White guilt or something.

I can so relate to Larry as to the bus. Riding a bus seems enormously complicated and I wonder if I could do it without repeatedly screwing up. What kind of change do you need? Connections? How is someone to know where and how do you know when you're even at your stop? It seems like an enormous amount of studying is needed beforehand and maybe over time I could master it. I'd have to ask people too about stuff all the time and then if you have an A-H driver like that woman ... a big source of anger.

Edited November 13, 2017 by riverclown

[ganesh]

Nowadays you typically have a card where you can load money and just swipe that when you get on the bus, so you don't need exact change. Bus lines typically have applications for the phone where you can follow the route and there's a map on the bus (usually). But just getting on a bus randomly, you don't know where it's going. 

[scrb]

22 minutes ago, riverclown said:

As to the Aspergers thing I've often thought Larry actually is on the spectrum. I don't think he needed to put of that act with the mechanic. Just be himself!

I don't know, I think it's maybe more than he has a lot of money and doesn't give a shit any more.

They haven't touched on it too much, how he made so much money from Seinfeld.