There’s an episode from the first season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in 2000 in which series protagonist Larry David winds up in his family’s doghouse after he pens an obituary for his wife’s aunt, only for the newspaper in which it’s printed to include an unfortunate misspelling that leads to calling her a vulgar name in the announcement.
It’s a vintage episode, in more ways than one. The episode includes Larry offering to send in the obituary via fax. And it will be printed in a newspaper. While those acts may feel dated, watch the episode today and it is as funny as it was when it first aired more than two decades ago.
“Curb Your Enthusiasm” had a transcendent ability to be current and edgy, no matter what year the episode was made. Fans often talk about how shows hold up, and the phrase “this didn’t age well” is 21st century shorthand for the inability to gracefully adjust to the times. It’s a problem “Curb” avoided.
The show’s roots lie in the 1999 HBO special “Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm,” a mockumentary in which David conjures a lie about his nonexistent stepfather falling ill in order to back out of a standup special he’s shooting for the cable network. It was the beginning of what may be called “Curb” appeal, with the show managing to do something virtually impossible in live-action television comedy: continue unblemished over an absurdly long period of time.
Think about this: “Curb” and David’s unique brand of comedy, in which he questions social mores and is often misunderstood and aggravated by the smallest and unlikeliest of encounters, predates the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Perhaps not coincidentally, that was a plot point in a Season Four episode in which Larry is flummoxed when his rabbi somberly reveals his brother-in-law died that day in New York City — in an accident with no connection to the terrorist attacks whatsoever. That same episode also split hairs over what it means to be a survivor, when a Holocaust survivor gets into an argument with a castaway from the reality show “Survivor.” David made comedy magic out of tragedy.
It’s difficult to comprehend a show remaining on the air for a quarter of a century. And, yes, “Curb” took off long periods of time, which could, in part, explain its long run. The six-plus-year gap between the end of Season Eight and the premiere of Season Nine highlights this. But the show rolled with the punches, very much at odds with the way Larry would not roll with anything while he confronted what he deems the wrongs in the world.
A good comedian will say the things other people do not, in a humorous way. It’s what Mel Brooks did, by lampooning Nazism in “The Producers.” Perhaps not coincidentally — again — a storyline running through 2004’s Season Four had Larry starring in a Broadway production of “The Producers,” with all sorts of problems stemming from it.
Season Two also featured an episode about the rumor of an impending terrorist attack, only about a year after Sept. 11, with the nation still very nervous about such a possibility. It was a gutsy premise that you can’t help but wonder how it would be received if it came out today.
It’s no secret that David’s fingerprints are all over pop culture, but take a step back and consider the breadth of his résumé. He’s been an integral part of the TV landscape since “Seinfeld” premiered in 1989. That’s 35 years. Shows have come and gone, run in syndication and then been removed from syndication in that time. “Seinfeld” pioneered a comedy revolution, the famed “show about nothing.”
“Curb Your Enthusiasm” ascended to a new level, with David managing to be funny and relatable and defying the old axiom comedies should veer from current events because it may not play well in syndication (a Season Eight episode about the dispute between Palestine and Israel and multiple mentions of COVID in Seasons 11 and 12 attest to that).
A series that runs for a quarter of a century will no doubt overcome its share of obstacles, too. The deaths of Shelley Berman, Bob Einstein and, most recently, Richard Lewis, who filmed the final season before he died, were all part of the mythology of the show, as was the series’ ability to address current events, in addition to evergreen trends that Larry finds ridiculous. But David has hinted that time may have finally come and gone.
“I think, almost ready for a nursing home,” he told TODAY in February about why he decided to end the show now. “I think it’s a little old for a grown man to be acting like that.”
David brilliantly straddled his past with the present. In 2009’s Season Seven, he deftly used the concept of a “Seinfeld” reunion, which cleverly poked fun at Michael Richards’ scandal in which he was captured on camera delivering a racist rant while performing standup comedy in 2006. He fed fans’ appetite for a reunion with pointed, self-aware commentary.
Perhaps nothing better exemplified how the show stayed relevant and current, though, than a recent Season 12 episode in which Larry grows fed up with being stuck on a text thread with a large group of people, a frustration of 2024 if ever there was one. He winds up getting chastised for his lack of participation in the chain, bogged down in a litany of inspirational quotes from family members after one of Larry’s acquaintances — whom he doesn’t even know that well — has a stroke.
“Those chains — I’ve been on them. They’re the worst thing ever,” his manager and best friend, Jeff, says at the beginning of the episode.
“I’m overwhelmed by this chain. Every two minutes, it’s ding, I’m getting a ding. I’m getting a ding. Too many dings,” an exasperated Larry later tells the sick man’s cousin, Waylan Grossbard.
Eagle-eyed “Seinfeld” fans will no doubt also recognize that last name as the same moniker of Kramer’s former roommate, who Kramer, in an episode from the sitcom’s fourth season, becomes convinced he saw in an airport and is determined to make pay for stiffing him on rent. Years later, the connection is still strong, still fresh, still funny.
It’s a long way from the fax machine and a long way from the show’s beginning. Yet David stayed timely all the way through.