It’s been nearly three years since we had a new episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and while the show hasn’t been officially cancelled, Larry David hasn’t done much more than speculate on the possibility of a 10th season. While the show is based on a fictionalized version of himself, one has to wonder just how much of it stems from Larry’s real-life encounters.
Today is Larry’s 67th birthday, and while we may or may not see another season of Curb, here are six real-life Larry David encounters that would make for good Curb storylines. Plus, one encounter that’s already become an episode of classic television.
1. The time Larry got trapped in a parking garage.
This incident from two years ago seems exactly like the type of predicament that Larry David would find himself in on Curb, only without the screaming and obscenities. The video was picked up by TMZ and shot inside a Santa Monica mall parking garage with Larry unable to figure out how to work the parking gate. Larry gets out of his punk-ass car — more on that next — and begins apologizing for the trouble and asking for help. The only thing missing is Susie Essman calling him “a stupid f*ck” from another car.
2. JB Smoove calls Larry out on his “punk-ass car.”
Larry David might play an exaggerated portrayal of himself on the show, but I feel fairly confident that JB Smoove is exactly the same in real-life as he is on the Curb. (Twenty bucks says that he probably has to tone it down for the show.) Which makes his story about running into Larry on the way to a movie premiere even more enjoyable. (Tip: for a more authentic experience, read the story in JB Smoove’s voice.) Via Fox Sports:
“A few years ago I was going to the Movie 43 premiere. I’m getting off the highway and I’m driving down Highland Blvd. in Hollywood. I know Larry’s car. The whole 4-5 blocks to the premiere I’m following a Prius that looks just like Larry’s punk-ass car. My wife and I started laughing. I’m saying stuff like, “Look at Larry David and his punk-ass car.” I used to call it a roller coaster car. I always laugh at his car. He’s one of those guys who’s all concerned about the environment. Not me. I drive a big Dodge truck. I drive American cars. So we turn into the parking garage near where the movie premiere is, I get out of the car, help my wife out, and start walking to the building where the movie’s being shown. I see it’s Larry getting out of the car and I go, “HEEEEYYYYY!” He always says hey to me. I say, “Larry, I’ve been driving behind you the whole time, I knew it was your punk-ass car.” We walked the block-and-a-half to the movie and you would have thought people on the street were seeing Amos & Andy or Laurel & Hardy walking down the street.”
3. Richard Lewis once chased Larry David into a phone booth.
Richard Lewis has always been one of my favorite recurring characters on Curb — mainly because he seems like only person on the show possibly more neurotic than Larry. Both Larry and Richard have described their relationship off the show as being spot-on with the fictionalized version, despite having hated each other as kids at summer camp.
“I hated his guts,” Lewis said of his former nemesis. “He was a gangly, obnoxious jerk. I hated him. He hated me. We had fistfights, I beamed him.” Via NYDailyNews
Larry and Richard have had their issues on the show — giving a friend’s girlfriend a Benadryl-laced brownie can strain a friendship — and their real-life relationship has its Curb moments as well. Like the time the comedian invited Larry to a group therapy session, only to have the anxieties of 10 Jews send him running.
The comic admits to being in therapy for 40 years now, and says he’s even tried to persuade David to go with him. “He went in and out,” Lewis said. “He ran out once when I took him. Ran out. In group therapy. We caught him in a phone booth on First Ave. hiding from 10 neurotic Jews. And we’re saying, ‘You need us!’ And he’s saying, ‘I don’t need anybody!’ And he wouldn’t come out. And I don’t know if he ever went back.”
4. Ted Danson enjoys teasing Larry David about being a germaphobe.
Judging from Ted Danson’s 2010 appearance on The Late, Late Show, his real relationship with Larry David can be as conflicted as his fictional one. The actor joked that he was offended that Larry hadn’t invited him on for the 2011 season of the show despite using his Martha’s Vineyard guest house. (In the TV Star Code of Conduct, one three-day weekend of guest house privileges must be reciprocated with no less than two cameos.)
After Craig Ferguson attempted to defend Larry by comparing his scent to warm biscuits, Ted went on to describe a practical joke he enjoyed playing on Larry.
“He’s like a germaphobe. My favorite thing to do is if I’m at an event or something and I see him, I come out of the men’s room going like this [shaking both hands and leaning in for a hug]. And he will not shake hands with you for like a month if he’s seen you go to the bathroom.”
5. Larry David will pick you up if you’re hitchhiking.
Just don’t expect him to invite you over for lunch. Author Paul Samuel Dolman spent a summer hitchhiking around Martha’s Vineyard and was fortunate enough to get a ride with Larry David. He managed to turn the encounter into a book and describes much of his ride with Larry as actually being pretty pleasant. Still, this is Larry David we’re talking about and when the ride’s over, he wants you gone. Via Vulture:
Larry pulls over to let me out. I gather my backpack.
P.D.: Thank you. Hey, I still think we should go to lunch.
L.D.: Absolutely not! Now get out of here. Who knows, I’ll probably see you around.
P.D.: I really enjoyed the ride.
L.D.: Me too. Now get out.
6. He didn’t get an invite to Jeff Garlin’s son’s Bat Mitzvah and was thrilled about it.
Jeff Garlin revealed on the first episode of his Earwolf podcast that he did not invite Larry to his son’s Bat Mitzvah. As Larry put it, he saw this as an act of kindness and couldn’t understand why somebody would invite any adult to the event.
“Why would an adult want to go to this?! Do they want to be at that temple for two hours and at the reception with the music and the disc jokey? No!”
*Bonus* “The Jacket” episode of Seinfeld was based on Larry’s real-life encounter with Richard Yates.
The classic 1991 episode has George and Jerry uncomfortably trying to make conversation with Elaine’s father while waiting for her to arrive. Jerry has his suede jacket ruined by the snow when he makes a failed attempt to turn it inside out because Elaine’s father tells him “you’re not walking down the street with me and my daughter dressed like that.”
The encounter is based on Larry’s own dinner with Monica Yates and her father, famous author Richard Yates, who by then had become an angry alcoholic. Just like in the episode, Larry had just purchased a suede jacket with pink lining and was trying to make small talk with Yates, joking about how he pretended to be suicidal to get out of going to Vietnam. This didn’t go over well and when it came time to leave the restaurant Larry considered turning the jacket inside out, but decided against it out of fear of ridicule.
As told by the cast, Lawrence Tierney, the actor playing Elaine’s father was just as intimidating as the man he was portraying.
