Seinfeld established Larry David in the world of comedy. But his next show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, cemented him as a comedy and sitcom legend. In 2000, just two years after Seinfeld ended its dominant run, Larry came out with Curb Your Enthusiasm. This series follows an obnoxious, fictionalized version of Larry David as he deals the minutia and inconveniences of everyday life. The show’s title was meant to curb the audience’s expectations for another great sitcom. But Curb Your Enthusiasm turned out to be another hit, thanks to its relatable, situational humor, a hysterical supporting cast, and the absurd antics of its lead star.
The fictionalized Larry loves to comment on the unwritten rules of polite society, and sometimes, we agree with him. But other times, Larry takes matters to the extreme and does something that’s offensive or just downright wrong. As we bid farewell to Curb Your Enthusiasm, we remember ten pretty, pretty, pretty bad things that Larry David did during the show’s 12 seasons, actions that made our jaws drop and exclaim (with either rage or laughter) at our TV screens, “No, Larry didn’t just do that!” But oh, yes he did.
10 Pretended to be Mentally Disabled
“The Bat Mitzvah” (Season 6, Episode 10)
This episode is packed with appalling Larry David moments. At the end of the episode, he uses a girl’s bat mitzvah, the daughter of his good friends Jeff (Jeff Garlin) and Susie (Susie Essman), as a platform to clarify a rumor about a tickle in his anus, horrifying the family and their guests. This moment would’ve made the list if not for something that Larry did earlier in the episode.
While at work, a man who’s considering renting out the next-door office space comes into Larry’s office to introduce himself. Horrified by the idea of dealing with a new neighbor, Larry pretends to be mentally disabled, complete with exaggerated arm movements and speech, to frighten the man away — and it works. Something tells us that modern viewers wouldn’t appreciate this scene.
9 Let His Therapist Get Arrested
“The Therapists” (Season 6, Episode 9)
During Season 6, Larry tries to reconcile with his estranged wife, Cheryl (Cheryl Hines). He uses the horrible advice from his therapist, Dr. Bright (Steve Coogan), to give Cheryl an ultimatum to move back in with him, which backfires completely. Afterward, Cheryl’s own therapist, Dr. Slavin (Bryan Cranston), warns her about pursuing a future with Larry. Larry convinces Dr. Bright that he has to make up for his terrible advice and help Larry win Cheryl back.
Larry devises a plan where Dr. Bright pretends to mug Cheryl’s therapist, allowing Larry to swoop in, help Dr. Slavin, and look like a hero. Naturally, this backfires too. Larry’s plan lands Dr. Bright in jail. And as Dr. Bright is getting arrested, Larry does nothing to intervene and stop it. Since Dr. Bright was only locked up for 24 hours, this entry ranks a bit lower on our list — but even 24 hours of jail time is enough to traumatize Dr. Bright and make him seek out a therapist of his own.
Larry David’s Most Embarrassing Moments on Curb Your Enthusiasm
A big part of Curb Your Enthusiasm’s humor revolves around Larry doing something or speaking his mind about something that gets him in trouble.
8 Talked Surrogate Into Keeping the Baby
“The Surrogate” (Season 4, Episode 7)
In this episode, a couple, who are having a surrogate (Elizabeth Beckwith) carry and deliver their baby, throw themselves a baby shower. And for whatever reason, they thought it was a good idea to invite Larry David to this heartwarming event.
Larry strikes up a conversation with the pregnant surrogate and goes on and on about how hard it must be to give up the baby in their body to someone else. In doing so, he convinces the surrogate to keep the baby for herself, absolutely shattering the couple’s dreams — for a short while, at least. Since the surrogate eventually changes her mind and agrees to surrender the baby, this entry falls at a lower place on our list. But for a minute there, Larry’s actions had our jaws on the floor, even if it wasn’t his intention to change the surrogate’s mind.
7 Refused to Give His Kidney to a Friend
“Lewis Needs a Kidney” (Season 5, Episode 5)
Fellow comedian Richard Lewis was one of Larry David’s best friends and a supporting character in Curb Your Enthusiasm. It was always funny to see Larry and Lewis going at it, usually over Lewis’ frequent pursuit of finding “the one”. But their comedic dynamic was best captured during Season 5, when Larry learns that Lewis needs a kidney — and that he, Larry, is a compatible match.
However, Larry refuses to give up his kidney, even to help a dying friend. He does eventually agree to undergo surgery and give Lewis his kidney, which ranks this entry lower on our list. But the fact that Larry holds out for an entire season, and even tries getting out of the procedure at the last minute, makes this one of Larry’s most heinous acts.
6 Opened a Spite Store to Ruin a Small Business
“Happy New Year” (Season 10, Episode 1)
Larry David makes many enemies during the 12 seasons of Curb. But perhaps his biggest rival is Mocha Joe (Saverio Guerra), who runs a small business serving coffee. The two first bump heads during Season 7, where Mocha Joe serves coffee to the cast and crew of the Seinfeld reunion. In the first episode of Season 10, Larry stops by Mocha Joe’s current coffee shop, and naturally, he has plenty to say about it. He complains about every aspect of the shop, from its wobbly table, to its cold coffee, to its overly soft scones. Frustrated, Mocha Joe bans Larry from his shop.
The rest of the season revolves around Larry vengefully opening his own coffee shop, Latte Larry’s, right next to Mocha Joe’s out of spite — a “Spite Store”, he calls it. It’s pretty awful that Larry goes out of his way to destroy a small business, especially when he has a staggering net worth of $400 million. Thankfully, the season finale “The Spite Store” would give a cathartic end to this season-spanning story arc.
When Curb Your Enthusiasm Saved an Innocent Man from the Death Penalty
Curb Your Enthusiasm may be over, but we’re remembering when Larry David’s HBO show became the legal evidence that saved a man facing death row.
5 Manipulated His Mother’s Death to Get His Way
“The Special Section” (Season 3, Episode 6)
For most people, their mother is a cherished, special, and beloved figure. But not so much for Larry David. In “The Special Section”, Larry returns to California to learn from his father (Shelley Berman) that his mother passed away while he was gone — and that they already had the funeral. “She said, ‘Don’t bother Larry,'” his father explains to a baffled Larry.
But rather than mourn this loss, Larry exaggerates his grief and uses his mother’s death to get his way. He uses it to worm his way out of social commitments and to get sympathy sex from his wife, Cheryl. It takes a real cold-hearted person not to shed a tear over their deceased mother — and an even colder one to use this tragic loss to their advantage.
4 Dated a Handicapped Woman to Make Himself Likable
“Denise Handicap” (Season 7, Episode 5)
“Denise Handicap” is a legendary episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, mostly because it brings out some of Larry’s worst moments. In this episode, Larry takes out a handicapped woman named Denise (Anita Barone), though he didn’t realize that she was a wheelchair user beforehand. Their first date is a disaster, yet Larry continues taking her out when he notices that people seem to think more highly of him for dating a person with a physical disability.
That’s right. Larry continues to date Denise for his own selfish reasons. This episode is filled with other ridiculous and offensive antics, such as writing “Denise Handicap” in his Blackberry phonebook and shoving another handicapped woman into a closet to hide her from Denise. And yet, none of this even comes close to being the worst thing that Larry does in this episode. More on that in a bit.
3 Failed to Help His Cancer-Diagnosed Girlfriend
“Vehicular Fellatio” (Season 7, Episode 2)
After Cheryl refuses to get back with Larry in Season 6, he decides to move onto Loretta Black (Vivica A. Fox), who moved into Larry and Cheryl’s house after the disastrous Hurricane Edna. However, Larry tries severing ties with her early into Season 7 when he suspects that she’s about to be diagnosed with cancer.
Fed up with her needs and demands — the needs and demands of a cancer patient, mind you — Larry starts acting horribly (more so than usual) to convince Loretta to break up with him. Because even Larry David knows that breaking up with a cancer patient is pretty, pretty, pretty bad. But then again, so is failing to help your sick partner and trying to end the relationship because her cancer is an inconvenience to your life.
2 Didn’t Help a Drowning Child to Save His BlackBerry
“Denise Handicap” (Season 7, Episode 5)
Remember when we said this episode was jam-packed with horrible Larry things? Well, there’s something else in this episode that may somehow be even worse than that. At one point, Larry is lounging on a beach with Jeff, Susie, and their daughter Sammi (Ashly Holloway). For whatever reason, Jeff and Susie ask Larry to temporarily watch Sammi as she’s swimming in the ocean. Larry gets distracted by Brick Breaker on his Blackberry (remember that old gem?), leaving Sammi unattended and drowning in the ocean.
Once Larry realizes what’s happening, he rushes to Sammi’s aid — but not before running back to his chair and securing his Blackberry in a beach towel. By the time he’s done, Jeff and Susie have returned, and they’ve safely escorted Sammi out of the ocean. Larry was more concerned about the well-being of his BlackBerry over the well-being of his best friend’s child. If only Larry knew that BlackBerry would cease to exist in the near future. Then maybe he would’ve made a better decision here.
The Curb Your Enthusiasm Finale Fixed a Major Seinfeld Problem
Seinfeld’s series finale was infamously polarizing — a problem that Larry sought to correct 26 years later, in the finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
1 Stole Holocaust Shoes
“The Mormon Advantage” (Season 11, Episode 10)
Larry David has done a lot of horrible things during his 12 seasons on Curb Your Enthusiasm, but this one definitely takes the cake. In the Season 11 finale, Larry visits the Holocaust Museum LA, which features a harrowing display of Holocaust victims’ shoes. As it starts to downpour, Larry decides that he needs to avoid the rain and keep his shoes in good condition.
In a true moment of horror, he steals a pair of shoes from the Holocaust exhibit — a snazzy pair of brown and white wingtips — and carelessly wears them out of the museum and into the rain. This egregious act comes back to haunt Larry in the recent series finale when his then ex-girlfriend Irma (Tracey Ullman) testifies against him and recounts this story to the jury. It’s this act, stealing a Holocaust victim’s shoes for his own selfish purposes, that ultimately lands Larry in jail in the series finale. That is, for all of five minutes. Stream Curb Your Enthusiasm on Max.
