The best comedy currently on television is “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” an HBO show written and starring Larry David, the co-creator of “Seinfeld.”
The premise of the show is simple. David, who plays a funnier and looser version of himself, interacts with people in his life, many of them celebrities, and often gets in trouble because he has a habit of saying and doing the wrong thing.
Although fictional, it’s often hard to tell because of the high number of real people involved with it, the fact David is essentially playing himself and the improvisational comedy that is used for nearly all of the dialogue. Each script for the show is only four to eight pages long – essentially just an outline of what needs to happen – and the actors improvise their own dialogue, most of which is funny and some of which is amusingly awkward.
Nearing the end of its eighth season, “Curb” is firing all of its cylinders and easily having its best season. I say that because each episode has been funnier than anything else that’s been on TV this year. But I could have said that after seeing just the third episode of the season in which David’s manager, Jeff Greene (played by Jeff Garlin), coined the phrase “social assassin” to describe David.
“Seinfeld” was well known for coining popular catchphrases: “Soup Nazi,” “shrinkage,” “re-gifter,” “master of your domain,” “spongeworthy,” “yada, yada, yada,” “close talker” and “not that there’s anything wrong with that,” to name just a few of the most popular ones.
“Social assassin” may be my favorite one, though, and it singlehandedly makes this season excellent.
Greene calls Larry a social assassin after another character said he likes how Larry “says what everyone’s thinking.”
“You know what you are?” Greene said to David upon hearing this description of David. “You’re a social assassin.”
It’s a phrase that soon leads to some of his friends hiring him to tell people they love the things they’re afraid to say themselves to these people. One guy hires him to tell his wife saying “LOL” (acronym for “laugh out loud”) instead of just laughing is not funny, and Greene’s daughter hires him to tell her mother, the loud and obnoxious Susie Greene (the hilarious Susie Essman), that nobody can stand it when she says “ahhhh” after every sip she takes of a beverage.
David completes his assassin missions, but as usual, he says or does the wrong thing again and makes a complete mess of the situation, making himself worse off than he was beforehand.
Despite the mishaps, I’d still hire him for a social assassin mission or two. I know a few people with annoying habits I’d like to tell them to stop, but I’m too nice to actually tell them. Having somebody else – somebody not so nice like David – would be a convenient way to maybe put an end to those habits.
For example, I know someone who doesn’t turn off the bright lights of his vehicle for oncoming traffic. I’ve tried a few times, but it doesn’t seem to register, and getting too bold about it is something I’m not comfortable doing. But I’m sure David would have no problem with it. “Hey man, you should put your dim lights on for oncoming traffic. It’s not only the polite thing to do, but it’s the safe thing, as you could cause an accident if you blind the other driver,” he would probably say, most likely following it up with something so rude the driver would keep the bright lights on just out of spite.
If I’m there to stop David from saying the rude thing, then the mission may be accomplished.
I’ve thought about becoming a social assassin myself, but I don’t have that gene in me that would allow me to say something without feeling bad about how the other person feels. For now, I’ll just have to watch David do it for a few more weeks on his brilliant show.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Sept. 2, 2011.
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