David eventually got his time in the Army Reserve cut short after persuading a psychiatrist to label him mentally incompetent.
That doesn't seem like a big lift.
he just isn't quite funny* enough
I mean, "sharp" and "dull" are my go-to terms here in general, but there is very little that I understand about professional comedy. The fact that a stage monologue is the standard for comic performance is completely perplexing to me. (Similarly the written "monologue," e.g. Danny Lavery's old stuff that everyone loved.) Of course most people are going to suck at delivering themselves every setup. Would you watch a pro play tennis with a wall? It clearly works for a huge number of audiences that aren't me, though, so I'll file myself among the dulls (pun intended, sorry).
So "sharps" are the people with a discerning sense of humor-taste and "dulls" are the ones that like dumb shlock?
It's ridiculous to have a discerning sense of humor.
Side-story which is actually relevant: I have been paying for my LiveJournal account still all these years, even though I switched to Wordpress back in 2018ish when they moved to Russia.
A year or two ago, they stopped accepting all forms of payment that I can figure out. Or rather, I think Visa etc stopped being willing to work with Russia. I'd have to figure out some way to pay in rubles. They've been extending me grace periods while I figure it out, but I've failed.
The basic problem is that I don't like "export" functions because they tend to introduce page breaks, which looks terrible for a photo-heavy blog style document. So I'm transferring them out by hand. I've made it back to 2008.
Which brings me around: I'm in a very 2007/8 headspace at the moment. I'm remembering that I used to pick fights in the aughts by asserting that women were funnier than men.
My monologue went something like this: more men are conditioned to make jokes, and women are conditioned to listen. So it appears that women aren't funny. Most funny men are around a 6 on a sense of humor. But a funny woman will be around a 9-10 without even trying. It's the expressions and delivery.
I still believe there's an essence to what I was saying, although I was definitely a shit-stirrer back then who liked to overstate things to get a rise out of defensive, unfunny men.
Bringing it around: Larry David humor is exactly the type of humor I would have had in mind as being woefully short of funny women humor.
It's ridiculous to have a discerning sense of humor.
SO NOW YOU'RE CALLING ME RIDICULOUS??
I'd never thought about it, but I hated Seinfeld and have never watched an episode of Curb, and yet have a belief that Larry David is a very funny guy. Why is that?
Would you watch a pro play tennis with a wall?
Standup feels like the opposite of this. Standup is directed at you. You're the judge and jury, and it will try to win your sympathy; it's a whole psychological battle.
and yet have a belief that Larry David is a very funny guy. Why is that?
I mean, he's funny, for a guy.
He made a huge mark on comedy with both Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm - doesn't make him a transcendent genius and hero, but it is an achievement.
From a podcast where they said about Seinfeld on A Bee Movie (2007):
This is the movie you absolutely make when you have one of the most acclaimed sitcoms of all time related to your name, and people are like, well, anything you do will be good, so we're not going to give you any notes, it's fine! And then this comes out and they're like, oh, right, you did that one with a different guy. Hmm.. what's that guy doing now? He's making one of the most acclaimed sitcoms of all time? Oh, I see.
Also, he accidentally helped exonerate someone of a false murder charge.
A year or two ago, they stopped accepting all forms of payment that I can figure out. Or rather, I think Visa etc stopped being willing to work with Russia. I'd have to figure out some way to pay in rubles.
Please consider not sending money to the subsidiary of the massive state-owned Russian company which is under US and international sanctions?
It's like when I was confused and sent money to Kony instead of the people he hurt.
12: So you're not going to explain to me how to do so?
I thought the premise of Seinfeld and Curb is that yeah these people are selfish which gets them in funny situations but they're anti-heros for being so selfish. I don't think David is presenting all the awkward situations his selfishness results is as good things, just ridiculous/uncomfortable/funny.
Yeah I'd watch an hour of JLD for any five minutes of LD/JS/JA.
Zuck's algo keeps sending me women-doing-stand-up reels. They're pretty funny.
I like Seinfeld the TV show but out of extreme boredom I happened to watch the first three episodes a few weeks back and my first thought was "How did this show not get cancelled?"
I've watched 30-45 seconds of Curb a few times and immediately turned it off. But as a tall bald white guy of the right age with a big nose, glasses and a pronounced nyc accent, I've periodically been asked over the years if anyone has ever said I looked like Larry David. Sometimes they ask if anyone has ever told me that I looked like someone else. I used to answer "You mean Brad Pitt?" but I eventually worked out that it was much more entertaining (at least for me) to answer either "Robert Duvall?" or "Edward Norton?" to see the flash of uncertainty in their eyes when they couldn't make out if I was serious.
One of my many flaws is that I mostly don't enjoy innovative, groundbreaking humor. I'm a sucker for jokes that could have been told in 1870.
My Dad has been confused for Larry David, though my dad is a bit older (born early 40s). I guess I watched an episode or two of Seinfeld, definitely didn't watch Curb. I have nothing funny to say about that.
The classics, like "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal - you sockdologizing old man-trap!".
"Take my wife to Reno for a divorce after filing the required public notice in an obscure newspaper, please!"
IMHMTHBB there was a philosophically clever episode on Babylon 5 where everyone was obsessed with two popular comics who were visiting (portrayed by Penn & Teller), and the humor was definitely not engaging to the viewer. Overtly Straczynski said he was commenting on how ephemeral humor is and how something that works for one generation can be incomprehensible to the next, but I believe he also implied he wanted to make everyone feel how he had felt when Steve Martin was the new sensation.
Reno divorce is a 1930s thing, not 1870.
Zuck's algo keeps sending me women-doing-stand-up reels. They're pretty funny.
I get these too. No male comedians though. Maybe men really aren't funny? Or maybe their publicists haven't figured out how to do reels.
Are we just talking stand up? Because both Seinfeld and Curb are funny af (though I find the latter to be too excruciating to watch alone). I feel like I'm taking crazy pills
You should talk to your doctor to see if they are right for you.
And as much of an asshole that he portrays himself to be in Curb every story I've heard about Larry David irl shows him to be a total mensch
25: A bit earlier than that, but I see there were other territories in the divorce business before 1900. I couldn't remember where Bartley Hubbard went.
19: Have you tried saying "Bette Midler"?
27: Glad I'm not the only one here that likes Seinfeld! Curb is more excruciating than funny for me, so I haven't watched much of it (also I generally stopped watching tv anyway).
I'm bad at names so I always confuse Larry David with all the other Jewish guys in the entertainment business with two first names.
Willian Henry Harrison Ford Prefect
James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree
Whenever I go out the people always shout,
Hey!
Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo-chari Bari Ruchi-pip Peri Pembo!
With friends like these, who needs brainrot?
Don't let them cheat you. Demand the brainrot you are entitled to.
My name is Jon Jonson and I sit on the steeple and spit on the people
And they look up at me and they say who are you
And I say .....
I like its always sunny , Friday, plenty of humor with selfish people, just not David's. Glad he's not really like that irl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k33sINjn9o0
Robert Mark Anthony Ben Elton John Henry James Cameron Diaz. (Cheating a bit with Anthony Benn, better known as Tony).
Actual first name James. Not used for obvious reasons.
James James Gordon Gordon Encyclopedia Brown
James Brown is the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Onion timeline in which George Clinton is president of the United States.
As to Larry David, was only a casual watcher of Seinfeld and Curb, but the latter has grown on me. I seem les bothered by humiliation comedy in my dotage.
I did not find the tone of the article overly fawning. His comedic sensibility definitely is of an earlier time. From listening to Gilbert Gottfried's podcast, have gotten more of David's backstory from his time as a standup. Gottfried is of that ilk and was a fellow comedian who would come on late and clear out the crowd.
Just before David was pitching Seinfeld, David had written a comedy pilot starring Gottfried that lasted one episode, Norman's Corner Gottfried claims NBC was a t first leery of Larry David with one exec reputedly saying: "Isn't Larry David the guy who wrote that piece of shit pilot with Gilbert Gottfried?"
I never got anywhere with Curb, but AB watched a few episodes when we flew to Germany last month and said we should watch it, so that's presumably on my 2025 list.
19.1: The first season is famously bad (and short). I also rewatched recently. What's interesting is that many elements are present from the start, but none of them are working. Most notably, the timing is off, almost like they're using traditional sitcom rhythms for jokes that work differently. But by the end of the season (episode 5 iirc), it's starting to feel like mediocre Seinfeld, rather than a different, terrible show.
Also, AB has a funny story about early Seinfeld. She was in college when it debuted. I'm not sure she saw any of season 1*, but season 2 ran during her final semester. It didn't get good ratings, but it was already pretty funny (with a couple classic episodes). Then AB went to Japan for 2 years, almost totally isolated from US culture (she found out about Nirvana when a fellow JET teacher passed her a tape, "this is all the rage back home"). When she came back, she was shocked that this quirky show her friends liked in college was basically the biggest thing on TV.
*weird: episode 1 played in July 1989, then the rest of season 1 was the summer of 1990. Season 2 debuted January 1991.