Hitlerfish doesn't take kindly to being compared to Cheryl

HBO has renewed “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for an 8th season, picking up ten more episodes (a standard season for the show) that will air next year. It is now HBO’s longest-running scripted series.

“After much soul searching – and by the way, it was nowhere to be found – I have decided to do another season of ‘Curb,’ ” creator David said. “I look forward to the end of shooting, when I can once again resume the hunt for my elusive soul. I know it’s here somewhere or perhaps in the rugged mountainous regions of Pakistan.” [THR]

I hate to file this in the “meh” folder, but I just don’t care for “Curb.” I think Larry David is funny, I thought the Seinfeld reunion stuff last season was smartly done, but the show doesn’t do it for me. I know that means I don’t get to hang out with the cool kids, but the unscripted/loosely scripted thing just comes off as lazy at this point. Hey, if I’m going to pay extra for premium cable, the dude can afford to pay some writers to craft a narrative and write some jokes. At least look like you’re trying, you know?

I meant to write this up earlier, but — in an effort to be fair to a show I judged without seeing — I actually took the time to watch “The Marriage Ref” last Thursday. And while I don’t like the show’s concept or host Tom Papa, I’ll readily admit that Larry David and Ricky Gervais make for outstanding entertainment (Madonna, meanwhile, came through with a “NOT!” punchline from Wayne’s World. Haha, good one, Madonna).

But the highlight had to have been when Ricky Gervais broke down into hysterics and showed his incredulity at being on the show, which felt to me like a tacit admission that he’d been roped in against his will.

What is going on?!?  [laughs] What is going on? This is a strange programme! I feel like someone’s put crack in my drink. What is going on? This is the weirdest show I’ve ever been on. I mean, it’s already weird. It’s weird with you two [gestures at Madonna and Larry David], there’s people behind [points to audience above stage] — I don’t know what they’re doing up there.

I don’t know, watch the video below (via Inside TV). It’s funnier when he says it. You need the British accent and his high-pitched cackle to make it work. I even tried spelling “program” the English way, but the humor just doesn’t translate. Kinda like when Tom Papa tries to be funny.

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I don’t get to hang out with the cool kids because I’m not big on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” but I figure some of you “Curb” fans will enjoy this collection of profane tirades by Susie Greene, the verbally abusive wife of Larry David’s manager played by Susie Essman. Obviously, this video has NSFW language, but it’s just what the doctor ordered if what you need today is to listen to six minutes of a shrill-voiced harpy swearing. It’s not really my thing. Not outside the bedroom, anyway.

The season finale of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” that aired on Sunday night included Larry David watching the culmination of the “Seinfeld” cast’s reunion on “Curb” — an actual (albeit abbreviated) episode of “Seinfeld.” I’m not sure that sentence makes any sense, but the point is that it’s pretty cool to see the “Seinfeld” gang reprise their roles over a decade after the show ended.

You can either enjoy it at face value, or you can put on your thick-framed glasses and deconstruct the layers of meta surrounding the fact taht Larry David’s life provided content for “Seinfeld.” Aren’t you cool with the way you coldly analyze humor. You must be a huge hit at parties.

[More at the Huffington Post, video via Buzzfeed]

UPDATE: Bonus “Curb” clip below. Read the rest of this entry »

Larry David is under fire for a scene in last Sunday’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in which some urine got onto a painting of Jesus. Well, not literally under fire. People aren’t shooting at him. Yet. This bring’s Christianity’s streak of getting worked up over something that’s really not worth the effort to 785,893 consecutive days .

“I don’t think it’s funny,” [Deal] Hudson [of InsideCatholic.com] told Foxnews.com. “Why is it that people are allowed to publicly show that level of disrespect for Christian symbols? If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions — Jewish or Muslim — there’d be a huge outcry.” [Foxnews]

You mean like how every bad guy in a Hollywood film is a Muslim terrorist? Is that better or worse?

Anyway, the story has other quotes of outrage and demands for an apology, and HBO defended David’s right to create satire, but let’s keep in mind that this wasn’t ACTUAL urine on Jesus. It’s not like the real Larry David filmed himself urinating directly onto a depiction of Christ. It was fictional splashback. This is like writing into “Law & Order” and demanding that they stop murdering so many people.

UPDATE: Video of the clip below (thanks to commenter CrabApple).

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