Terrorists, Tours, And Tourette’s: Season Three Of Curb Your Enthusiasm

Larry alone can only go so far; it’s up to the rest of the cast to help him truly shine. The Tourette’s chef, the ever-patient fellow investors who try to respond politely to his often-asinine comments (including Michael York and CYE semi-regular Ted Danson), his wife’s friend Wanda Sykes. . . .all expertly complete and ensemble which enables a personality like Larry.

In episode three of the third season (“The Terrorist Attack”) there is a classic scene with Larry and his wife Cheryl. When told about a coming terrorist attack, Cheryl says she can’t go out of town, as she has to host a fund-raiser she’s been planning for months; Larry however, is fine with leaving. “I could go golfing . . . at Pebble Beach.” he slowly suggests. “And you think that would be a good idea?” Cheryl prompts. Cheryl says it seems best that if an attack happens they go together; Larry thinks that sounds a little selfish. “OK,” she finishes, “if you feel OK about one of us dying and the other one surviving and you can live with that for the rest of your life . . . then I think you should go golfing.”

The fact that her delivery is totally deadpan, while simultaneously dripping with ice, makes this scene even more hilarious. While there are a lot of shouting matches on CYE, it is this rather subtle conversation, where Larry sheepishly looks like a bad dog that is a brilliant change of pace.

Not that a good shouting match is not welcome. Jeff, Larry’s manager, is married to Susie, who has a red hot temper and a very blue vocabulary to match. In “The Corpse-Sniffing Dog,” Larry goes to talk to Jeff and Susie’s daughter Sammy to try and persuade her to give up the aforementioned dog since her father is allergic to it. Things go wonderfully awry. Through a typical sitcom switch, Sammy ends up drinking Larry’s glass of wine instead of her grape juice. When Larry gets home, Susie is waiting for him. “You got my kid drunk!?” she berates him in classic Susie style. “She’s slurring her words!” “I thought she had a speech impediment!” “You’ve known her since she was born and suddenly she has a speech impediment!?” “That’s what was so puzzling!”

Of all the guest stars in the season—including one-offs like Cheri Oteri as a crazy nanny, and semi-regulars like Richard Lewis and Paul Reiser as friends of Larry’s—we get a rich view of Larry’s world. Comedy heavyweights like Shelley Berman as Larry’s father and Louis Nye as Jeff’s father add a bit of classic old-school comedy to the mix.

With due respect however, the clear front runner of the guests is Chris Williams playing Wanda’s fiancé, rap star “Krazee-Eyez Killa.” At the engagement party, Krazee-Eyez awkwardly corners Larry in a conversation about how much he enjoys oral sex. Later when Larry has to go see Krazee-Eyez to find out where Cheryl and Wanda are having dinner, Larry agrees to his offer of a tour.

Krazee-Eyez is all too proud of his mansion: “See this? This is the dining room . . . this is where we eat . . . do our dining in here . . . ” “Oh, yeah . . . ” Larry agrees, trying to seem interested. “There’s the table—a dining room table—and we got some chairs . . . Oh, and here we got the floor, know what I mean? Floor’s made out of some . . . some floor shit, see what I’m saying.” “Yeah,” Larry agrees, toeing the floor, “that’s some shit.” The juxtaposition of rap star and socially awkward, unhip television producer, trying to find some sort of common ground, is hilarious. They try to recapture some of this with the character of Leon in a later season, but it pales in comparison to Larry’s odd relationship with Krazee-Eyez.

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