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Curb Season 11

Started by Mobbd, October 22, 2021, 01:41:16 PM

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Dusty Substance

Quote from: wrec on November 08, 2021, 11:27:19 AMConfusing that Patton Oswald isn't playing himself, fits in nicely though.

Absolutely this. Found it a bit jarring tbh, as I have on other occasions when a very obviously recognisable comedian/actor plays a character on Curb. The most notable time was Steve Coogan as Larry's therapist.

EDIT: New page schmuck.

up_the_hampipe

The most jarring was Ricky Gervais attempting to play himself.

Twonty Gostelow

Quote from: Dineen on November 11, 2021, 10:25:17 PM
Has the link broken? Doesn't work for me, just whirrs around for a bit then gives media error for me.

It's still there - maybe change or update your browser if it persists.

Quote from: her? on November 11, 2021, 03:57:43 PM
Yeah that's surely the reason Apple never used it and why they seem to want to delete it from the internet.

Assuming you're not being sarky, I wonder if it was a deliberate ploy on David's part to put something in that would make it likely unacceptable, as if he was conflicted about shilling for Apple.

McFlymo

Quote from: Dusty Substance on November 12, 2021, 08:38:45 PM
Absolutely this. Found it a bit jarring tbh, as I have on other occasions when a very obviously recognisable comedian/actor plays a character on Curb. The most notable time was Steve Coogan as Larry's therapist.

EDIT: New page schmuck.

Same. Seeing Patton Oswalt reminded me that CaB has discussed this jarring thing of recognisable celebs playing characters in CYE before.

Loved S1101! Great episode, overall. I'm planning on rewatching all of CYE again and I'm about 8 episodes into S1. S1101 seemed up there with that level of quality.

Loved the doctor's waiting room "Really? In the middle?" moment, it seemed to be a subtle callback to Larry's waiting room rants in S1 E5.

S1102 didn't blow me away and 03 was better, but I am delighted at the quality of S11 so far. It's great to have the show back and I am quite impressed that it can still make me laugh so much, given it's been around for over 20 years now! Fair play to all of them.

AzureSky

Quote from: Twonty Gostelow on November 13, 2021, 01:27:38 AM
It's still there - maybe change or update your browser if it persists.

Assuming you're not being sarky, I wonder if it was a deliberate ploy on David's part to put something in that would make it likely unacceptable, as if he was conflicted about shilling for Apple.

Thanks, tried it 2 different devices and both did the same before, but it's working this morning. Never heard on this before and it's great to see it.

Mobbd

Quote from: McFlymo on November 13, 2021, 03:22:08 AM
Seeing Patton Oswalt reminded me that CaB has discussed this jarring thing of recognisable celebs playing characters in CYE before.

I always find this fascinating. Like, how do they decide? Hurley from Lost playing a drug dealer etc. Coogan is perhaps the most stand-out strange one; he's so famous but doesn't get to be himself. Or maybe playing oneself isn't even particularly desirable? I dunno. I had similar thoughts long ago about Friends - Brad Pitt playing a character but Jean-Claude Van Damme as himself, etc.

Speaking of Friends, the Friends janitor, one Mike Hagerty, pops up on Curb as a car mechanic. This is not notable in its own right since being a That Guy is what this That Guy does. BUT HE MENTIONS BEING IN FRIENDS.

EDIT: Urgh. Sorry, I might be wrong about that. He might have just said "Friends was a good show" or something. Someone tell me if you know. It's the AAMCO episode.

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: Mobbd on November 13, 2021, 06:28:58 PM
I always find this fascinating. Like, how do they decide? Hurley from Lost playing a drug dealer etc. Coogan is perhaps the most stand-out strange one; he's so famous but doesn't get to be himself. Or maybe playing oneself isn't even particularly desirable? I dunno.

I don't think he was very well known in the US at that time (2007?)

Quote from: Mobbd on November 13, 2021, 06:28:58 PMI had similar thoughts long ago about Friends - Brad Pitt playing a character but Jean-Claude Van Damme as himself, etc.

I think it's more jarring in Curb because it's set within the entertainment industry and, in earlier seasons anyway, celebrities always played themselves.

Quote from: Mobbd on November 13, 2021, 06:28:58 PMSpeaking of Friends, the Friends janitor, one Mike Hagerty, pops up on Curb as a car mechanic. This is not notable in its own right since being a That Guy is what this That Guy does. BUT HE MENTIONS BEING IN FRIENDS.

EDIT: Urgh. Sorry, I might be wrong about that. He might have just said "Friends was a good show" or something. Someone tell me if you know. It's the AAMCO episode.

Yeah, it's the latter. I thought that was just a sort of in-joke, as well as hinting at the idea that Larry probably doesn't respect Friends very much (being something of a soft-serve Seinfeld in its early days).

Mobbd

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on November 13, 2021, 06:51:32 PM
Yeah, it's the latter. I thought that was just a sort of in-joke, as well as hinting at the idea that Larry probably doesn't respect Friends very much (being something of a soft-serve Seinfeld in its early days).

Ah, fair dos. As you were, everyone!

Tangentially but related, I watched Oceans 11, 12, and 13 for the first time recently. The thing about Ocean's wife looking like Julia Roberts was bizarre considering the all-star castness of these films.[nb]https://decider.com/2019/10/15/the-julia-roberts-paradox-of-oceans-twelve/[/nb] But yeah, it's even odder in Curb's entertainment industry world.

Old Nehamkin

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on November 13, 2021, 06:51:32 PM
Yeah, it's the latter. I thought that was just a sort of in-joke, as well as hinting at the idea that Larry probably doesn't respect Friends very much (being something of a soft-serve Seinfeld in its early days).

David's unsuccessful 1998 film Sour Grapes features a very direct and disdainful parody of Friends in the form of a sitcom the characters watch called Guys and Gals. He talks about it a bit in this contemporary interview with the AV Club from back when it was still a subsection of The Onion:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.avclub.com/larry-david-1798207902/amp

QuoteO: In the movie, you've got a sitcom called Guys & Gals, which is, of course, a pretty straight-ahead jab at Friends. What do you think of Friends?

LD: Somebody just asked me this before, and I told him, off the record, that it's extremely derivative. You can put it on the record; I don't care. It is extremely derivative, isn't it? Is that just me, or am I crazy? Without Seinfeld, would there be a Friends? Would that show have ever been done without Seinfeld? That format, what they're doing? No.

O: And it's funny that when all these other shows popped up, people called them Friends clones.

LD: Yeah. I really take issue with that. I'm glad you noticed that. That really annoys me. Friends clones. Like that's not a clone.

O: What TV shows do you like right now?

LD: Um... The only TV show I watch with any regularity, believe it or not, is Party Of Five. My wife got me into it. It's all hugging and learning, and I can't get enough of it. That's the only one I watch with any regularity. The others... I can't really say I watch anything. I catch little snippets and pieces of things from time to time, but I never really sit down, like, "Oh, this is on, and I should watch this or watch that." I don't really watch anything.

olliebean

I rewatched Friends a year or two ago when Netflix got it, and there are definitely things in it that are directly lifted from Seinfeld.

wrec

Quote from: Dusty Substance on November 12, 2021, 08:38:45 PM
Absolutely this. Found it a bit jarring tbh, as I have on other occasions when a very obviously recognisable comedian/actor plays a character on Curb. The most notable time was Steve Coogan as Larry's therapist.

EDIT: New page schmuck.

That storyline might be uncomfortable if Oswalt was playing himself since he's married. Then again you have Ted Danson splitting with his real wife in the show but could be at least partly what the actors are comfortable with.

wrec

Quote from: poodlefaker on November 11, 2021, 12:45:44 PM
There was a great little throwaway line when the Hulu boss pointed at his colleagues on the couch and said "They loved it" and Larry wasn't sure whether this meant all of them or just the one on the end who uses "they". That's how you do a pronouns gag.

Yeah, same with the Chaz Bono (who I had to remind myself wasn't playing himself, but another Funkhauser) storyline, which showed you can have trans jokes that aren't transphobic. The discussion here about Jeff paying for the dental hygienist's abortion also brought that storyline to mind. In the US abortion is such a divisive political issue that it's a big deal to reference it positively in comedy (I'm trying to remember what show did this fairly recently?), probably more often it's something characters decide against for a happy ending. I think Curb made a conscious effort to treat transitioning and abortion respectively as facts of life that can be joked about without treating them as controversial.

amputeeporn

Thought episode three was a delight!

So many highlights. The series has a real energy about it, I think it's because Larry is on a kind of mission. He's on the one hand trying to get his show made and on the other pull off this insane scam and save his skin. It's all so refreshingly well-plotted and paced that it reminds me of Seinfeld. Larry roping Cheryl in
Spoiler alert
to try and help solve this already insane situation with an even more insane idea (giving MS acting lessons),
[close]
feels like a George subplot. Larry and Jeff's relationship is very similar to Jerry and George's, now I come to think of it. And Leon has long-since settled into a Kramer-esque position. (Nice that he's got his own ongoing mission, too!) Throw in Cheryl for Elaine and we're a lock.

Some laughs:

Everything about middling.

Jeff:
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'Stage four only!'
[close]

Maria Sofia
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talking seductively when reading lines to a character who was supposed to be her mother.
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Larry:
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'It worked on one idiot - I thought it would work on two!'
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Noodle Lizard

The problem I have with the "blackmail" aspect being dragged out for the whole series is that it inherently makes no sense. It relies on us believing that Seinfeld's Larry David wouldn't have access to lawyers that could protect him from a spurious lawsuit from a man who runs a taco shop, and even if the accusation held up in court (which it absolutely wouldn't), it'd result in Larry having to pay a hundred grand or two - far less than he'd lose out on if he were forced to sabotage his Netflix show. It's difficult to invest in anything to do with a premise that's so instantly unbelievable.

Well, that and the idea that "bad actress is funny" is something so funny that you're glad to suspend your disbelief in order to enjoy. I don't particularly like any of those bits, they feel a bit off.

Twonty Gostelow

Yes, the blackmail plot is ludicrous. The brother of the dead guy in the pool doesn't seem remotely grief-stricken, Larry could easily secretly record him on his phone in his taco bar, and anyway the police officer let Larry off for not having a pool fence (in front of a witness)... but it still doesn't bother me as much as Larry standing on a toilet facing the wrong way to pee just because the seat won't stay up! 

beanheadmcginty

I am so glad that my brain does not work in such a way that it searches for logical inconsistencies in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Not meant as a criticism of others, but genuinely I sit in front of every single episode of Curb and fucking love it. Never seen any change in quality over time (although obviously some eps are better than others but the best ones are spread throughout all the serieses). Larry is a genius and I love his work and long may he continue.

Twonty Gostelow

Still have my doubts about that chimp getting recruited in Bilko.

poodlefaker

Quote from: McFlymo on November 13, 2021, 03:22:08 AM
Same. Seeing Patton Oswalt reminded me that CaB has discussed this jarring thing of recognisable celebs playing characters in CYE before.

Albert Brooks playing  himself after his brother Bob Einstein had played a character for so long is pretty odd.

Mr Faineant

New episode was good, I thought, some really funny bits, but I'm not sure the
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watermelon
[close]
stuff worked. I'm normally insensitive to any shit like that, but I don't know, did it feel a bit off? Rest of it was good though.

Mobbd

Ahaha, that was quality. Wasn't sure about the
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Klan stuff
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to begin with but, I dunno, it kinda worked. I don't know the actor who played the
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Klansman
[close]
but he seemed like a sweet guy, which helped the whole unlikely pairing thing play (for me). "
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I just call him a racist cocksucker!
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".

Did they say "
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pirate's booty
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" too many times? Maybe they overdid it but it's understandable; I like to say
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pirate's booty
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too.

Quote from: Mr Faineant on November 15, 2021, 04:20:24 AM
New episode was good, I thought, some really funny bits, but I'm not sure the
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watermelon
[close]
stuff worked. I'm normally insensitive to any shit like that, but I don't know, did it feel a bit off? Rest of it was good though.

I'm going to risk tarnishing my anti-racist stance above (re: the Apple promotional episode) and say I actually found the
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watermelon
[close]
stuff pretty funny. Nobody wants to be complicit in their own stereotype especially when said stereotype is such bullshit relentlessly doled out by boring racist cunts (and also when the object at the centre of it all is so silly).

Slight quibble:
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gefilte fish
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does not have parity with
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watermelon because everybody (Black and otherwise) likes watermelon on account of it being a delicious and refreshing miracle while nobody (Jewish or otherwise) likes gefilte fish on account of it being a sausage made from carrots and goldfish.
[close]

Larry:
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Who told you to have a watermelon orgy?
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Leon:
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You told me that shit.
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Larry:
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Can I join you?
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Leon:
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Fuck yeah, get on in.
[close]

Mr Faineant

#140
I'd like to see Sacha Baron Cohen on curb...I guess as a character? I think he'd be good in it.

poodlefaker

Wish Larry would stop writing himself dates with much younger women, tbh.

Mr Faineant

Quote from: poodlefaker on November 15, 2021, 12:56:43 PM
Wish Larry would stop writing himself dates with much younger women, tbh.

Yeah, it's unrealistic. Most charismatic, funny, famous people with hundreds of millions of dollars tend to prefer old crones with metal hips and an unscrubbable base odor of urine and rot.

Malcy

Another strong episode with a load of great lines. Really enjoying having it back.

mr. logic

Quote from: Mr Faineant on November 15, 2021, 12:40:01 PM
I'd like to see Sacha Baron Cohen on curb...I guess as a character? I think he'd be good in it.

He's been in it. Played one of the guides when Larry went to heaven

Mr Faineant

Quote from: mr. logic on November 15, 2021, 04:47:48 PM
He's been in it. Played one of the guides when Larry went to heaven

Ah, yes, you're right. That tells me it's time for a rewatch from the beginning.

mr. logic

Was a bit of a waste mind. It would be great to see him in a meatier role

wrec

Superb episode I thought. I thought the
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watermelon and klan storylines both worked but the payoffs were a bit weak - especially the Mary Ferguson (sic) running off in horror at the watermelon orgy
[close]
. But minor niggles. Woody was great and Vince Vaughn was particularly good this week.

Spoiler alert
"I don't like what that says about her. It's indicative of a moral compass gone askew".
[close]

EOLAN

Quote from: Mobbd on November 13, 2021, 06:28:58 PM
I always find this fascinating. Like, how do they decide? Hurley from Lost playing a drug dealer etc.

A bit late on this one but that Curb episode was before Lost and he was far from a known quantity. I think it is cited that his appearance in Curb was an inspiration for casting him in Lost.

Mobbd

Quote from: EOLAN on November 16, 2021, 09:36:21 AM
A bit late on this one but that Curb episode was before Lost and he was far from a known quantity. I think it is cited that his appearance in Curb was an inspiration for casting him in Lost.

Shit, I guess you're right. I must have watched that season a little late on DVD or something. Cool if true that he went from this awkward bit role to being the most recognisable cast member of such a major TV production. (I can't say I loved Lost, but you know, it was a big deal at the time).

Quote from: poodlefaker on November 15, 2021, 12:56:43 PM
Wish Larry would stop writing himself dates with much younger women, tbh.

I see what you mean but I think they're quite good at getting it right. They're not usually that young and they're often in showbiz too. As Mr Faineant says above, he's a successful and charismatic guy! Great teeth too.

I liked the reference to
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Larry's advanced years
[close]
in this latest episode. Something about
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"I have to cherish every moment," as a way of getting out of going to Temple
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.