Some Like It Hot (1959)

 

The Castle (1997)

 

City Slickers (1991)

 

My Cousin Vinny (1992)

 

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

 

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

 

9 To 5 (1980)

 

Les Fugitifs (1986)

Tel Aviv on Fire (2018)

Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good: Larry David and the Making of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm by Josh Levine (ECW Press 2010)

 

An Unfunny Kid

“I never thought I would be involved in anything successful,” Larry David once said. “My plan was to try and get by. Maybe at some point I’d get involved in a bank robbery or something.”

Born on July 2, 1947, he was the second son of Morty David, a Brooklyn clothier who would later retire and become president of his condo association, like Jerry’s dad on Seinfeld. Larry’s mother went to work for the Bureau of Child Guidance. Later she wanted Larry to take the civil service test, figuring that he better get himself a secure job — postal worker, teacher — with good benefits. (On Seinfeld, when George moves back into his parents’ house, his mother has the same idea.) His parents were both Democrats, sharing their values and eventually turning Larry into one too.

Larry shared a room with his older brother, Ken, who would later move to Oregon and give advice on computers and investments. Larry went to P.S. 52 and then Sheepshead Bay High School where his report card was filled with average marks because he didn’t much care. (Later an obnoxious comic in a Seinfeld episode would come from Sheepshead Bay. “We were right on the water. The whole atmosphere stank of fish.”) There was always a lot of yelling — between his aunts and uncles, the families of his friends, and in the apartments next to their own. In just the same way, yelling would be a major form of communication on Curb. Larry liked sports and was considered a good athlete by other kids. His parents also forced him to go to Hebrew school, which he detested. He didn’t much hide his feelings and got kicked out for laughing at the rabbi who was telling him off for some infraction. (Even now, when someone is yelling at Larry on Curb he can barely keep himself from laughing.) But his parents, horrified that he wouldn’t be able to have a bar mitzvah, talked him back in.

“We’re both from kind of middle-earth Brooklyn,” said Larry Charles, who would become a producer, writer, and director on both Seinfeld and Curb. “You know, Brighton Beach, Coney Island, lower middle class, under the train tracks. We both understand that sort of Lord of the Flies sensibility that requires you to be very aware as you grow up. It’s a very savage environment, in a lot of ways a very cruel and sadistic environment.”

He was never known as funny, not by his family and not by his friends. But he liked to laugh, and he was a fan of Abbott and Costello, Bob and Ray, and especially the Jewish comic actor Phil Silvers.

Whistling in the Dark (1941)

Hannibal Buress . . . remember this guy's name

Give yourself a treat and watch this clip of stand up, Hannibal Buress, from Jimmy Fallon's talk show from a few days back. I haven't laughed so much in the longest time, and if you don't get a kick out of the apple juice routine, then I have a few 'How I Met Your Mother' dvd's that I'd like to sell to you.

Never heard of him before, but he's going to be big.

*Apologies for you having to sit through the 30 second advert before the routine kicks in but I couldn't find the clip on YouTube. By way of compensation, here's another clip of Hannibal Buress from the Comix Comedy Club, NYC from July of this year. A lot of its the same routine from the Jimmy Fallon show but stay with it as he diverts into different material in the second part of the routine. Funny, funny stuff.