Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.9: Salmon Discretion

A flat-out hilarious episode 9.9 of Curb Your Enthusiasm tonight, that fired on all kinds of sundry cylinders.

The salmon/Salman (Rushdie) bit between Larry and Lin Manual Miranda as they discussed "Fatwa" in Miranda's office was not the funniest, but it rang a bell with me, maybe because I knew a guy by the name of Barry Salmon in the MA in Media Studies Program at the New School some decades ago, and for all I know he's still there, though I'm not sure if that's still the name of the program or the school, for that matter.  But I thought of him during the Larry and Lin exchange, which turned out to be the first of many more that were much more funny.

Very funny,  right out of the box, was Larry's springing the sexual performance agreement on Bridget, who I thought broke up with Larry last week, but I was glad to see back (and, hey, with a star like Lauren Graham, it would be crazy to let her go after just one episode).  This was the latest in the innumerable ways Larry always works against his own best interests, especially when it comes to getting some (aka someone in bed).

Also creme de la creme comedy was the Judge Judy skit, replete with Leon as a helpful witness explaining something about skin tones, relevant (I think) to what Larry's plant looked like, which occasioned the former owner of his house stealing the plant.  Again, I could relate to that.  Just recently, a son of the former owners of our home knocked on the door, and we've been living here since 1992.

And, of course, Larry falling asleep a second time in the Hamilton audience was a classic bit, with Larry carefully laying the groundwork earlier with his hurt shoulder and the pills.  I knew as soon as Larry took the pills in the theater that we'd be seeing him snore at the end.

Alas, I can't relate too well to Hamilton, however, because I haven't seen it.  Hey, maybe Larry or someone from his organization will read this, and send along tickets for me and my wife.

Likely that won't happen before next week, when I'll be reviewing the final episode of this season. Like tonight, I won't apologize for reviewing comedies if the show is as funny as it was this evening.

See also: Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.1: Hilarious! ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.2: Wife Swapping ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.3: Benefits ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.4: "Hold You in his Armchair" ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.5: Schmata At Large ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.8: The Unexpected Advocate



It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began 

Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.8: The Unexpected Advocate

Well, I haven't been reviewing Curb Your Enthusiasm the last few weeks because, as I keep saying, I don't like to review comedies, and I had to make good on that assertion.  (Ok, The Orville is comedy, but it's much more than that - it's Star Trek: TOS under a different name - and I have been reviewing that.)  But episode 9.8 of Curb was so good I can't lay off reviewing it (though, truthfully, the episodes I didn't review were all too good not to review, too).

One of the many brilliant things about Curb Your Enthusiasm is the way it establishes a theme early in the season, and comes back to it, unexpectedly, as the season progresses.  In season 9 it's been the fatwa placed on Larry.  And in 9.8 he meets the man who says he was about to kill him, as a devout Muslim, but doesn't because Larry comes to his passionate defense after a crowd brandishes its anger at the man for cutting in line to get a second helping of potatoes.  (This, by the way, is one reason I don't much care for smorgasbord restaurants.)  The would-be killer is so moved by Larry's defense that he turns into Larry's advocate, and mounts a successful campaign, culminating in a trial before a board of Mullahs, to lift the fatwa.  It's all hilarious, including that Larry's defender looks like Salman Rushdie (wait a minute, wasn't Rushdie already on this season?).

And if that isn't enough, we get Larry almost making it with Gilmore Girls' Lauren Graham.  Of course it's "almost," because Larry always does something to mess up even the best attractions, and it makes you wonder how he ever got Cheryl to love and marry him in the first place.  Maybe Larry was a little more controlled back, then.  Or, at very least, if memory serves, Cheryl was able to restrain him on occasion.

In any case, I can say with unrestrained praise that Curb Your Enthusiasm is as laugh-out-loud funny as it ever was, and remains, after all these years, my all-time favorite comedy on television.

But I may or may not be back here with a review of tomorrow night's show.

See also: Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.1: Hilarious! ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.2: Wife Swapping ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.3: Benefits ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.4: "Hold You in his Armchair" ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.5: Schmata At Large



It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.3: Benefits

Ok, I said I wouldn't be reviewing Curb Your Enthusiasm, but episode 9.3 was such a gem, an instant classic, that I'd be a fool not to review it and become part of the history of rave reviews which this episode will no doubt garner.

The benefits of fatwa which Salman Rushdie delivers to Larry - the real Salman, not spelled or pronounced like the fish - are sheer genius, even though there are but two that Rushdie mentions: you become a magnet of dangerous sexual energy, and you have a great excuse for not attending events you'd rather miss.

Most the episode is taken up with evidence of the first, as Larry attracts Elizabeth Banks, playing herself in this episode.  It's good to see Larry with someone, after Cheryl has left him - and hooked up with Ted Danson no less - though Larry and Elizabeth, alas, didn't last too long in this episode.

Their budding relationship fell victim to Larry's inevitable tendency to derail a good relationship with one tick or another.  This time it's trying to get Elizabeth to make up a story, so Larry isn't nailed for damaging a police car.  As Elizabeth says, she didn't have much time to prepare.

The episode also has lots of great Larry one-liners, my favorite being his observation, 100% true, that for some reason people in Brooklyn pronounce the word "donkey" as "dunkey".  I actually pronounce donkey that way, too - by the way, is a donkey, however it's pronounced, the same animal as an ass? - though I'm from the Bronx.  Wait, my father was from Brooklyn, maybe that's why, though I have no recollection of his ever saying that word.

Ok, enough for this comedy, there are dramas to review.  But, by the way, I agree with Susie that Larry looked better in his disguise.

See also: Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.1: Hilarious! ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.2: Wife Swapping

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It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...