The Not-So-Funny Funny Man
By David Samuel McCalmont
Larry David is the Not-So-Funny Funny Man
The comic who convinced America – in conjunction with Jerry Seinfeld – to laugh "about nothing" and to enjoy the artful and playful significance of doing so, has turned around and used a contrived comedic setup to skewer a professional friend of his for crossing the unspoken line that prevents "good people" from aiding and abetting "the enemy."
There's likely not a dime’s worth of difference in the ideological values held by Larry David and co-comedic icon, Bill Maher, but Maher subjects his own (left-wing) actors to the same critical scrutiny as do the unsympathetic players from the "other side." Throwing more lighter fluid on the fire is Maher's penchant for going elbow-to-elbow with the "enemy" in search of a good story which just might titillate his viewers. Maher tends to treat humans as people with decent intentions as a given; whereas David assigns all those on the "other (political) side" peremptorily into purgatory with no lifeline. No indulgences for them. Burn, baby, burn.
Larry David has earned his stripes in the celebrity game. He's a very funny man. His sit-com "Curb Your Enthusiasm," launched after the "Seinfeld" days ran their course, is hilarious, even after several viewings. Larry David is disposed to offend. He's wired to skewer sacred cows. He gets away with cringe-worthy content because his goal is laughter and he's willing to subject his own divine bovines to the branding iron. Humor with no other attached agenda but to make all viewers appreciate his self-deprecating hysteria buys itself a lot of forgiveness.
An example: David displayed his contempt for Donald Trump by using a MAGA hat to get out of trouble with an angry biker and a lunch date with a boring TV producer. It played perfectly into David's character by putting his own petty needs first, even if it meant showing a political symbol that would “trigger” many of his loyal fans.
Undermining His Legacy by Invoking Hitler
And with a recent op-ed in The New York Times titled “A Private Dinner With Hitler,” Larry David may have burned much of his portfolio of comedy capital. At the very least, he has undermined his legacy.
He was vexed that his friend Bill Maher chose to have dinner in the bunker of the enemy with President Trump. Worse yet, Maher praised the “Bully-in-Chief” as being – in private – different from his perceived public persona. David was appalled that Maher had actually found the president “gracious and measured.” Translation: if world leaders can sit down and deal with Trump and do business, why can't his domestic adversaries? This couldn't be any more outrageous to the unhinged than if David had invited Hitler to his Shabbat table.
David couldn't just come out and say that, of course. So, he created a fictitious dinner with the Fuhrer, hoping his cachet for humor would make the castor oil go down easier. David begins his op-ed: “Imagine my surprise when in the Spring of 1939 a letter arrived at my house inviting me to dinner at the Old Chancellery with the world's most reviled man, Adolf Hitler. I had been a vocal critic of his on the radio..., pretty much predicting everything he was going to do on the road to dictatorship.”
This is an undisguised reference to Maher's dinner with Trump, which David mocks as hopelessly naïve.
"Eventually I concluded that hate gets us nowhere,” he writes. “I knew I couldn't change his views, but we need to talk to the other side, even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity.”
Ironically, when Maher defended himself for meeting with Trump, he used the arguments David mocked. “I had the opportunity to talk with Donald Trump and say things to him that perhaps he doesn't hear....I shouldn't take that opportunity?”
Does David’s volley onto the political battlefield “work,” and if so, at what cost? “Hitler said he was starving and led us into the dining room, where he gestured for me to sit next to him. Goring immediately grabbed a slice of pumpernickel, whereupon Hitler turned to me, gave me an eye roll, then whispered, ‘Watch. He'll be done with his entire meal before you've taken two bites.’”
Is this funny? It's maybe a 5 on a 1-to-10 scale. David's agenda on TV was to make us laugh, and many of the laughs came at his expense. In the op-ed, though, it's to act as scold to a longtime friend whose only infraction was to cross an invisible line in the sand and generate humane publicity for the president.
The trail-blazing comedy pioneer who has traversed every red line in his way to fame, fortune, and glory would deprive a friend of the chance to bulldoze a path of his own in the wilderness where politics and comedy intersect.
Imagine that.
Naturally, Maher didn't take this undisguised poke to his credibility and integrity lying down. David so much as said that his (former) friend had been duped. Surprisingly Maher told Piers Morgan on HBO’s "Club Random" that this incident has damaged their longtime friendship. Why go the “Hitler” route? Maher asks. Hitler is arguably the GOAT (Greatest of all Time) in the arena of evil.
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, so to Speak
Playing the Hitler card is a signal the person has no intention of debating - only smearing and defaming. Everybody who's dined or played golf with Trump knows that he's not an evil or malicious man.
People who sat on their hands for 18 months while a wave of Black Lives Matter terror broke across the nation are now bracing themselves for a Nazi takeover. Those who backed the Biden administration's campaign of vicious partisan vengeance are now warning of authoritarianism.
Huh?
The same commentariat that watched Joe Biden hand over Afghanistan to the Taliban, invite Putin's escalation of its beef with Ukraine, and enrich Iran's coffers in the runup to 10/7, are suddenly losing it over global instability?
This is more serious than Trump Derangement Syndrome. Larry David & Co. reflect the psychoanalytic diagnosis once called "Hysterical Blindness." The people who can't see in Trump anything but a reincarnated monster are still suffering from the unresolved trauma caused by finding out that everyone in the country didn't agree with them back in 2016. A trauma that massive short-circuits rationality and commonsense.
The Hysterical Blindness of the Trump-traumatized is self-sustaining, and Trump benefits by comparison. The man they call worse than Hitler ends up looking less unhinged than they do. And the irony is that by comparing Trump to Hitler, they minimalize the enormity of the Holocaust.
Larry David should return to the ways of his former laugh-producing partner Jerry Seinfeld. Michael Jordan reportedly said, “even Republicans enjoy paying $150 for a pair of my sneakers,” as a (good) reason he didn't mix politics and business. Unlike "Elaine" and "George," Jerry has steered clear of antagonizing half the audience that helped him amass a billion-dollar empire.
And that's no laughing matter.
Take a look at COLAB’s latest video, “The Great Fee Heist”
Thank you for writing this column. I urge those who did not watch Bill Maher's Opening Monologue ("Real Time With Bill Maher") to do so, detailing his meeting with President Trump. Perhaps SB Current will post the YouTube link. Bill Maher was explicit that his commentary would be objective -- which it was -- and yet still managed seamlessly his masterful comedic voice. It was a stunning 10 minutes. Larry David, as well as Nancy Freeman above, fall into that trap of fellow citizens who are largely responsible for the dreadful state of degraded civility in our country. How can we self-govern when we can no longer speak to one another? How can we debate and resolve the complex issues when folks like Nancy, Larrry, Rosie etc., will not listen? How many of us have been destroyed -- yes, destroyed -- by family members, colleagues, and close friends of many years simply because you are Republican? I long for that time not so long ago, when on Friday mornings, co-workers would congregate around the water fountain to talk about last night's episode of "Seinfeld." Remember the 90's? A lot more was gained talking about "nothing" than the cruelty hurled at fellows these past 10 years. Just last week I listened to a new acquaintance shamelessly tell me (a stranger) that she no longer had anything to do with her adult son because of his MAGA politics. I was shocked. On a personal level, I was appalled that a mother would abandon her child. I recall Orwell's prophetic "1984" in which ALL allegiance is to Big Brother. Children betray parents. Parents betray one another, all for ideology. I sat silent and listened to this woman who proudly exclaimed her stance, no point in telling her that life is fragile. That those we love can be taken from us in an instant. I do not fathom such thinking. Maher was courageous in his monologue, a good American. Now, have at me Nancy.
My own mantra is “never meet a comedian you love.” My mom grew up worshipping Danny Kaye. And then we spent too many evenings at the LA Music Center watching Kaye get up in the audience and try to out-conduct Zubin Mehta. Johnny Carson was not known to be the same laugh master host when in public. Legendarily, a fan came up to him at Nate n' Al's in Beverly Hills and said “Mr. Carson, I'm such a fan of yours I don't know what to say.” Carson said, without smiling, “How about ‘bye-bye?’” A friend took Jonathan Winters to Flax Art Store (Winters being a wonderful cartoonist) and Winters, who we all know struggled with mental illness, did a demolition job performance about the owner, Harvey Flax, loud enough for everyone to hear. Stephen Colbert was very funny until 2016 - and then during Covid he did an excruciatingly unfunny dance “Vaccine!”
But the rule of comedy is it comes out of people who otherwise would lie in bed in a state of depression, anger, envy or murderous fury.
There are exceptions. One night many years ago my family gave Jack Benny a ride home from a party we were at and Benny was very sweet and appreciative. I spent a number of evenings with the Zucker brothers (Airplane!) who were friends of my then-boyfriend and I had as great a time as I did watching their classic comedies.
And then there's Trump, who's not only the greatest president we've had since Washington (thank you Earl Brown) but one of our greatest improv comedians. Even a friend who dislikes him told me his line about not deporting Prince Harry because he has too many troubles already with his wife made his day.
So … you wanna know why Larry David hates Trump? It's because comedians cannot stand anyone else getting laughs. That's all there is to it.
As for the TDS lady who has already posted one of her “Trump is Hitler” rants on this column: Sweetheart, you are a walking parody of everything hilariously wrong right now. Thank you for once again making me laugh.