“Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David is ending a decade-long gig as a “social assassin,” making audiences howl with laughter and squirm with embarrassment at the outlandish predicaments he created for the fictionalized version of himself in 11 seasons of the show “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
The 12th and reportedly final season debuted on HBO and the streaming platform Max on Sunday. Nine more episodes will run weekly, concluding with the series finale on April 7.
The pop-culture site Vulture described the first episode of the season: “We’re seeing both Larrys, character and creator, experience an exciting late-stage reckoning, an autofiction meditation on who he is, who he isn’t and what he’s left behind. Then again, this is Larry David, not Camus, so he likely won’t be pushing up the boulder any harder than he has to.”
The show, which has regularly featured Jewish themes and subversive comedic riffs on antisemitism, has inspired a hot new T-shirt and hat from Hamsa Club. One photo shows Noa Tishby donning the navy-blue shirt with with a tweak to the show’s title: “Curb Your Antisemitism.” Others who have reportedly worn the shirt include comedian Ben Gleib, actress Mayim Bialik, actress Emmanuelle Chriqui and comedian Leah Lamarr.
The “Palestinian Chicken” episode from season 8, in which David engages in a fling with a Palestinian woman who yells antisemitic insults at him while they’re in the bedroom, reportedly inspired the T-shirt.
The comedian describes the appeal of such a relationship: “You know what it is? You’re always attracted to someone who doesn’t want you, right? Well, here you have somebody who not only doesn’t want you ... doesn’t even acknowledge your right to exist, wants your destruction! That’s a turn-on.”
