The Shady Side Of Larry David Everyone Ignores
Larry David plays a caricature of himself in the HBO comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm." The onscreen Larry is a boorish, rude, insufferable, tactless mansplainer who swans around Los Angeles dining in fine restaurants while upsetting as many people as possible. And although the real-life David hopefully isn't all of those things, at least not to the extremes in "Curb," there is a definite shady side of the writer that seems to go largely ignored.
"I really did the best under the circumstances of a person who hates people and yet had to be amongst them," Larry tells South African businessman Sharlto Copley, played by Michael Fouchay, in the "Curb" Season 12 trailer. There is no doubt about Larry's disdain for the great, unwashed public. His air of superiority is palpable, and his clashes with all and any he deems deserving of his ire are pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty legendary.
"Larry pushes the envelope," David's close friend and co-star, Richard Lewis, told The Times. "If something is funny but horrifically tasteless, it will find its way in. He likes to get things out in the open that we know exist and make comments on many different kinds of people." Lewis, who is regularly the butt of Larry's jokes, and isn't portrayed in the most positive of lights on the show, claims David is fearless and insists he isn't "mean-spirited, he just thinks that everyone should be understood even if it's provocative." But how similar is the real-life David to the onscreen Larry?
David assaulted Elmo for talking about mental health
Larry David did the unthinkable when he appeared on the "Today Show" in February 2024. He attacked everybody's favorite squeaky-voiced fuzzy puppet of love. The show's crew was chatting with Sesame Street's Elmo when David unexpectedly barged in and throttled him, then strode off. "Larry, you've gone too far this time," Savannah Guthrie warned. "Somebody had to do it, huh!" David shot back. Later, Guthrie and Hoda Kotb asked David if he would like to say sorry. "Elmo, I just want to apologize," he deadpanned. Not so fast, though! It transpired the writer was far from remorseful.
"Do you want to tell us what happened with Elmo, Larry?" Seth Meyers asked during a "Late Night" interview. "Ugh, I-I-I don't think I want to talk about it," David replied. The writer explained that he got sick of waiting on the sidelines, listening to "[Elmo] going on about mental health." David said he snapped. "I don't think I can take another second of this!" he said. "And you know what? I would do it again," David vowed, laughing.
Not everybody was amused, though. "Star Trek" actor Wil Wheaton was fuming. "What a stupid, self-centered, tone-deaf a**hole," he posted on Facebook. Wheaton explained he was triggered by the attack as it mimicked his dad's assaults on him as a child. "Larry David strikes me as a person who mocks and belittles people who are vulnerable and sensitive and enjoys being cruel," Wheaton opined.
David shaded Aaron Rodgers
New York Jets' Aaron Rodgers has become the punchline of many people's jokes over his outspoken support of alternative medicines. In particular, Rogers has taken heat for undergoing four-day "darkness retreats" and claiming that psychedelics, especially ayahuasca, have helped improve his performance on the football field. Per the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, ayahuasca is a plant-based psychedelic that's "been used for centuries by First Nations peoples from contemporary Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador for religious ritual and therapeutic purposes."
"Is it not ironic that the things that actually expand your mind are illegal and things that keep you in the lower chakras and dumb you down have been legal for centuries," Rodgers shared while speaking in Denver, Colorado, at Psychedelic Science 2023. "Because I guarantee all these bums who want to come after me online about my experience and stuff, they've never tried it."
It's unclear if Larry David has ever tried ayahuasca or not — still, he didn't miss an opportunity to throw some shade at Rodgers for his psychedelic love. "I'm going to go in a dark room [and] I'm gonna blow my f***ing mind," David joked during his speech at the premiere of the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" finale (via Deadline) in January 2024. "I can't wait to do that. That's gonna be amazing."
David attacked his pal in a grocery store
Larry David doesn't save his disdain and attacks for fuzzy puppets, NFL athletes, costars, and random strangers; he's all in for one-time pals, too. Alan Dershowitz learned the hard way after finding himself on the writer's wrong side.
David screamed at the former Trump attorney during a trip to a Martha's Vineyard grocery store in August 2021. Page Six reported that it kicked off after David told Dershowitz in no uncertain terms that he wanted nothing more to do with him after spotting the hot shot lawyer cozying up to Mike Pompeo, the former CIA director and Secretary of State under Trump. "We can still talk, Larry," a source claimed Dershowitz pleaded with his former buddy. "No. No. We really can't," David insisted. "It's disgusting. Your whole enclave — it's disgusting. You're disgusting!" He screamed. Dershowitz got the last laugh, though. According to the eyewitness, as David walked away, the lawyer peeled off his outer shirt to reveal one underneath, reading, "It's The Constitution, Stupid!"
Meanwhile, there's a possibility David has accepted his frenemy back into his inner sanctum. Dershowitz has joined the ever-increasing list of former Trump supports who have turned their back on the former president. He told Insider in August 2022 that he'd washed his hands of his former client after loosing out on business because of working with Trump. Dershowitz claimed that many other big-league legal eagles also refused to represent the beleaguered presidential hopeful.