Much like his work on Seinfeld, Larry David continues his observational comedy on Curb Your Enthusiasm as he portrays social situations and brings to light the humor in social norms. In this YouTube clip from the episode “Trick or Treat”, Larry is involved in a dispute over Halloween etiquette with two uncostumed girls who appear to be too old to be trick-or-treating. As Larry opens the door to two unenthused teenage girls wearing everyday clothes, Larry immediately asks the girls how old they are and what their costumes are supposed to be. In response, the girls state that they are thirteen and one is dressed as her sister and the other as a teacher. Not buying their explanation, Larry refuses to give them candy and shuts the door on the girls.
This portion of the clip is funny in the high level of confrontation that takes place in such a short period of time. Firstly, knowing the character of Larry David, he is infamous for being socially obstinate and never backing down from confrontation. As Larry sees these two girls who are blatantly not in costume and still trying to cash in on the candy that Halloween usually warrants, Larry tells the girls off and says “you’re not entitled to go around to people’s homes and bilk them out of candy”. The girls are equally confrontational and call Larry a “grandpa” and shout “fuck you” and “asshole” as they are denied their candy. This scene presents some incongruity compared to your usual trick-or-treat encounter. Not only is it unusual for kids in their late teens to demand candy on Halloween, but it is even rarer for someone to have such high standards on whether someone should be given candy or not. Further, while Larry is pretty funny in all of his confrontations, it is especially hilarious when he holds nothing back when arguing with two teenage girls.
The second portion of this clip starts as Larry wakes up to the find out that his house has been decorated in toilet paper and “BALD ASSHOLE” has been spray painted on his front door. As Larry’s wife, Cheryl, is screaming at him for not giving the girls any candy, Larry responds with “I didn’t know it was going to be ‘felony or treat’!” The scene continues as Larry is speaking to the police and argues that writing “Bald Asshole” on his door is a hate crime because bald people are a group or sect of people. Not seeing eye-to-eye with Larry, one of the police officers disagrees as he is bald and not offended. In response to this statement, Larry tells the officers that since he has chosen to shave his head to be fashionable, he is not considered to be a part of the “bald community”. This exchange between Larry and the officer, like we discussed in class, is an example of how some words are more offensive to some people than to others. Further pertaining to our discussion of slurs in class, the idea of bald people being a group subject to hate crimes is incongruent, and thus, kind of funny. While hate crimes are not funny in nature, the idea of there being a recurrence of crimes directed at bald people is a funny concept. If this scene was revolved around a slur towards someone who has been the target of hate crimes in real life, this scene would be not be perceived as funny. The idea of hate crimes against the "bald community" is not seen as a touchy subject or threatening to the audience, which allows the scene to come off as comical.
The beauty of the character Larry David is that he is incredibly concerned with social norms, yet he acts like no other human on earth. I don’t know if this pertains to everyone, but Larry David acts the way I wish I would act in social settings as he has no problem saying whatever he wants. While most people would second guess teenagers trick-or-treating without costumes, Larry puts his foot down and gives away no candy because “there needs to be a cutoff”. I have tried to analyze a few aspects of this clip, yet I feel there is still so much that is funny about it. A large reason why I love Curb Your Enthusiasm is that it is improvised, leaving the scene to be a surprise to the audience as well as the actors. Also, there is no laugh track allowing each viewer to pick out the subtle bits of humor and decide what is funny on their own.
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