Throwback Thursday Comedy Showcase: Larry David Gets Stuck on a Ski Lift Just Before Shabbat

What's there to say about Larry David and his Curb Your Enthusiasm show? Either you love it or you hate it. Sometimes we love it and sometimes we hate it. But we have to admit that either way, we laugh a lot.

Some of the funniest episodes have had Jewish themes and one of our favorites was shown in Season 5, Episode 8. Titled Ski Lift Sundown, it finds Larry and Rachel (Iris Bahr), a single Orthodox Jewish girl, stranded on a ski lift that got stuck on a Friday evening and leaves them suspended in the air while the sun begins to set.

Rachel tells Larry that one of them has to jump because Jewish law forbids her to be in such proximity to a married man on Shabbat.

Enjoy!

Remembering Richard Lewis, Master of Dark, Neurotic Comedy

Comedian Richard Lewis, who parlayed his neurotic Jewish personality and self-deprecating humor into a 50-year career as a standup comedian and actor, died last Wednesday. He was 76. 

 As Andrew Silow-Carroll wrote for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

Although he considered himself retired as a standup, he appeared again as a regular in the current season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” playing a version of himself in the HBO show created by and starring his childhood friend Larry David. 

“Richard and I were born three days apart in the same hospital and for most of my life he’s been like a brother to me,” David said in a statement released by HBO. “He had that rare combination of being the funniest person and also the sweetest. But today he made me sob and for that I’ll never forgive him.”

Lewis’ sensibility, in clubs and on screen, could be as dark as the funereal suits he often wore. In a signature joke, he spoke about an uncle who was so depressing that he would sit at home listening to the soundtrack of “The Pawnbroker,” the grim 1964 film about a Holocaust survivor.

In this video, Curb Your Enthusiasm creator and star Larry David pays tribute to his childhood campmate and long-time friend. 

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 

Remembering Bob Einstein, Curb Your Enthusiasm's Marty Funkhouser

Bob Einstein, the Emmy-Award winning writer, comedian, actor and producer who died this week at 76, was best known for creating unforgettable characters such as Super Dave Osborne and Officer Judy on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”, and giving life to Marty Funkhouser on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.

His childhood was touched by tragedy when his father, comedian Harry Einstein who was known as Parkyakarkus, died of a heart attack at the age of 54 just after a performance in 1958 at a roast for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Comedy was in the family genes, with Einstein's brother Albert changing his name to Albert Brooks to differentiate the comedian Albert Einstein from the physicist Albert Einstein.

Bob Einstein's comedy began in the late 1960s. One of his first jobs, as a writer, was on the “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” for which he won an Emmy Award in 1969. 

His most recognizable character for contemporary audiences is Marty Funkhouser of Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” In 22 episodes over a 13-year span from 2004-2017, Einstein played Marty as a hilarious foil to David, never failing to make him laugh both on and off camera. 

In this clip, Einstein as Marty Funkhouser shows up at a recently opened Palestinian restaurant wearing a big yarmulke.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.