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. 

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Comedian Larry David Discovers His Polish Jewish Roots and His Mother's Secrets

Comedian Larry David appeared on the PBS program Finding Your Roots and was shocked to discover family secrets about his notoriously tight-lipped mother – including her real name! 

Watch Larry’s astonishing reaction after learning about his mother’s mysterious past and origins in conversation with Henry Louis Gates Jr.

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Larry David and Michael Richards in ABC's "Fridays" in 1981

Today our time machine is taking us back to December 1981, when Larry David and Michael Richards were in a sketch about people with Jewish names who aren't Jewish. You probably won't recognize them as they looked 42 years ago (before Seinfeld), but their voices are recognizable. 

The sketch was performed in the third and final season of Fridays, ABC's attempt to duplicate the success of NBC's Saturday Night Live, which, at the time, was in its fifth season featuring the original "Not Ready for Prime Time" cast, along with several writers (and SNL band leader at the time, Paul Shaffer) who had been promoted to feature player status, as well as newcomer Harry Shearer.

Like SNL, Fridays featured popular musical guests and, beginning in the second season, celebrity guest hosts, some of whom had appeared on SNL before and after Fridays aired, such as Andy Kaufman, Billy Crystal, William Shatner, Mark Hamill, and George Carlin. (Carlin, who had hosted the very first SNL in 1975, was also Fridays' first official "guest host" in 1981.) 

Enjoy!

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What is Jewish Humor? Ricky Gervais Meets Larry David

What is Jewish humor? Many books and articles have addressed the subject, and there are as many answers as people expressing their opinions. 

The subject was revisited in 2006 when Larry David of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, sat down for an interview with Ricky Gervais, the British comedian, creator and star of The Office. 

The two comedians exchanged views and showed short video clips of funny Jewish situations featuring Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Jackie Mason, and Lenny Bruce.

Here's a clip from the interview. Enjoy!

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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!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Larry David in a Stand-up Routine

We don't usually think of Larry David as a stand-up comedian. He's mostly known as the co-creator of the Seinfeld show and creator and performer in his Curb Your Enthusiasm HBO comedy series. But before these successes he made the rounds of stand-up comedy clubs. 

In 1989 David teamed up with comedian Jerry Seinfeld to create a pilot for NBC called The Seinfeld Chronicles, which became the basis for Seinfeld, one of the most successful shows in history, reaching the top of TV Guide's list of the 50 greatest TV shows of all time. Entertainment Weekly ranked it the third-best TV show of all time. 

David made occasional uncredited appearances on the show, playing such roles as Frank Costanza's cape-wearing lawyer and the voice of George Steinbrenner. He was also the primary inspiration for the show's character George Costanza. David left Seinfeld on friendly terms after the seventh season but returned to write the series finale in 1998, two years later. He also continued to provide the voice for the Steinbrenner character.

From time to time he returned to do a stand-up routine. In this clip from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in 2005 he sets out to explain his conversion to environmentalism, but brings down the house with his hilarious observations and his description of his lifelong love affair with tuna fish sandwiches.

(ADULT HUMOR WARNING: Larry uses some pejorative anatomical language that some of our readers may find mildly offensive, but we judge it to be acceptable for Jewish Humor Central. The audience at this show found it highly entertaining.)

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An Animated Recollection of Larry David's Brooklyn Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is such an important occasion in America that it triggers special memories of previous encounters with family and friends traveling great distances and consuming more than we should.

Most of us keep these recollections to ourselves or share them within a small circle. Entertainers such as writer-actor Larry David have access to media that encourages them to share their funny Thanksgiving moments with a wider audience.

Here's an animated look at Larry David's recollection of a typical Thanksgiving dinner that he had with his family in Brooklyn many years ago. It was posted on Funny or Die,  the Emmy-winning comedy video website.

Meanwhile, across the miles, we're celebrating Thanksgiving Day in Jerusalem, from where we'll be blogging until the middle of Chanukah. Yes, it's possible to celebrate Thanksgiving in Israel, where we suspect that most of the fresh turkeys ordered last week and picked up today are going to wind up on the dinner tables of American expatriates and tourists.

Enjoy, and have a happy Thanksgiving Day.

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