Everyone’s favorite social assassin is coming back for his eleventh season. In Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David constantly finds himself bickering with LA residents over the unwritten rules of social etiquette.
From pig-parkers to chat-and-cutters, there is no line Larry won’t cross. While he often goes too far, there are times when he is unequivocally in the right. Let's look at ten times that Larry was right on the money with his bombastic opinions.
Abusing Ice Cream Sample Privileges
In Season 6, Larry finds himself stuck in line behind a sample abuser at an ice cream shop. One or two samples is perfectly understandable, but this woman takes around ten samples -- well over her allotment. And it's not like she is sampling some bizarre Ben & Jerry's concoctions; she samples the most pedestrian flavors imaginable. Finally, after much deliberation, she lands on vanilla. Larry rightly accosts her for wasting people's time and she leaves in a huff. In an ideal world, everyone could sample everything, but it's just not feasible. Sometimes you just have to pick a flavor and live with it.
"Never Wait For Seconds"
When an innocent man humbly skips to the front of the buffet line for seconds, a group of hungry people pounces on him like a pack of wolves. They label him a cutter and demand he is sent to the back of the line. Larry comes to this man's defense and bravely proclaims, "Never wait for seconds." The man would have to wait in excess of ten minutes for a few measly potatoes when he had already waited once before. Larry could have stood idly by while the savage mob ripped him to shreds and banished him to the back of the line, but he didn't. He defended the man's honor and staved off the angry swarm, admonishing them that in America, you never wait for seconds.
Ted's Donation
Season 9 sees Larry generously donate a wing to the NRDC museum, but he is overshadowed as Ted Danson does the same anonymously, yet tells everyone. Ted claims he told just a few friends about the donation, but inevitably the whole building knows he is the donor. Everyone can't stop lavishing praise in hushed tones about the noble Ted Danson who has in effect made Larry look like he did it solely for the credit.
Dessert Referee
In "Palestinian Chicken," Larry's golf buddy's wife, Juliette, seeks him out as a dessert referee. She has proudly lost a lot of weight and makes Larry promise not to let her eat any dessert, "no matter what." Don't make promises you can't keep with Larry because he's going to hold you to to your word. Juliette gives in and tries to eat some cake but Larry steals it from her and causes a big, ugly scene.
Never Meet Your Heroes
Larry goes out to lunch with Seinfeld fan John Tyler as part of a charity auction for "Groat's Disease." He does his best to be entertaining but mostly just irritates the fan. When Larry's food arrives first, he asks John if he would mind if he started eating. John refuses, saying his food will be out in a couple of minutes. Larry eats anyway, angering John. To be fair, Larry left the decision up to his tablemate, but it takes a lot of nerve to actually answer "yes" to that question. The act of having lunch is about sitting down and sharing each other's company, the point at which you both start eating makes no difference.
First-Come, First-Served
Ever the chivalrous gentleman, Larry lets a woman off the elevator before him on the way to the doctor's office in "Interior Decorator." She beats him to the reception desk and signs in first. The doctor then sees her first despite the fact that Larry's appointment precedes hers due to a first-come, first-served policy. As Larry said, it may as well be a bakery where people take tickets. Next time around, Larry races the woman to the office to make sure he gets there first. Victorious, he signs in only to discover that the policy has been changed in her favor again.
Chat-and-Cut
While on a buffet line, a woman cuts Larry to "talk to her friend." Eventually, she picks up her plate with the intention of staying in line but Larry catches her red-handed. It turns out the woman met the man once eight years ago and he didn't remember her. Chat-and-cutting is a prevalent issue and it's not going to go unnoticed when Larry is on the lookout.
No Trick Or Treat
Season 2 sees Larry refuses to give teenage girls without costumes any candy on Halloween. In retaliation, they toilet paper his house and spray "Bald A**hole" on his door. These girls claiming to be 13 are really more like 17 and used the threat of a trick to bilk people out of candy. There has to be an age cutoff with Halloween and Larry was right to refuse them.
Shrimp Incident
When Larry realizes he picked up the wrong order at a Chinese restaurant, he goes back to find that his food was mixed up with an executive at HBO, where Larry is trying to pitch a TV show. Larry comes home to find only three Kung Pao Shrimp in his order and surmises that the executive ate the rest. When Larry calls him out the executive gives himself away with an overly defensive response. Larry effectively blew up his deal with HBO over eight shrimp, but he was still in the right.
Ben Stiller
When Larry was chosen to star in The Producers on Broadway, he was initially paired with Ben Stiller. Larry and Ben got off on the wrong foot and their relationship never recovered. First, Larry offended Ben by refusing to shake his hand that he had sneezed in. Offering up a snot covered hand is fairly inconsiderate and unsanitary and Larry tried to save the situation by instead opting for a shoulder pat over the handshake. Then Ben invites Larry to a birthday party with explicit instructions not to bring a gift. Larry abides the directive but finds he is the only one not to bring anything. Ben gets annoyed because he believed it was understood that "don't bring a gift" really means you should bring one. He is further irked at Larry for not singing the Happy Birthday song.
The final straw for their toxic relationship, though, was when Larry refused to sit in the front seat of Ben's car. Larry was in the backseat when Ben's wife left the passenger seat. Ben insists Larry sits shotgun so he doesn't feel like a chauffeur. Larry points out that they're so close to the rehearsal studio that it's not worth the trouble, but this culminates in a fiery man-baby argument. Being two minutes away, it's a little crazy to demand Larry sit up front just so Ben doesn't look like his driver. Larry could've made more of an effort, but Ben was uptight and showed a need to be catered to. Mostly a series of understandings, Larry meant Ben no harm but they were never able to get on the same page.