Larry David, the comedic mind behind Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, is known for mining humor from the minutiae of everyday life and social awkwardness. A running gag in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 5 finale, titled “The End,” perfectly encapsulates this comedic approach, taking aim at something seemingly innocuous: a TV Guide cover featuring the Seinfeld cast.
David’s career took off as a writer for Saturday Night Live, but it was Seinfeld, the “show about nothing,” that catapulted him to fame. The sitcom, starring Jerry Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself alongside Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Kramer (Michael Richards), and George (Jason Alexander), became a cultural phenomenon, exploring the absurdities of daily life in New York City. Despite a slow initial reception, Seinfeld grew into a ratings juggernaut and is now celebrated as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. David himself departed after season 7 but returned to co-write the controversial finale.
Later, David created Curb Your Enthusiasm, further cementing his status as a comedy icon. In Curb, he portrays a semi-fictionalized, exaggerated version of himself, navigating social situations with cringe-inducing results. The show’s humor stems from improvisation and David’s character’s inability to let go of petty grievances. The season 5 finale, “The End,” played with the idea of the show’s conclusion, featuring Larry facing death after a kidney donation.
In a memorable scene from “The End,” as Larry seemingly approaches death, he whispers to Jeff Greene (Jeff Garlin), his manager, a seemingly random regret: “You really never should have let me do that Seinfeld TV Guide cover. I look like a real a-hole.” The joke resurfaces later in the episode when Larry, now in heaven, argues with his guardian angels (played by Dustin Hoffman and Sacha Baron Cohen) about his DVD organization system and, again, the infamous Seinfeld TV Guide cover.
The cover in question is from 2004 and reunited the Seinfeld cast, along with a grinning Larry David, for the first time since the show concluded. While the cover itself isn’t particularly unflattering, David clearly found something to dislike about his appearance, turning it into a self-deprecating gag within Curb Your Enthusiasm. This humorous jab highlights David’s self-awareness and willingness to poke fun at himself, even regarding his Seinfeld legacy. Although a full Seinfeld reunion has been consistently denied, the cast did reunite within the Curb Your Enthusiasm universe for a fictional season 7 storyline, demonstrating the enduring appeal of the Seinfeld ensemble and David’s comedic genius.
While fans may not get a proper Seinfeld revival, Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm continues to offer a dose of his unique comedic perspective, finding humor in the most unexpected places, even a decades-old TV Guide cover.
