Larry David Takes a Bow: Season Finale of CYB

Well, folks, this is it.
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" season just ended tonight.
We had to watch it tonight instead of opting for the later On Demand features. It was the finale, after all and the event begged for priority.

One of the few reasons I see some use for cable, or TV at all for that matter, is Larry David’s humor and his informed commentaries. No, I don't think TV Larry is just a hub of neuroses or that he is too 'abnormal' for that matter. I enjoy him, ergo, my reading of his work is bound to be biased. But it's a bias I stand by cognitively. He makes sense to me. Every single time.

And Season Six ended tonight.

It involved, among other things, Larry, a gerbil, a visit to the doctor, Loretta Black, the always-cussing Susie, and a bat mitzvah.

The last 2 minutes of the finale were sweet, tender, melancholy, and belly-achingly funny.

Larry sadly looks at his estranged wife Cheryl, who was dancing with her new beau at the bat mitzvah, and Larry finds himself alone amidst the dancing group. He then looks at Loretta Black, Vivica A. Fox’s character and asks her to dance with him. That point signals Larry's 'assimilation' into the Black family.

The Blacks do family things, play sports, get loud in movie theaters and for the first time in "Curb Your Enthusiasm" history, Susie Green is finally shut up. By Loretta. While on one of her cussing rants to Larry, Loretta stands up for her man and Susie is thrown out, silent. I bet, to you Curb fans out there, this was one of the highlights of the episode. It sure was mine. The look on Susie's confused face was priceless. The look on Larry's incomparable!

The episode ends with Larry and the Blacks taking a family holiday picture saying ‘Happy Holidays, Larry and the Blacks.”

And as far as I'm concerned, it was a hilarious conclusion.

Hoping CYE comes back within the year, I sign off.


graph per HBO

Cultural Generalizations: Easy, Tyler!

The well-known economist, Tyler Cowen is a regular blogger. I read him. I found one of his recent blogs a tad too, well, culturally marked. I reckon, stereotypes can be seen as a learning tool but, more often than not, they manage to blur cultural understanding.

Here is a snippet of his post:

'A group of Swiss businessmen will hear first Pascal Lamy on economic globalization and then me [ie Tyler Cowen] on cultural globalization.

I must keep in mind the fundamental principles of speaking to the Swiss. Unlike virtually all American audiences, the listeners do not expect to be entertained. Efforts to entertain will insult some of them. I need not reach my main point until the end of the talk. Taxonomy for its own sake is not detested, but PowerPoint is viewed with suspicion.'


This is why this post bothered me. Cowen was in Switzerland to talk about 'cultural globalization' yet the post oozes cultural stereotypes. The tone struck me as a tad colonial.

The Swiss don't enjoy humorous remarks, says Cowen, but wait, since he is writing predominantly for an American blogger audience, 'Swiss' jokes may be used. My question is, at whose expense?

After all, as he notes in his post, American audiences like to be entertained.