The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Season 11, Episode 4 Recap

Episode Date: November 15, 2021

After a week off, Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House to discuss Season 11, Episode 4 of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.' They talk about golfing with rabbis, love for watermelon, their cast and non-cast MVPs, and their grade for the episode. Hosts: Bill Simmons and Joe House Associate Producer: Stefan Anderson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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after an old school Curbure enthusiasm episode. I think Larry was like, what lines can we cross this week? And he crossed some. It was done as artfully as always on this show. And we had some surprises. And I think start to finish

how it's probably the best episode of the four so far, right? So yes, definitely the best episode of the four because it was the biggest. It was the most epic. The lines that were crossed were by order of magnitude two or three times more, more powerful, more cringy, more awkward feeling. I had to watch it twice.

The first time I watched it, I felt disoriented. I really could not reconcile the conflicted feelings of Larry's interaction with the Klansman. It was just, it took a lot. I really, like, wasn't prepared for it. It was Sunday night, long day of football, and then Larry hits us over the head with an unbelievable Klanzman relationship. Yeah, and, you know, I think this is the way he's dealing with all this stuff

that's happened in the country the last two years. Like last year he had the, or maybe it was a year and a half ago, the Magahad episode, right? Yes. And then this year, it's always like he's dealing with it on these. human interactions and the elephant in the room is this thing that is usually polarizing and crazy and insane. And I don't think he ever did it more elaborately than with this this clansman farmer that I guess like this stretch would be if you're Larry, you know,

why would you even be like, hey, sorry I've ruined your robe. But he's, he just sees everything so black and white where it's just like, oh, I've offended this person. Oh, I've done this injustice to this person. I must fix it. And that's who the character's been for 21 years, right? Yes, yes. And that's precisely the point. Larry lives in a single orbit.

It's Larry's orbit. And so Larry's code, Larry's approach to the world is people come into his orbit. They've either curried favor with him. They've made a good impression on him. You know, they've had some kind of interaction with him where he's prepared to, you know, sort out staying on the correct side of karma or on the other side of things in Larry's orbit, somebody has committed an offense and there's many offenses in this show this week, beginning and ending with the Pirates Booty,

where if an offense has been committed, he has a hard time, you know, letting it go and, you know, justice must be served. Yeah, that's almost the point of the show is that all of the offenses to him have the same calibration. Like to him, the Pirates Booty is just as egregious as anything else that happens, you know, in his orbit. And I think the show also kind of comes from the standpoint of everybody is a bad person, right? So. And on that point, like he says repeatedly, all my life, I make, I always make the wrong decisions. My first instinct is always the wrong instinct.

I have to trust my second instinct. And that's exactly right. Yeah, and I think the optometry exam is kind of the proxy of this, right? He's just like, one, two, I can't. I literally can't see the difference. One, two, three, four. No, give me four again. Give me three.

Like, he can't see the difference between the one and the two. I think that's why that was in there out of all the episodes. But the, you know, you think, like, who are the other people on this show? Like, is Jeff a good person? I would say Absolutely not Right? Jeff is definitely a two

Yeah I mean Jeff had an abortion extortion plot two episodes ago Is Susie a good person Would you call her a good person? I think more than anybody else Susie is the moral compass of the show Yes

Think about how crazy that is That's right Yes Susie and Cheryl The two of them Yeah and I think over and over again We've seen Larry's way Of getting in

To the real life stuff is through that orbit you mentioned, where like the Don Jr. thing that was a recurring thing in the first two episodes. Like, he has fun with the Don Jr. thing, but ultimately, like, you can kind of see through

what he's trying to say. The biggest surprise on this show was we had Kali Kuko. I never know how to pronounce you. I'm going to vouch it as well. I've already botched the name of this week's producer. Our rigored producer,

Stefan, I already messed up his name. So I don't want to try names. Wow, you were reading on the Zoom. I was reading. on the Zoom. Paley Cuoco. That's what I say. I don't know if that's right or not. Quoco?

God, who knows? Who knows? Well, she's a great actress. I like that HBO show she was on. Yeah, I never watched. Flight of tended. I remember she was pretty good on that John Ritter show, which I had seen a few episodes of, but she's always good. Yeah. She was really

good as the eye doctor and went toe to toe with Larry, which I loved. But I feel like she there was a version of her because she's played a lot of idiosyncratic kind of characters. Well, idiosyncratic is the wrong word. I just felt like we got a dose of the real Kaley, which is part of the charm with everybody. Obviously, it's a highly stylized, highly hilarious version of all of these cameos that come in. But there's a kernel of truth there.

I mean, we'll get to the woody one. There's a kernel of truth that resonates that makes me appreciate it. I feel like we got a tiny bit of the real Kaylee. Yeah, well, they take the person, the real-life person, they stick it up, right? Because they do the same thing with Woody Harrison, who was our other guest star. Kind of unbelievable. I'm pretty sure Woody's never been on this show before. I don't know what took 21 years.

But, yeah, he was Woody Harrison. Well, I mean, the episode begins with him receiving an Oscar and doing the thing that has become a little cottage industry on these award shows of the actors or actresses. Yes, giving out the grandest of life advice and, you know, trying to write all of society's wrongs

in a single award show speech. And it's really brilliant the way that Jeff and Larry are together like look at each other. It's like all of us, the experience of all of us. And what a great way to start off the show. Yeah, and Larry says, if I win, I'll go, I'd like to thank the Academy.

Don't allow babies in planes. Good night. I fucking love that so much. That's Larry's cause, don't allow babies on planes. Great cause, by the way. He's got a great cause. And look, you and I have both done it. We've both brought babies on planes.

And we've had the hatred stared through the back of our heads for an entire flight cross-country. and if I had to do it over again, I don't know if I would do it. It's hard. It's a tough one. My whole thing is one of these airlines should just be the have baby flights

where it's like, this is the fight you bring your baby on. Well, I mean, you know, the airline industry has a lot of issues. I guess I have more issues than that. At a point in time, we get back to full capacity. Maybe baby flight will catch that's a half-fiked idea.

You guys need to talk about that with Kevin Wilds. Baby Airlines? Baby Airlines. Like Baby Delta? You need to spitball this with Kevin Wilds. Yeah, like bigger seats to take account of the baby that you have to carry in the fight. Well, the baby seat, the baby seat, right? Baby seat, yeah.

You need to really, like, have it click in. You need click-ins. I'm going to talk to Wilds and see if Baby Delta is a possibility for us. So the biggest surprise was Kelly Cuoco. Quoco. Yeah. The five stories we were juggling on this episode. Larry decides he needs Woody Harrelson on his show, young Larry.

It's just so funny. And Woody comes over and there's some cream shaming, which leads to Larry needs a cow to impress Woody Harrelson. So that's one piece. Second piece, Larry loses a bet playing golf with the rabbi. Now he has to go to Temple. Third piece, Leon has been hiding his love for watermelon, which we'll get into in a second.

And the Watermelon becomes a recurring theme throughout the episode. Fourth piece, Larry going to the eye doctor and getting his eyes blurred. And then the fifth piece is this Kate Rally side that I had no idea where they were going with. And then, of course, it ends up with Larry somehow making a connection with a terrible person named Joe, who you know is going to rear his ugly head at some point. Klansman Joe. Clansman Joe. So that's a lot.

It's a lot. Usually they have like maybe four. 40 minute episodes they have five but there's a lot going on well they're and they're they're big they're big in scale this is the thing i want to take you down a 45 second rabbit hole if you'll permit me to yeah why did you dislike episode three sufficiently for us to just to you know go over it what was it about episode three that made you you know because we didn't do a show last week on the on the minibar and and and you didn't you didn't like it it felt flat to you what why is that you that? I thought it was too long. I thought it was, I thought, uh, I thought it was a 30 minute episode

stretched into 40 minutes and really only had one thing that I thought was smart and funny, which was the middle, the concept of the middle. Yeah, the middle was terrific. Yeah, the whole concept of if you have like eight people, 10 people at a dinner table, at some point, somebody's got to be Steve Nash in the middle of the dinner, kind of carrying it. Yes. And I thought that was good. But for the part, it just felt like we could skip that one. Okay. This one, this is why, it was unskipical because, that's right. That's why I asked the question because, right, last week felt like we were just matriculating

the ball down the field a little bit. We did get introduced to Freddie Funkhauser and the mattress king, which is wonderful. And I'm so thrilled that we got reintroduced. Yeah, reintroduced. Right, right. But I just mean like him as a recurring guy in this season, it feels like, which is spectacular. Yeah. And a tiny cameo from Pat and Wals, Oswald, which is fine and hot dog eating.

Yes. Just matriculating the ball down the field, though. This one had big stuff. To me, an abrupt departure from the first three episodes because of its ambition. Yeah. And the ambition was, we're going to cross some lines and you guys are going to trust us. We're going to hit some themes that maybe in 2021 are going to be a high. degree of difficulty, but trust us because we have the best people.

The Watermelon stuff, I mean, that was some of Leon's funniest stuff that he's done on any season. It was just, I think Leon has been unbelievable this season. This has been my favorite J.B. Smooth season of all the seasons. It was an amazing acting performance by Leon. What an actor, J.B. Smooth is, I really believed it was palpable how conflicted he felt about his relationship with watermelon. It really resonated.

The scurrying away, the watermelon in the garbage can, him not making eye contact with Larry, him trying like, you know, what the fuck's going on with you? You know, trying to like deflect and then immediately confessing his complicated relationship with watermelon. Well, it just was really powerful to me.

I don't know why. Yeah, I was actually, I was Googling it last night because I was so interested in how they came up with the story and who came up with it and how they decided to go there. And it was just, I don't think you can do it without J.B. Smooth. I was trying to think of other actors. Man.

You would have to have like four to five seasons of equity with the character, right? Yes, that's the key. You have to have a ton of equity with the show. This isn't something you can do in the first season of anything. But in this show, with all the stuff they've done. And then it really pays. off with the grocery store scene later. When Larry,

wouldn't he buy Gaviltta fish? Gelfelt to fish. And it becomes this like, this whole, it's like a food stereotyping plot that I wasn't prepared for. This is what I mean. It knocked my block off a little bit. I felt a little because I didn't expect an epic grocery store scene. I mean,

it begins with the poor cashier, young lady, clearly a young lady just trying to make small talk. You know, what do you got plan for later today? I mean, my leg app. Oh, good luck with that, she says. So good.

And then we end up with, with, you know, a sermon. We end up with, you know, he, he interfaces with other customers. He buys a watermelon for another African-American customer in the thing. And he really tries to normalize food stereotypes in one fell swoop. it's i don't know how they pulled it off and this show has pulled off you think back to the first few seasons they did an incest survivor episode they did you know like the uh the the the the turet chef who also wrote down a lottery number on his wrist and made larry and susy think he was a holocaust survivor like you think like this show has crossed more lines than easily any show i think ever that's been popular

And they just have figured out over and over a way to pull that. Palestinian chicken? Palestinian chickens an all-timer. We should do that on one of the archive shows. The what was the one that the terrorist, the terrorist plot where Larry's only telling certain people that they should escape L.A. So they've gone there over and over again, all over the place. And this one was like an old school, you know, complicated theme that they were able to pay us. often, you know, it felt authentic to Leon and it was just, it was really solid.

Because it, yeah, really any one of the themes, um, would have been enough to take on in, in one show, right? Right. Well, we also had the temple theme about how Larry hates going to Temple and going into that whole world, which I know you love because Larry got to play golf. You love when curb your enthusiasm's on a golf course. That's when you're at your peak. I really, you got to watch a rabbi make a long putt.

It was just perfect for you. want to say that that scene was absolutely pitch perfect. It is so apparent that Larry plays tons, tons, tons of golf is a degenerate golfer and a degenerate gambler. That's how it sounds when you're on a golf course on a green like that talking shit to people and gambling for stuff that you think is absurd. I'll get a, I'll get a breast implant and I'll go to Temple. Yes. Well, the guy hits the putt and what I loved about it was it was so golf authentic because the Puts like has gone two feet. It's like a 35 foot putt.

It's gone two feet. You hear Larry go, no, no. Like he kind of knew immediately. He was going in. He had a good role on it. So I love that. I actually enjoyed the rabbi. I thought he was good.

Great job by the rabbi. Then we have the eye doctor thing, which taps into, you know, I, you go to the eye doctor, right? Some people don't go that often. It's been a while. It's been a while for me. Well, you have good eyes. Decent. I'm only in readers now.

I only need readers as a middle age. I have horrific eyesight, as you know. You've seen me with my big Coke bottle glasses. So I have to go a lot. And I had in 2016, when I hadn't gone in like a year or two, when you get older, your eyesight actually starts getting better. And I started getting these huge headaches. It was when I was doing the HBO show.

I was getting these huge headaches. And I thought it was either stress or like a brain tumor. And I was like literally couldn't see. And I was like, am I so stressed out? I can't see. And it was my eyesight had gotten better. My contacts were so strong They were like frying my brain.

So now I go, because I think when people have terrible eyesight, the eyesight can actually improve sometimes as you get older. It goes the other way. So I go every year. And the stuff they put in to dilate your pupils, like that's a real thing. Like I've tried to drive home a couple times with that where I just shouldn't have. You're not supposed to do that.

Yeah, I know. You're supposed to be a long time. You don't, it's not just a half hour. It's like hours. I had one time where they dilated my pupils and then I had to sit in the waiting room and I couldn't, I can't see anyway without my glasses, but especially it's all blurry.

And I'm in the waiting room and sitting two seats away from me was Elgin Baylor. Who I knew because I had met a few times. I would say you knew him. You murdered the poor guy about 500 times. No, we liked it. No, we like, we came around

because I wrote that big piece after he got fired from the Clippers. Okay, good. I was like the big Elgin advocate for what an incredible player and what what uh literally sounds like it could be a one of the plot lines and curb yes so i knew him and he liked me because i had really pushed on like how important he was in the 60s with black players stuff like that and i'm talking to him about basketball for 20 minutes with dilated pupils i can't see him can't see him and he's waiting for

an appointment so i was like how did he recognize you and say hey bill is elgin yeah no i was like hey i'll say oh you you can see him You could see him. Okay. Well, he's still six foot six. He's a giant man. That's right. Yeah.

That's right. I mean, the same way Larry could see the pirate's booty. Right. So anyway, that resonated with me. And then, and then they kind of,

they didn't really go into the little hate rally thing, but they had the come up and so Susie ends up, yeah, I'll make the guy a robe and then double-crossed him. You know, you don't think they went into it. Yeah, they did.

Honestly, the hate rally thing could have been the focal point of an entire episode. I'm glad it was. Was it? One of five things. Yeah. It was uncomfortable. Susie, well,

Susie wins. Susie ends up getting the guy in the end. Yeah. Best scenes, the first scene with Leon where he throws away the water balloon and then they talk it out was great. The Woody cream shaming. Spectacular. I got to say, I've never been cream shamed.

Have you? No. It's a ridiculous thing. It's completely made up. I really, I love half and half. So I would take that really personally. That's a great point. You know, I drink my coffee black.

I don't like stuff in it. So that's probably, I would avoid cream shaming. If I was going to do anything, it wouldn't be dairy anyways. I'd do like oatmeal for something. The grocery store scene was incredible. The farm, I think, was my favorite scene just because the guy, it's going great with Woody. They're almost out of there. And then Joe the Klansman, they're talking about the apples.

And he does the joke, I won't let the Jew charge you. And Woody's like, does he talk to you? Does he talk to you like that? Larry goes, I just call him a racist cock sucker. And they all laugh. That all scene was hilarious. Joe loved it. Joe loved it.

I actually think it was ad lib because I noticed this. I noticed this when I did the podcast with Larry nine years ago. When he actually really laughs, his jaw, his bottom jaw goes up and down. And on the show, you never see him really laugh. because when he's like really actually laughing, his bottom jaw just goes up and down, almost like a bobblehead. And I think they ad libbed that whole thing

and that really made him laugh was my takeaway. Well, part of the thing that was complicated for me watching that episode, and I watched it twice. I watched it once last night and again this morning is the relatability of Joe. Joe going along with Larry on the joke, not the joke on the ploy to trick Woody.

This has been the show for 21 years. I know. I'm just telling you. And Larry somehow clicks with them on some surface level. It's very different from what the first three episodes contained. I just wasn't ready for it. I had to like, it really had to hit my curb reset button.

Well, I'll tell you, Larry's one of the only people that actually gets comedy leeway with this stuff. I was trying to think like how many other people out there could even attempt to do an episode like this where people would just be mad at them immediately. You know, And with Larry, it's like, I think some people have just hit that point where they've just built the equity with the audience.

You know, he, I don't remember any episode that he's done that really enraged people and caused like a huge backlash. Do you? No, no, no, you're right. Because people kind of get, they get the show. Yeah, right. If you're watching the show, then you know what's going on. You're, you've talked about it a couple of times. you're right that the show is built up a kind of equity, a kind of trust,

where, you know, ultimately this character that we've known for 21 years is going to deliver some sideways take on a crucially important kind of thing that, you know, it's satisfactory. Blowing the shofar in the masterful way that he did and waking up all of Los Angeles apparently to the clansman's attack. Right. A perfect cherry on top. Yeah, I mean, ultimately it pays off because Klansman Joe was a lunatic who comes to his house and is going to kill him.

You don't leave that episode going, ah, I like Klansman Joe. I thought he had some good points. That does not happen. No. The last scene, which was so funny, he rear-ends somebody because you can't see in the driver ID. You see the driver's ID, and it's Mary Ferguson, and it's that, oh, it's one of those. You just know what he's going to do because you know Larry. It's so masterful.

great stuff and of course it gets screwed up because he brings Mary Ferguson back to his house and J.B. Smooth is having what he calls a watermelon orgy and that was it so now we've lost three Mary Ferguson's.

I love that how quickly they dispense with the failed attempt to make the connection with this Mary Ferguson she was gone immediately and then I was like well can I come have something Leon's amazing.

Come come get some of this sweet meat. It just fucking kill me. Come get some of this sweet meat. And there's like five watermelons on the table. So funny bits, we have just like little bits that were clearly written in a notebook at some point. The Academy speeches, they hit that cream shaming. I don't even know if that's a thing. The optometry, what it's like when you're in the chair and they're asking to pick between the numbers,

I always, my self-esteem always goes down in the optometry chair. I'm always like, one, three, four, did I make the right call? I'm like doubting myself the whole time. I don't understand why. One looks better than the other, doesn't it? Usually, but sometimes I don't know if I made the right choice. It's your choice. It's your eyes.

I know, but I don't know if I don't trust my eyes. So you have that, you have the whole concept of dropping a morsel of food and not picking it up, which in Larry's world is like a more egregious sin than just about anything else we saw. I equally agree just to being a member of the clan. We had the concept of a watermelon orgy. And then we had the temple horn, which I was not familiar with, but paid off in the end. He was able to pull off a beautiful temple horn. Masterful so far.

At the perfect time. I thought start to finish, this was the most old school curb that we've had. What is interesting to be, I agree absolutely with that assessment. the theme of the threat of the show has been, you know, the young Larry. And we, it was a perfect vehicle for Woody. But that was really it. No Maria Sophia in this one. Yeah.

Nothing. No, no heavy Hulu. That's another thing we got from episode three. That was a good time. Hulu and the Jewish guy. I want you to, we're going to have to revisit episode three. We got stage four wisdom out of episode three. I really feel like you're not giving us.

again. Episode three, enough credit. I might have given it a short trip. But in any event, yes. We're in alignment on this episode being, you know, a step above sort of where we've been. And that's not to demean where we've been. I was thinking of the actor who played Klansman Joe. Yes.

Where the guy in real life and they're like, hey, I got a gig. Oh, you did? Curb? You got the curb? He's like, yeah. Yeah. So it looks like I'm going to play a guy named Klansman Joe. Like that's a tough, tough beat for that guy.

Like out of all the parts you could have had. What about all the actors at the rally? Oh, man. He will not be replaced. They all have to, like, mimic that. They have to show up in the Klansman outfits. Like, what the fuck? Larry.

I don't know what goes on in that dude's brain. I think MVP of the episode, I think J.B. Smooth wins again. I think this is at least his second MVP. of the first four episodes, right? Wow. It was a very strong Woody for me. I have to say.

I love the J.B. smooth. I love the vulnerability of J.B. And this one, I love Leon's vulnerability with the watermelon. And how he let Larry, you know,

bring him to the store. And, you know, there was an arc to that whole thing. But I just felt like it was a powerhouse, a powerhouse Woody. What a career that guy said,

by the way. I mean, you need to get him on the pod. He was on Cheers in like 1986. He's been, Woody's been in our life for 35 years. He's been in Oscar movies and classic sports movies. I think he's one of the best basketball players we've ever had in this sports movie. Just good stuff all the way around. All right.

The Prestige Pod. We're coming back. I think there's going to be some Yellowstone on the pod this week. I think we have two successions coming and we'll see what else. But House, this is a pleasure. This podcast was produced by Stefani Anderson. And I think we're doing five this week. So stay tuned.

Don't forget about every single album as well. If you love pop culture. Our guy, Nathan Hubbard, your co-host on Fairway Rowland, breaking down for two hours. He broke down the Taylor Swift's new album, 30 songs house. I hope you had time to watch some golf. I mean, I watched Taylor Swift do a 10-minute song on Saturday. Yeah, that was the song.

That's the song. She should really get over Jake Gyllenhaal. That's all I have to say. Yeah, fair point. We'll leave you on that note. We'll see on the Prestige TV pod tomorrow.