How does Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness compare to Curb Your Enthusiasm? Its creators have a three-word answer
Larry David's HBO sketch series Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness draws instant Curb Your Enthusiasm comparisons — and the show's creators have their own shorthand for the connection. How they describe it, and where the two series part ways.
Larry David made a new show, and every review of it is legally required to mention Curb Your Enthusiasm within the first sentence, so let's get that out of the way: it's the one where Larry kvetches his way through 250 years of American history, produced by — checks notes — Barack and Michelle Obama. Bill Hader is Lincoln. Jerry Seinfeld shows up for Lewis and Clark. Larry, in a cravat, complains about umbrella-sharing etiquette in the 1770s.
And if you're wondering how much Curb DNA is in this thing, the people who made it have already answered, in three words, and they are perfect.
"We jokingly call it Curb in costume," co-creator Jeff Schaffer told Deadline.
Curb. In. Costume. That's it, that's the show. Case closed, everybody go home.
Okay, but what does that mean in practice
The overlap, per Schaffer and basically everyone who's watched it:
- same improvised dialogue built on outlines instead of scripts, the method that powered Curb for 24 years;
- same petty grievances — the salad fork discourse, the social time bombs — except now they detonate at the Boston Tea Party;
- same extended family: Susie Essman, JB Smoove, Jeff Garlin and the rest of the Curb repertory company, plus ringers like Jon Hamm and Kaley Cuoco.
The part that's not Curb
Here's where the creators draw the actual line, and it's not the jokes — it's the production value. Curb looked like it was shot in whatever Brentwood restaurant would have them. This thing built a Wright flyer and dug a WWI trench.
"They're not shot like Curb, they're little movies," Schaffer said in an interview with TheWrap.
So the honest comparison is this: same cranky engine, dramatically fancier car. If you wanted Curb season 13, this is the closest anyone is ever going to let you get — just with wigs, quills, and a former president occasionally sending notes. Larry got notes. From Obama. There's your sequel premise, free of charge.
