Been sick the last few weeks (not with that, don't get your hopes up) and while finally on the mend, I hope, I figured I'd spend some time and get into Curb Your Enthusiasm while we're all confined to our homes.

I think I'm midway through Season 3 at the moment (Larry was shuttling a dog back and forth between two families last I saw) and I have got to say, this is not the side-splitting, nonstop laugh riot I have heard devoted fans make it out to be.

LD is worse of an actor than Jerry was in the Seinfeld pilot, and making his two main sidekicks other standups with weak acting AND improv skills seems to make MANY scenes on this show a tough slog through repeating shtick.

Does it get any better as the show progresses? There are a few genuine laugh-inducing moments sprinkled throughout any given episode that I've seen, don't get me wrong, but given what I had heard from longtime viewers, I was expecting to be cackling like the audience laugh track during The Contest, but now find myself rolling my eyes at the amount of cringe-humor they try to pack in.

I think Seasons 4 and 5 were my favorites.

It has definitely tailed off the past few seasons, but I still get enjoyment out of it.

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I tend to agree. I do enjoy MANY of the supporting characters. For as one note as Susie' s character is she never fails to make me laugh.

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This season has been fanatastic, I won't spoil it too much, but "Spite Store"...the Nazi dog...funny ass shit.

oh, and the Palestinian Chicken episode was the best Curb ever.

I've actually never watched it.

In a similar vein: Frasier was not funny at all....change my mind.

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It's really good in the first five or so seasons but loses the magic later on, as most long-running comedies do. It stops catching you off guard, same problem as Always Sunny.

I'd add that it's a distinctly unbingeable show, probably for that same reason of beginning to feel your way through the catastrophes. I can do about two episodes max before I get desensitized. Simpsons, I top out at four.

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Have you watched this year? I was of the same opinion but really enjoy the latest season.

No deification in a restaurant/coffee shop is such a fantastic idea.

Not yet, except for the MAGA hat clip that made the rounds. I guess I'll dig into it tonight.

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The trick or treat episode with the older teenage kids was pretty, pretty good.

The episodes where he was cast in The Producers was great -- the ending to it is pretty awesome too.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

The show itself is fine. The comedy normies that deify the show are insufferable.

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Seinfeld went out before it went into freefall (I wouldn't call that last season "a high note") and left people wanting more, which is where Curb stepped in. TV at the turn of the millennium, as we've discussed from time to time, was a bad, bad scene, and Curb felt like an oasis. Those first few years were probably the funniest show on TV at the time. I would have worn out the DVDs if DVDs could wear out.

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There are a handful of classic episodes and bits but it has always been uneven as a show. I watch for the 3-4 funny moments if I’m lucky. This season has been the same. MAGA hat, nazi dog, his bathroom in the coffee shop are all pretty funny. A lot of filler mixed in

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

One of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in any show was in the Black Swan episode, where Funkhouser was offered free lifetime dues if he told the country club owner who killed his swan. Bob Einstein RIP.

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Combination of the reduced novelty of the style of comedy due to its broad adoption post-CYE + time.
Best of clips of Larry Sanders Show are still worth watching on youtube. But I'd don't know if I could sit down and watch entire seasons of it glued to every word; the way we watched Larry Sanders when it first ran on HBO back in the 90's. Followed by Mr Show and what was the other half-hour show? Not as good as Larry Sanders or Mr Show, Tenacious D based show maybe.

CYE Season 3 is from 2002? Pushing 20 years ago. At the time, British style (The Office/Peep Show) uncomfortable cringe-comedy sans canned laugh-track was nonexistent on American screens. Larry Sanders Show being the main notable exception pre-CYE/Arrested Development. I think Sports Night tried it during its brief run. Now the format's everywhere, but they're all post CYE/Arrested Development doing it first:
The Office,
Parks & Rec,
Community,
Scrubs,
Extras,
Party Down,
Flight of the Conchords,
Modern Family,
MITM,
Brooklyn Nine-Nine,
Last Man On Earth,
Veep,
Silicon Valley,
The Comeback,
Always Sunny,
Louie,
Crashing,
Fleabag
and on and on and on

I imagine it's a bit like going back and listening to Velvet Underground for the first time after decades of listening to scores of more recent bands directly or indirectly inspired by VU

I think Larry Sanders is as good as ever today, the characters are just too good, but I can't watch entire Mr. Show episodes anymore without skipping past the sketches that didn't work, e.g., that one with the ethnic landlord. And let's not even speak of the "with Bob and David" revival.

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Police Squad! and Lookwell are examples prior to The Larry Sanders Show that did not employ the laugh track. In fact, the reason given that Police Squad! was cancelled was because without a laugh track it required too much effort from the viewer to understand the humor.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

Yeah, I would put that one in my top 3. I just watched the ski lift episode last night. That one is my favorite of all time.

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"Who are you? and how did you get in here?"
"I'm a locksmith. And I'm a locksmith."

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