The serialized format of television allows for the possibility of making callbacks to earlier episodes. These are just neat little Easter eggs that only the most eagle-eyed fans pick up on, but they can go a long way toward tying a long-running TV series together as a complete piece. Larry David’s HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm has both callbacks to its own earlier episodes and callbacks to episodes of David’s earlier series, Seinfeld.
In some cases, ideas briefly touched upon in Seinfeld have been conflated into full episodes of Curb. Other times, Curb’s own history has been used to inform current storylines.
Wearing Sunglasses Inside
In the hour-long special that acted as Curb’s pilot episode, Larry is having lunch with a couple of fellow comedians — one of whom is wearing sunglasses — and says, “You know who wears sunglasses inside? Blind people and a**holes.”
In the fourth season, when Larry shows up to the rehearsal hall to start working on The Producers, two people wear sunglasses inside: Michael, the blind pianist, and Ben Stiller, who constantly clashes with Larry.
Mocha Joe
Larry first butted heads with Mocha Joe in the season 7 finale. There’s an unfair back-and-forth of favors that leads them to absolutely hate each other. It seemed like this would be the last time viewers saw Mocha Joe.
However, he reappeared in season 10 and not only that, he played a major role in the season-long story arc. He once again insults Larry, and this time, Larry decides to open up a “spite store” to run him out of business.
Larry’s Stepfather
In the hour-long special that kicked off Curb’s run, Larry gets cold feet about shooting a stand-up special and makes up an excuse about his imaginary stepfather to get HBO to call off the whole project.
In season 2, when Larry was doing the rounds at the TV networks to sell his new sitcom, the HBO executives brought up Larry’s excuse about his stepfather and Larry walked out. He didn’t like the implication that he was lying, despite the fact that he was.
Groat’s Disease
Larry David had apparently always thought that shortstop Dick Groat’s name sounded like a disease. So, he named a fictional disease after Groat in Curb Your Enthusiasm. In the second season, Rob Reiner ropes Larry into doing some charity work for Groat’s disease.
Groat’s disease made a surprise reappearance in the seventh season, as Michael Richards’ involvement in the Seinfeld reunion was threatened by a possible Groat’s diagnosis.
Car Periscope
Season 8’s “Car Periscope” isn’t a callback to an earlier Curb episode, but rather an episode of Larry David’s previous show, Seinfeld. When George got engaged and Elaine announced her own intention to get married, Jerry imagined life with just himself and Kramer.
He imagined Kramer bursting into his apartment with the idea to install cars with periscopes to see the traffic ahead. Jerry called the idea stupid, but in Curb, this invention proved to be extremely effective when Larry and Jeff tested it out.
Dating Handicapped People
In the tenth and most recent season of Curb, Larry befriended a disabled man, played by Fred Armisen, after passing him in a hallway to beat him to a men’s room.
As they discuss the hallway passing, Larry tells his new friend that he’s dated two women in wheelchairs, and that one caught him cheating with the other one — a callback to season 7’s “Denise Handicap.”
Jon Hamm Visits Mocha Joe’s
In season 10’s “Elizabeth, Margaret, and Larry,” Jon Hamm starts shadowing Larry in order to get in his head to prepare for an upcoming role, which was written by an old Seinfeld writer and based on him. Cheryl invites Hamm out for coffee and they end up going to Mocha Joe’s.
Cheryl realizes Hamm has become Larry when he has all the same complaints that Larry had when he first decided to open a spite store in the season premiere: the wobbly table, the soft scone, and the cold coffee (even testing the temperature with his nose like Larry did).
Happy New Year
The season 10 premiere of Curb included another callback to Seinfeld. The episode is called “Happy New Year” and there’s a running joke about people saying, “Happy New Year,” to people too late into the year for it to be relevant.
This references the opening conversation from the Seinfeld episode “The Dinner Party,” in which Elaine tells Jerry, “Hey, do you believe I got a ‘Happy New Year’ today? It’s February!” Jerry replies, “I once got ‘Happy New Year’d in March!”
Larry's Nickname
In season 9’s “The Shucker,” Larry notices that his girlfriend is very open with sex stories about her exes and worries that one day she’ll be sharing similar stories about him to similarly large groups of people. Later in the episode, when she’s watching Judge Judy with her friend and Larry appears to defend himself in court, her friend asks, “This is the guy you told me all the stories about?,” and she replies, “Yes, that’s Larry Longballs!”
This is a callback to season 6, when Larry suffered a testicular injury before his first post-Cheryl date with Lucy Lawless. When the doctor tells him his testicles are “more distended” than the average ones, Leon gives him the nickname “Longball Larry.”
Morsi Interviews People From Larry’s Past
In season 9’s “Never Wait for Seconds!,” Larry defends a Muslim man named Morsi who doesn’t join the line for his second trip to a buffet. Inspired by Larry’s act of goodwill, Morsi interviews some people from his past to see if he can look into getting his fatwa lifted.
Among the people that Morsi interviews are Michael J. Fox, Krazee-Eyez Killa, and Monena (the hooker Larry hired so he could use the carpool lane in season 4) In other words, all the great guest stars from Curb’s history that fans had been dying to see again.