The series Curb Your Enthusiasm has certainly created something of a legend around Larry David. The character he plays in his show has no filter and causes chaos at every social event he attends by calling things as he sees them.
How accurate that is to what Larry David is like in real life is unclear—unless you know him personally—but fans of the show constantly go back and forth between loving him and hating him. He has equal capabilities to be the hero or the villain. Here are five times we've been able to sympathize with him, and five times we've been part of the mob that attacks him.
Time We Felt Bad: The Water Bottle Incident
"The Doll" follows Larry's misadventures as he inadvertently destroys a little girl's doll, gets yelled at for taking a bottle of water into a movie premiere, and deals with a bathroom door that won't lock. In the end, he's back at the premiere and hides his water bottle in his pants. He uses the women's restroom to get a little privacy and runs into the girl whose doll he destroyed.
She thanks him for fixing the doll and hugs him. After she leaves, he hears her tell the entire room that he's in the ladies' bathroom and something hard—the water bottle—is in his pants. Larry might do some questionable things in this episode but a mixup that severe is a fate that no one deserves. Hopefully, he got away before anyone saw him.
Time We Hated Him: He Killed A Swan
In this episode, Larry and his friends go golfing at their country club, which is home to the owner's cherished pet swan. The swan attacks Larry, and, in self defense, he hits the bird with his golf club, killing it.
While it is understandable that Larry had to do something to defend himself, actually killing the swan is clearly overboard. Whatever punishment he faces when the owner finds out is probably reasonable.
Time We Felt Bad: He Took The Blame For The One-Armed Man
Larry doesn't really do anything wrong in this episode. Instead, he is framed multiple times by a mysterious one-armed man. At a party, he walks in on the one-armed man playing Scrabble with an elderly man. The one-armed man asks Larry to take his spot, which he agrees to.
After that, the man's son comes in and accuses Larry of cheating his dad at Scrabble. But he didn't do it. It was the one-armed man. In the end, Larry runs into the man again and tries to reveal the truth, but then he escapes and leaves Larry looking guilty in another situation. He just can't catch a break in this one.
Time We Hated Him: He Stole Flowers From A Memorial
Larry is not very comforting to his friend Marty after Marty's mother dies, but no one would expect Larry David to be a great source of comfort anyway. The moment where he steps over the line here is when he takes flowers from the roadside memorial of his friend's mother.
His justification in doing this is that he was giving the flowers to someone else as an apology. But it's not a good excuse. You just can't do that, Larry.
Time We Felt Bad: He Gets Caught In The Middle Of Conflicts
The Palestinian Chicken is an episode where things seem to happen to Larry instead of him causing the conflict. First of all, a friend keeps asking Larry to tell his family to stop doing things that annoy him. That way, if they get mad, they'll be mad at Larry and not him. Larry agrees, and the plans keep backfiring, causing his friend to get mad at him.
Second of all, Larry discovers a delicious chicken restaurant that happens to be run by anti-semites. In the end, he is—literally—caught in the middle of his Jewish friends and the delicious Palestinian chicken restaurant run by a beautiful woman who likes him. All he wanted to do was have a good meal.
Time We Hated Him: He Used His Mother's Death As An Excuse
In this episode, Larry's mom dies, and he realizes it's a great excuse to get out of things he doesn't feel like doing. And so, he continually skips out on social events saying he doesn't feel like going out after his mother's death when that's simply not true.
Even worse than that, he uses the excuse to get people to feel bad for him and do him favors. In his defense, he pays to fix her tombstone, which reads "past away" instead of "passed," so he does care. But, still, using your mother's death for your own personal gain is kind of crappy.
Time We Felt Bad: The Typo Incident
Larry is asked to write the obituary when Cheryl's titular beloved aunt dies. Unfortunately, a horrific typo makes it appear that Larry has called her an offensive word, and, of course, he gets yelled at endlessly.
It's a simple premise about a simple mistake that could happen to anyone. It should be obvious that Larry would never intentionally write such a thing in someone's obituary, but no one will listen to his explanations. Imagine being in that situation.
Time We Hated Him: He Ate A Snack While Calling To Apologize
A misunderstanding causes a man to believe Larry is calling him a chicken and mocking him. In shame, the man attempts suicide and Larry decides to call him to apologize and clear up the misunderstanding. The only problem is, he's snacking on an apple when he makes the phone call.
As the other characters point out, the munching makes the apology seem less sincere. Not to mention, eating while you're on the phone with someone in annoying. You might as well be loudly chewing inches away from their ear. This is just another example of how Larry acts mindlessly at times.
Time We Felt Bad: He Couldn't Find The Right Chef
Here's another one where nothing goes right for Larry. Season three had a running storyline of him and some business partners opening up a restaurant. In one particular episode, they are days away from the grand opening, and Larry hires and fires a number of chefs who turn out to be crazy in one way or another.
On top of that, there is a scene where he is sent to the pharmacy to buy a colon cleanse for Cheryl. Let's be honest, at some point in our lives we've all been sent to buy an embarrassing product for somebody else.
Time We Hated Him: He Hoped For Someone To Die
There are two episodes that have a subplot where Larry's friend Richard Lewis is in need of a kidney transplant. At first, Larry and Jeff debate over who will donate the kidney, but Jeff is ruled out after his wife forbids him to make the donation. And so, it's set on Larry. But then, Richard's cousin, Louis Lewis, goes to the hospital and is in critical condition.
It is clear that Larry is hoping for Louis to die, so they'll just give Richard his kidney instead of Larry having to go through the operation. This is definitely one of Larry's most self-centered moments in the show.