Transgender actress Candis Cayne opened up about walking away from an audition for the show Curb Your Enthusiam (Hide your joy), Or CYE, because she considered the scene to be repeated offensive. The scenario showed a trans woman, overcome by an urge, opting for an uncrowded men’s restroom. “A trans person would never do that and I have to honor my community,” explained the actress.
The scene was ultimately never filmed. However, we have had others on this highly delicate theme in our “diversity regime” (dixit Mathieu Bock-Côté) throughout this humorous series which begins its final season this weekend. An even more famous trans, Laverne Cox, participated in the 93e episode (season 10, 2020) by agreeing to star in a scene involving an otherwise offensive cringe joke about metaiodoplasty. The same season, Mayim Bialik played the lesbian Jodi Funkhouser who became Joey, and this time we heard questionable jokes about her choice of an oversized penis.
Schoolboy humor bordering on bad taste becomes acceptable, even in the eyes of Laverne Cox, because, each time, the scene turns against the character of Larry, alter ego of the screenwriter and actor Larry David, creator of the series . His production does not laugh of thebut good with of the trans. Which contrasts with the recent shows of stand-up of Ricky Gervais and Dave Chappelle, who are still doing the mileage by humiliating this community.
“It’s a difficult show to watch in the sense that the discomfort constantly reveals who we are in relation to Larry and the other characters,” says Natalie M. Fletcher, a philosopher of childhood at the University of Montreal and to the educational organization Brila. She developed her very serious analysis of CYE in a text published a decade ago already in the collective work Curb Your Enthusiasm and Philosophy.
“I understand that it is somewhat intentional, to provoke a questioning of our values, of our way of seeing the world and of interacting in society. At the same time, this show seems to be able to help people reassure themselves about their own ethical and political sense. It allows us to compare our limits and respect for norms with someone who does not seem at all concerned by social rules and universal ethical rules. »
A bald grandmaster
Larry David is nothing less than a great master of American humor today. It concentrates something of the time. Master David spearheaded his first major cultural contribution as co-creator of Seinfeld, at the end of the last century. His second major television work ends this winter with the final season, the twelfth, of CYE, whose title precisely wanted to reduce expectations (to curb) after the megasuccess of Seinfeld. The first of the final episodes of CYE is broadcast Sunday evening on HBO (and on the Crave platform).
Larry David (sometimes called LD) plays a version of himself semi-retired in Los Angeles. The wealthy comedian is surrounded by his sweet wife, Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), his big agent, Jeff (Jeff Garlin), and his shrew, Susie (Susie Essman), as well as his roommate, Leon Black (JB Smoove) . In more than a hundred episodes, the production managed to bring together all of Hollywood for flash participations as well as extended participations, including Ted Danson, Rosie O’Donnell and Jon Hamm.
Like the old one, LD’s new series offers slices of life that go awry and cause social chaos. Except that this time, the dialogues from an established scenario are mainly improvised. Broadcasting by HBO, an adult channel, allows for content that goes much further in the themes covered and an increase in swearing and sexual references. The very first episode shows the misunderstandings created by L. D.’s new pants, which seem to be erect as soon as he sits down.
Throughout the adventures, always woven very tightly to interweave several plots, we were treated to an infinite number of uncomfortable situations. One episode revolves around a pedophile Larry dates because he helps him improve his golf swing. Yet another deals with the belly love handles of a secretary who definitely shows too much. Several half hours are devoted to the comic effects of the motor problems of Michael J. Fox, suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Authenticity
CYE laughed with and at the entire diverse alphabet LGBTQ+ or BIPOC, black people, disabled people, fat people, bald people (like LD), deaf people, blind people, old people, young people: everyone. As much wokism as positive discrimination and consent have stimulated anthology scenes. So are ideological-political conflicts. A complete series focuses on the Iranian death decree that hits Larry after his writing of a musical on the same theme (Fatwa! The Musical). The writer Salman Rushdie, under the threat of a real fatwa which cost him an eye, takes part. Jews also go there, of course, including Orthodox Jews and even Holocaust survivors!
Connoisseurs have also compared the character of Larry to the “schlémil” who makes people laugh in the ghetto by placing himself through bad luck and clumsiness in improbable situations. Jeff, his agent, describes him more as a “social assassin” because he does not respect the rules of life in society.
The philosopher Fletcher dissected the character using the concept of authenticity, much more complex in philosophy than in the common sense. Instead of the idea of integral sincerity, the scholarly concept is closer to the virtue of integrity. There are circumstances where it becomes legitimate to keep silent about one’s opinion, for example when it might be tempting to talk about metaiodoplasty to a trans person in real life…
“If we broaden the concept to give it a more moral dimension, we see that people like Larry are not really authentic,” says M.me Fletcher. They must face the fact that their freedom comes with a certain responsibility to enable them to live better together and have lives more worth living. »
The philosopher also notes the now generalized extension of I-don’t-care. “We cannot ethically justify Larry’s way of being,” she said. While this way of living seemed like a caricature not so long ago, it is increasingly asserting itself as a possible and justifiable option for many people. CYE, which may have seemed a caricature when the series began in 2000, now seems to have become the norm for many, and without embarrassment. »
The very real example comes from very high up. Donald Trump – his MAGA movement is obviously also entitled to Larry’s funny attacks –Curb — once said he could murder someone in the middle of 5e Avenue in New York if he wanted, and without consequences. Pursued on all sides, he promises to be a dictator “for a day” if he is re-elected president.
“I didn’t want to name it explicitly,” admits the philosopher, who has not been involved with the production for several seasons. But yes, exactly, it’s the example of a caricature becoming reality…”