Larry David

Steve Coogan on Career, American Comedy, and Larry David

Victoria Will

It might be a bit of a stretch, but it's just possible that the furor over this week's New Yorker cover is attributable to the summer heat: For irony, as with sex, sometimes it's too darn hot.

Even for Larry David, apparently. In the August issue of BlackBook magazine (due out July 22), bone-dry British ironist Steve Coogan, who also has two movies coming out this summer that will test Americans' waning tolerance for subtlety, tells the interviewer: "My career is so important. I’m being ironic. Can you put that in quotes: 'He said, ironically?'" He also talked about working with Mr. David.  read more »

Kramer vs. Kramer: Five Theories on Michael Richards

Michael Richards.
Kevin Winter/Getty Iimages
Michael Richards.

Explaining Kramer: being an intensive exegesis of the media theories of Michael Richards’ raci  read more »

The Afternoon Wrap: Friday

  • Dumbo has been known as Rapailie and Olympia and Fulton Landing and Gairville. After its impending Landmarks designation, the place will get yet a new moniker. How about Rapailie Redux? Or David Walentasville? [Brooklyn Papers]
  • St. Nicholas Church was destroyed on 9/11, and, by 2009, it will be rebuilt two blocks away from its former site. According to NY1, the new locale at Greenwich and Liberty streets is "above a security center that will screen buses and trucks headed to the new World Trade Center." [NY1]
  • Brownstoner asked: "What if you were a wealthy philanthropost [sic] who could write a $100 million check to fund any infrastructure or public project in Brooklyn?" In chronological order, his readers dreamed up: trolley cars, bike lanes, a high school, a complete transportation system for northeastern Brooklyn, a complete transportation system for southeastern Brooklyn, a large parking lot, Ratner's exile, pre-schools, etc. We say: More high-end pre-schools! And trolleys! [Brownstoner]
  • TV's Kramer is not doing so well these days. But the real Kramer (the neighborly fellow who lived across the hall from Seinfeld/Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David) is doing just fine. Get your "Kramer Reality Tour" while it's hot. [Newsday]
  • - Max Abelson

Sacha Baron Cohen, Guilty of Minstrelsy

My commenters below are right: the prejudices that Sacha Baron Cohen stokes in Borat are conventional ones, and the film is a form of Red-State blackface. All the juice in his journey happens between the coasts. When he's on the coasts, the jokes feel forced. In the interior the ignorant peasantry are revealed.

It's minstrelsy because Cohen has taken on the the guise of a minority he secretly loathes in order to put them down.

Why did I write my last post on Borat then? Well, I find SBC screamingly funny in this Lenny Bruceish way. And I fell for the message—pogroms in America—because it was so well coded, coated by humor; and I think I was vulnerable to its orthodoxy. I wonder if I see it again if I'll feel the same. I think not; that I'm likely to see the prejudice plainly, and on behalf of fundamentalists, smalltowners and rodeo audiences, my fellow Americans, feel somewhat offended... (in the same way I'm appalled when Larry David and Jon Stewart talk about pogroms as a real possibility here). Thanks for the smart comments.

The Final Seinfeld: I Told You So!

Jerry Seinfeld.
Barry Blitt
Jerry Seinfeld.

I’m sorry, I just can’t resist.  read more »

'Huffington Post' Reels in Ex-Fishbowler Sklar

Former FishbowlNY editor and Tomato aficionado Rachel Sklar has accepted a position in The Huffington Post's New York office. Working from the company's base in Silicon Alley 2.0 (aka, Soho), she'll be lending a hand as an editor and developing several projects for the site.

Fans of Sklar's unique writing style (featuring show tunes and coinages like "blog synchronicity") have nothing to fear: besides editing, she'll also be joining Larry David, Rep. John Murtha, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and contributors to Arianna's virtual cocktail party. In an email to Media Mob, Sklar reports, "I will also be blogging, which I'm extremely excited about."

Matt Haber

Letters

Letters

To the Editor:    read more »

DVD's, Videos, TiVo, Downloadables

Curb AppealIn the fourth episode of the second season of Curb Your Enthusiasm , Larry David accuses  read more »

Who's Master Now?

The story of comedian Larry David's introduction to his friend and fellow comedian Richard Lewis' ps  read more »

Who's Master Now?

The last two standing from Seinfeld are its co-creators, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, and the two  read more »

Who's Master Now?

The last two standing from Seinfeld are its co-creators, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, and the two  read more »

Comic Book Geeks Fight Chris Carter Over Harsh Realm

Wednesday, Oct. 13Andrew Paquette and James Hudnall are a couple of comic book geeks.  read more »

Goodbye to All That Overgrown Adolescent Game-Playing; Larry David Goes After Littlefield One Last Time

The great strength of Seinfeld was that it took the most private experiences of the educated middle  read more »