Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Most Memorable Scene From Each Of IMDb’s 10 Top-Rated Episodes

Larry David’s HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm recently aired its 10th season (with an 11th already greenlit by the network) and, after 20 years on the air, David proved he’s still got it with a season full of inspired storylines, topical humor, and hilarious ad-libs. Curb’s 100 episodes have given comedy fans some of the funniest material in the history of television.

With entirely improvised dialogue (drawing from a short story outline written by David before production), the show’s scenes have a tangible energy that can’t be found in any other TV comedy. This has led to some truly memorable moments.

10 The Table Read (9.1) – Funkhouser Tells Jerry A Joke

In the penultimate episode of Curb’s seventh season, the Seinfeld cast gets together for the first table read of the reunion episode. Larry is incensed to see that Funkhouser has shown up, and even more incensed when he starts telling Jerry a lengthy joke.

To Larry’s surprise, Jerry loves the joke. According to the Bob Einstein episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jerry’s laugh at the end of the joke was taken from the first take when he didn’t know what the punchline was going to be.

9 Denise Handicapped (9.1) – Larry’s Wheelchair-Bound Love Interests Chase Him

Larry ends up with two love interests in wheelchairs in season 7’s “Denise Handicap.” He meets one woman and invites her to a Kim Chee-yun recital at his friends’ house, but then he loses her number when Susie throws his BlackBerry in the ocean.

While trying to find her, he meets another woman and invites her to the recital instead. They both show up to the event and chase Larry around the house. To escape them, he runs up the stairs. But then, Rosie O’Donnell steps in to beat him up on his dates’ behalves.

8 The Car Pool Lane (9.1) – Larry Picks Up A Prostitute

In season 4’s “The Car Pool Lane,” while Larry is on the way to a baseball game and fearing he’ll miss the start, he picks up a prostitute named Monena so that he can use the carpool lane and get to the stadium faster. Along the way, they bicker about prices.

Kym Whitley gives a hilarious guest performance as Monena, and on top of that, the episode helped to prove a man’s innocence in a murder trial as his presence at the baseball game in the show’s dailies gave him an alibi.

7 Elizabeth, Margaret, And Larry (9.2) – Jon Hamm Impersonates Larry

Although season 10’s “Elizabeth, Margaret, and Larry” has a great A-plot involving Larry hooking up with Cheryl’s sister, Becky, it also has a bunch of hilarious B-plots, like Leon’s “Gotta Go” app.

Jon Hamm begins shadowing Larry in order to figure out his mannerisms for an upcoming Larry David-type role. By the end of the episode, Cheryl declares that Hamm has become Larry. The funniest example of this is when Larry and Hamm both get kicked out of a dinner party.

6 The Accidental Text On Purpose (9.2) – Larry Explains The Text Gambit

When Jeff, Richard, and Funkhouser are all having problems with their other halves in season 9’s “The Accidental Text on Purpose,” Larry suggests the titular gambit as a catch-all solution: send them a text under the guise that it was meant for someone else, exposing fake selflessness.

While Richard and Funkhouser’s girlfriends both fall for it and Larry starts to tally up some victories for once, Susie sees through it immediately. She even knows to call it an “accidental text on purpose.”

5 Seinfeld (9.2) – Larry Plays George Costanza

In the season 7 finale, the Seinfeld reunion is closing in on its production. However, Larry becomes jealous of Cheryl getting close to Jason Alexander during rehearsals and suggests wild deviations to the script that will keep them apart. This causes Alexander to quit, which makes the rest of the cast think it’s time to call off the whole thing.

Larry tries to salvage the show by offering to play George himself. Seeing Larry David play the character that was based on him — unsuccessfully at that — was a delight for Curb and Seinfeld fans alike.

4 The Ski Lift (9.2) – Larry Poses As An Orthodox Jew

When Richard Lewis needs a new kidney and Larry doesn’t want to give up one of his own, he decides to schmooze the head of the consortium, Mr. Heineman, to get Lewis bumped up the transplant list. He has an in when he finds out Heineman is an Orthodox Jew.

So, he crashes into Mr. Heineman’s car to arrange a meeting, then poses as an Orthodox Jew in order to become friends with him and plant the seed for Lewis’ kidney transplant.

3 Happy New Year (9.3) – Larry Wears A Make America Great Again Hat

Early in 2020, Curb came back in style with a season 10 premiere that expertly set up another great run of episodes. After bumping into Phil Rosenthal at a party, Larry is roped into a lunch he really doesn’t want to go to.

After Jeff tells him about a friend he saw wearing a Make America Great Again hat, a light bulb goes off in Larry’s head. Phil calls off their lunch the second he sees the hat on Larry’s head and Larry continues wearing it to alienate people throughout the episode.

2 Palestinian Chicken (9.3) – Larry Is Torn Between Two Protests

In season 8’s “Palestinian Chicken,” a Palestinian chicken restaurant opens up in L.A. and, despite having moral objections due to being Jewish, Larry and Jeff become regular customers. Larry begins dating one of the waitresses, who gets off on their geopolitically star-crossed differences.

In the final moments of the episode, Jewish protesters outside a deli are condemning a new Palestinian chicken franchise opening next door, while Palestinians protest them back. Larry is caught in the middle, torn between his lover and his friends.

1 The Doll (9.4) – “There’s Something Hard In His Pants!”

Widely regarded to be Curb’s best episode, season 2’s “The Doll” spends its half-hour runtime leading up to a painfully cringeworthy ending. Larry cuts the hair of a little girl’s doll, then has to replace it when the girl is devastated to discover that the hair won’t grow back. After finally settling all his conflicts with the girl, her parents, and Susie (after stealing Sammy’s doll to replace the other one), Larry attends a screening and bumps into the girl in the bathroom.

She gives him a hug to thank him for replacing the doll, then recoils in horror as she feels the water bottle in his pocket. She flees from the bathroom and cries out, “Mommy, Mommy, that bald man’s in the bathroom and there’s something hard in his pants!” Larry promptly heads for the bathroom window to make a quick getaway.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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