Every time I see a trailer or teaser for Larry David’s upcoming “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness,” I feel more convinced that it may become my new favorite Larry David show of all time.
The official trailer for the historical sketch show, which is premiering on HBO Max on June 26, just dropped, and its full of David’s signature Jewish style of kvetching.
He’s with the Wright brothers (Jon Hamm and Sean Hayes), complaining about airline snacks. He’s with Isla Fisher, arguing about his butter churning skills. He’s with Susie Essman’s Susan B. Anthony, poo-poo-ing child labor rights. He’s in the trenches of WWI, meh-ing a fellow soldier’s sweetheart. He wants to include pie-sharing etiquette in the Declaration of Independence (“get your own damn piece of pie, Franklin,” is already shaping up to be one of my favorite TV lines of all time.)
In fact, one of the few skits in which he isn’t kvetchy is with Jerry Seinfeld. The two play Lewis and Clark, who are stoked about their solo man trip… I mean, expedition… and must pretend that it’s a real burden to be parted from their families to their wives. It’s a perfect Seinfeld/David reunion.
And because it’s a Larry David show, it can’t just feel Jewish; it has to have some explicit Jewish content, too. In the trailer, you see David with payes, playing an observant Jew, possibly a rabbi, saying, “what a pleasure it is to be part of such a historical occasion,” and well… we have zero good feelings about Jews being a part of any historical occasions depicted in the timeline of this show.
“Those who don’t know history are doomed to watch Larry David repeat it,” the trailer reads — and honestly, that doesn’t sound so bad to me!
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