“Curb Your Enthusiasm” served up a symphony of social disaster over the course of 12 seasons and almost 24 years on HBO, wringing cackles and cringes from the misadventures of the serially inappropriate Larry David. David, playing a version of himself who could get away with saying and doing the kinds of things that would earn most people a punch in the nose, delighted in pushing past the conventional limits of TV comedy acceptance, at least in the show’s early years, when shock was more possible than it is today. In the wake of “Curb’s” April swan song, which found Larry in court defending himself against an era’s worth of aggrieved parties, we thought it might be a pretty, pretty, pretty good idea to tally some of the greatest moments and episodes of “Curb” awkwardness.
To get an insider perspective, we asked three writers on the series — Carol Leifer, Steve Leff and Nathaniel Stein — for their favorite encounters and scenarios of embarrassment and infamy. Leifer was tuned in to the David sensibility even before “Curb,” having worked as a writer and story editor on “Seinfeld” (created by David and Jerry Seinfeld). The first “Curb” episode she mentions is “The Doll” (Season 2, Episode 7), in which Larry gives a little girl’s doll a haircut, deals with a restroom that has no lock on the door and has to chug water nonstop under doctor’s orders.
Like all “Curb” episodes, this one culminates in a convergence of plotlines, as the girl.