Dark “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Episode Angers Catholic League

“The Bare Midriff,” Sunday’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode, employed some of the darkest humor ever witnessed on the series. While the HBO comedy typically pulls no punches, this past week’s edition featured an array Coen-esque moments–a character being brutally murdered with a tire iron, a character being deliberately run over by a car, an ominous attempted suicide and then a near-death experience resulting from a character’s thwarting of said suicide attempt.

But it was one scene in particular that has drawn the ire of a leading Catholic advocacy group. Having developed an intense urination “stream” due to medication, Larry David’s self-portrayed character accidentally splashed some urine onto a picture of Jesus that had been hanging above the toilet. The urine hit the portrait in the shape of a tear, and its naive, Christian owners mistook the “tear” as a miraculous call to action from God. A number of the aforementioned “dark” events were rooted in the Jesus picture storyline.

“Mention Larry David in a word association game and “Seinfeld” rolls off the lips. That show, which David created, wrote and produced, was brilliant. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is not. Indeed, last night’s episode demonstrates that David’s best years are behind him. He ought to quit while he’s ahead,” said Catholic League president Bill Donohue on the group’s website.

He added, “At one point in the show, David goes to the bathroom in a Catholic home and splatters urine on a picture of Jesus; he doesn’t clean it off. Then a Catholic woman goes to the bathroom, sees the picture and concludes that Jesus is crying. She then summons her equally stupid mother and the two of them fall to their knees in prayer. When David and Jerry Seinfeld (playing himself) are asked if they ever experienced a miracle, David answers, “every erection is a miracle.” That’s what passes for creativity these days…Was Larry David always this crude? Would he think it comedic if someone urinated on a picture of his mother? This might be fun to watch, but since HBO only likes to dump on Catholics (it was just a couple of weeks ago that Sarah Silverman insulted Catholics on “Real Time with Bill Maher”), and David is Jewish, we’ll never know.”

The release also called on Catholic League supporters to send email feedback to HBO Chairman Bill Nelson.

Fans of the show know that, in isolation, the urine scene was neither the show’s crudest gag nor its first bare knuckles attack on religion (a palette of material that includes shots at non-Christian religions, including David’s own Judaism). In the same spirit, HBO responded: “Anyone who follows Curb Your Enthusiasm knows that the show is full of parody and satire. Larry David makes fun of everyone, most especially himself. The humor is always playful and certainly never malicious.”