Maybe just to express something contrary to what everyone else is? For example, House threads are pretty much a lovefest, but people have disagreed or liked/disliked certain episodes. So long as the thread doesn’t devolve into a “Why Thing X Does/Not Suck”, I think it’s fair game.
My purpose in reading this thread was to find out more about when the hyped Seinfeld cast thing was finally going to happen. Yes, I will at times watch a show I don’t like when someone of interest is to appear.
My posting was a response to a question intended to give a quite well known and accurate view to someone who has never watched the show as to what to expect. Some people don’t like this show. When someone asks about it, some of us are going to respond.
Mrs. FtG was recently visiting her brother when she was shanghaied into watching a “wonderful show” that her brother and sister-in-law loved. It was CYE. It was her first time ever seeing the show. Guess what her reaction was? It was the same crappy thing over and over with people who were struggling to think up what to say next.
Dialog is essentially what TV show writing boils down to. Anyone can think of premises. It takes someone with talent to do the hard part. David can’t.
I gave up on this show early on. The key scene was one with Rob Reiner at a “Sea World” type place. Once you realize what is going on (and on and on), you can’t ignore the show’s obvious problems.
I could list dozens of shows that won many awards that are widely regarded as second rate. I’d start with “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Will and Grace”. What I especially like about the former is that all the principals won Emmys except Peter Boyle. Who was the only great actor among them.
Agreed, to a point. But there’s a difference between saying, “this show sucks and you are idiots for liking it” and “I don’t care for it, and here’s why.”
I felt that ftg’s first post fell into the former category, while Roadfood’s assessment, though negative, was in the latter, as was ftg’s subsequent post.
So maybe I was a bit harsh at first. Sorry. CYE is one of my favorite shows, and I got defensive.
I felt the same way since he called the show a case of an emperor with no clothes. That implies that the show’s audience are idiots for not seeing how stupid the show is. I don’t mind ftg criticizing the show, I just mind that he’s doing it from his high horse.
Can’t we all get along? We should all just agree that the worst hyped show on TV is clearly Lost.
Back to Curb.
For the same reason that that people give one-star reviews on Amazon to counter all the adulation given for badly written books like The Da Vinci Code.
Wow, if that’s your honest reaction, I suspect you haven’t encountered many differing opinions.
Seriously, why on Earth would it be so difficult for you to grasp that something you find extremely funny, someone else might not like at all? I have watched a LOT of TV in my long lifetime, way, way too much TV, honestly. I grew up on “Leave it to Beaver” and “Sea Hunt”. I was around for the premieres of such truly great shows as “Mary Tyler Moore” and the original “Bob Newhart Show”.
Seriously? That clamshell bit made you laugh? That makes me wonder if you’ve watched much TV. That clamshell thing was just tedious in the extreme, completely not funny. Bits like that (struggling to open something) have been done thousands of times in the history of TV, and that one was just the rock bottom in terms of humor. The guy was just dumb; hey, I’ll pull on this really hard plastic for a few minutes, then take a knife and completely ineffectually stab at it for an hour or two, then throw it down in disgust and stomp on it. There’s nothing funny in that, it’s literally just watching someone who is so stupid that it’s painful. I know that lots of people struggle to open those things (I’ve done my share), but to mine humor from real-life tribulations, there has to be some semblance of reality to it to start with, then exaggerated in a way that’s funny. There was nothing real-life in how amazingly stupid that guy’s attempts were. I just saw someone too stupid to be allowed to cross the street by himself.
By whatever time this came, I had deleted it from my TiVo. After the interminable and unfunny struggle with the GPS case, I saw some fakey Dr. Phil bit, what was apparently some nefarious attempt to get a woman with cancer to see some doctor, some dude playing pool in the guy’s house telling him to call some Seinfeld fan, and then the actual call in the car. Nothing, but absolutely nothing got so much as a tiny chuckle out of me.
Seriously, are you using hyperbole to make your point? I think you could turn on the TV to pretty much any station this instant and find shows exponentially worse than Curb.
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No, I was not using hyperbole. I would rather watch “My Mother the Car” than another minute of that show. Honestly, I’m not kidding about that. I’d rather watch full episodes of “The Brady Bunch”, “I Dream of Jeannie”, “Hello, Larry” . . . ANYTHING before another minute of that torture-fest.
Yes, I know, I didn’t give it enough time. Watch more episodes, it’ll grow on me. Sorry, that’s not the way it works. I’ve lived long enough to know what my tastes are, and I’ve seen enough TV and movies to be able to make reliable judgments (for myself, mind you) in a short period of time. Besides, there is so much in the world of entertainment out there, too much to ever be able to see. Why would it possibly be worth my time to “learn” to like something when that just means I’d have to miss something else that I’ll like from the beginning?
My Mother The Car is awesome.
I thought the clamshell part was hilarious. And the payoff at the end was great. My opinion is this is one of the best shows currently on TV, miles above the usual sitcom dreck found on the networks and basic cable.
Whoa. I finally watched this episode on HBO On Demand, and feel like I’ve wandered into an alternate universe where Hello Larry and My Mother the Car are considered superior TV to CYE. To each his own, I guess. 
I think the show is nothing less than brilliant; have been waiting for this season and haven’t been disappointed with the first two episodes.
I wonder if there exists a CYE drinking game . . .
*drink when Larry has a run-in with a service worker
*stand on your head and drink when Cheryl takes somebody’s side against Larry
*drink when someone misunderstands Larry
*two sips if Larry has a bathroom issue
*chug when a celebrity playing him/herself acts like a douche.
*etc.
My husband and I have a running discussion about who is the greatest secondary character. He says it’s Funkhauser. I say it’s Susie Green. I fucking love her.
Both fine responses, but I’m sorry, the correct answer is Leon Black.
“You need to get up in his ass, Larry! Just pull it apart and get up in his motherfuckin ass!”
“Get up in his ass?”
“Get IN his ass and just fucking live there. Eat Snickers and shit.”
Paraphrased, but the “Eat Snickers” bit (and then when Larry repeats it back!) is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.
Leon: Spray paint “Larry was here.” “Wash me,” and shit. Eat Snickers. Throw paper on the floor. Fuck his whole asshole up…when you leave, leave the door wide open. Let him know you been there.
Larry: Eat snickers?
I saw an interview with J.B. Smoove where he said he was talking to HBO about a possible Leon Black spinoff show. That could be great.
Long balls. Long motherfuckin’ balls, bitch.
That’s not hard to grasp at all. Saying it’s the unfunniest thing you’ve ever seen, however, is.
I never said that, and I don’t much care if you or anyone else likes the show, or dislikes it. (Not being snarky, but I don’t like TV/music/movie evangelism.) But there’s so much bad television out there, I just have a really hard time believing that you have never seen something less funny than Curb. To each his or her own, I guess. I mean, did you ever watch Arli$$?
Re: the funniest secondary character… none of you are wrong. Leon, Susie, Marty, are all great choices. You have to include Wanda, of course.
What about the all-time greatest one-off character? For me, it’s Krazy-Eye Killa.
“Are you my Caucasian?”
He was absolutely the best. Catherine O’Hara’s Bam Bam on this year’s opener was outstanding too.
Re: Leon – I wonder if he will have some choice words for Michael Richards. I do hope they have a scene or two together. I hope Leon lets loose on him.