# Is my sister insulting me?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 4, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716 "2008-12-04T19:22:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/1 "2008-12-04T19:22:58Z")
Every so often over the last couple of years my sister will tell me I remind her of Larry David from/in Curb your Enthusiasm, the most recent being last night. I’m only familiar with Curb your Enthusiasm in passing I’ve never watched it, and I know Larry David was involved in Seinfeld. Every picture I’ve seen suggests an unsmiling humorless person, but that doesn’t go with the buzz of this being a funny show. It’s also not how I see myself. So tell me, should I be insulted? Was it a compliment?
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### Author:  [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/2 "2008-12-04T19:29:28Z")
If it were me, I’d take it as an insult. Larry David (the character) is a bumbling misanthropic asshole with the social graces of a hyena and the intelligence of a lump of play-doh.
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### Author:  [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/3 "2008-12-04T19:37:00Z")
I’d take it as an insult.
One episode I vaguely remember from Curb was something about him holding the door for someone at the doctor’s office, then she signed in before him and therefore he had to wait. Yeah that’s shitty that the lady didn’t let him sign in first because he was there first and held the door, but he went totally psycho apeshit and made a huge deal about it for the whole episode.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/4 "2008-12-04T19:37:28Z")
It is an insult… sort of. But I’ve told other people they remind me of him and it wasn’t meant in a cruel way. Sometimes it’s the way he talks, makes inappropriate (but funny) remarks, or even just finds himself in unlucky scrapes where everyone’s against him. Occasionally obnoxious but, to me, ultimately lovable.
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### Author:  [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/5 "2008-12-04T19:39:04Z")
It’s not all that bad. Larry David’s character (or he himself?) is a nice but stubborn man who is his own person and doesn’t bow to society’s conventions. He’s a little crude sometimes and holds a grudge. He also seems to have worse than usual luck.
So your sis may just mean you speak your mind and wind up in bad situations.
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### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/6 "2008-12-04T19:39:26Z")
Larry David’s character has little to recommend him. I hate that show just as I hate Seinfeld. I don’t find people being assholes for no particular reason over something entirely insignificant to be compelling characters.
So ya, mark me down for insult.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/7 "2008-12-04T19:41:43Z")
It depends on what aspect of him he means. My boss calls me Radar O’Reilly, but not because I am innocent or naive or a bumblefuck like he was, but because I have this uncanny ability to anticipate things she wants/needs and have them a moment before she asks for them.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/8 "2008-12-04T19:45:43Z")
Larry David’s _Curb_ character is an asshole in small ways, but not really in big ways, and he’s a victim of assholish behavior as often as he’s an instigator. His comedy is really ABOUT the small ways in which ordinary people are selfish, petty and obsessive in their everyday lives.
George Costanza was based on Larry David, if that’s a helpful descriptor (though David’s character on _Curb_ is not as broad as George was on _Seinfeld_).
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/9 "2008-12-04T20:00:14Z")
You should disown her.
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### Author:  [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/10 "2008-12-04T20:12:27Z")
Wow, I can’t tell if you’ve been helpful or not. I guess I’ll have to watch the show. I will admit that if pressed I would say I can be both stubborn and an ass at times. Of course she said this last night after laughing about something I said. So maybe it’s the inappropriate comments thing.
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### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/11 "2008-12-04T20:28:41Z")
You got long balls or something?
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### Author:  [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/12 "2008-12-04T20:49:27Z")
My Dad once said I reminded him of George Costanza. I don’t think he meant it as an insult, but I told him I didn’t see any way the comparison could be flattering. He didn’t do it again.
More recently, I was sitting with some friends in front of the local coffee shop. I’m quite overweight, and on this occasion I was wearing a red baseball cap. A woman I’d met before but who was better acquainted with my friends walked up and said, “You look like Newman!” She seemed innocent of any negative connotations of her remark, but my friends gave her shit anyway.
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### Author:  [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/13 "2008-12-04T20:52:53Z")
I think it’s a grievance which you should air at Festivus.
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### Author:  [@mshar253](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mshar253)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/14 "2008-12-04T20:56:00Z")
Pretty good insult. Pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty good.
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### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/15 "2008-12-04T21:25:59Z")
> [@zagloba](#):
>
> My Dad once said I reminded him of George Costanza. I don’t think he meant it as an insult, but I told him I didn’t see any way the comparison could be flattering. He didn’t do it again.
Please tell me you took advantage of the opportunity to tell him that would make him Frank Costanza. Because that’s clearly the only reply possible to such a statement.
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/16 "2008-12-04T21:57:48Z")
I’m surprised Larry David is so hated here. I think he’s great. He sticks up for himself. Sure the extent to which he does it is usually comically over the top in his show, but… it is a **show** , after all. Sometimes he takes things to extremes which would make anyone cringe in reality, but the basic premise that he’s not ashamed of his selfish human nature I am totally down with.
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### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/17 "2008-12-04T22:10:49Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#):
>
> I’m surprised Larry David is so hated here. I think he’s great. He sticks up for himself. Sure the extent to which he does it is usually comically over the top in his show, but… it is a **show** , after all. Sometimes he takes things to extremes which would make anyone cringe in reality, but the basic premise that he’s not ashamed of his selfish human nature I am totally down with.
I think the show is terribly painful and not funny at all. The exaggerated overreaction aspect of it takes minor BS and turns it into a huge deal, and that is the entire premise of the show. Making something out of nothing.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/18 "2008-12-04T22:14:05Z")
> [@mswas](#):
>
> I think the show is terribly painful and not funny at all. The exaggerated overreaction aspect of it takes minor BS and turns it into a huge deal, and that is the entire premise of the show. Making something out of nothing.
As opposed to a show\* about nothing\*…
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/19 "2008-12-04T22:17:04Z")
> [@mswas](#):
>
> … that is the entire premise of the show. Making something out of nothing.
That’s kinda the premise of the universe.
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### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-sister-insulting-me/475716/20 "2008-12-04T23:34:10Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#):
>
> That’s kinda the premise of the universe.
I feel sorry for you then.
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