“Curb Your Enthusiasm” — The Bat Mitzvah (Season Finale)
The second the Black child (not to be confused with “the black child”) said, “Where’d my gerbil go?” I think just about everyone watching Curb’s sixth season finale immediately said to themselves, I know where this is going. Luckily, by the time it got there (about halfway through the episode) we realized that it didn’t so much matter, other factors were all ready in play. While the episode (which ran about 40 minutes) couldn’t compete with season three’s sucker-punch of a finale (the restaurant opening) in terms of providing a perfectly themed exclamation point for the entire season, I still found it quite good. More after the jump…
There were several moments that made me laugh out loud this week, none a result of careful plotting, but simply in Larry’s reaction (or overreation) to the behavior of those around him. The first of these moments came when Larry’s secretary inexplicably spoke of the “tickle in his anus” while Larry conversed with a sitcom director wonderfully played by Michael McKean, to which he screamed “Shut the f— up!” It wasn’t much, and really isn’t even technically funny, but the way he exploded at her just floored me, half because it was unexpected and half because it was completely rational. I mean, who speaks of anal tickles aloud?
I suppose the other perfect moment was at the episode’s finale at Sammy’s Bat Mitzvah where Larry went on stage to say a few words. First he spoke about how he was there when Sammy was born and how it was a little gross, and then to defuse a rumor about him and a gerbil, adding, “I had a tickle in my anus.” I suppose a lot of one’s appreciation for this episode comes down to how funny you find that phrase to be. I suppose I fall into the category of people who find it to be just about the funniest phrase uttered in this the year of our lord 2007. It’s vulgar, and graphic, and has the word “tickle” and maybe, sadly, just a little relatable(?). It might not be enough to build an entire episode, but it comes close.
Now, the real capper for the season was that Larry gets with Loretta (Vivica A. Fox) at the end of the episode triggering a montage of Larry as an honorary member of the Blacks — and all that goes with it. It was pretty funny, but perhaps more interestingly puts the show in a great (and new) position plot-wise should they in fact do another season.
November 12th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
I watched it on demand (?) and only made it to the start of the bat mitzvah — that’s when the computer had to record Weeds.
No spoilers!