Larry David: The Unlikely Defender of Civilization

I’m Alexandra Hudson, author of The Soul of Civility and founder of Civic Renaissance, a movement to renew our culture through beauty, wisdom, and civility. Here, we take part in the Great Conversation—the ongoing dialogue among seekers across time and place about what it means to live well, to belong, and to flourish together. Civic Renaissance exists to help us remember what is most worth loving—beauty, goodness, and truth—and to live those truths in the work of restoring civility, meaning, and grace in our daily lives.

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Gracious reader,

In my book The Soul of Civility, I make what might sound like an outrageous claim: Larry David is the foremost defender of civilization today.

Why? Because Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld, creator and star of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and everyone’s favorite curmudgeon, is the living embodiment of our collective moral conscience—our inner ego and id in dialogue. He says the things we would never dare say, confronts the petty selfishness we usually let slide, and holds a mirror to the quiet hypocrisies of everyday life. We laugh at him, cringe with him, and—if we’re honest—admire him for saying aloud what we only think.

Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO, 2000–2024) is built on a deceptively simple premise: Larry David plays a fictionalized version of himself navigating the absurdities of modern life. The show is almost entirely improvised. Each episode begins with a written outline—a social dilemma, a misunderstanding, a small breach of etiquette—and the actors build the dialogue naturally from there. The result is a masterclass in human behavior: conversational realism with the stakes of moral farce.

Larry’s character is forever calling out the inconsiderate freeloaders and oblivious rule-breakers who test the fragile boundaries of civility every day: the person who cuts in line, double-dips a chip, or overstays their welcome. Yet in defending these norms, he inevitably traps himself in the very webs of logic he spins—hoisted by his own petard, as Shakespeare would say. By the end of nearly every episode, Larry has exposed both the rudeness of others and his own blindness.

That’s why he’s a tragic-comic figure. Each moral victory becomes its own downfall. He teaches us by violating the very standards he tries to uphold. He reminds us—through laughter and discomfort—how much our daily lives depend on invisible moral architecture: respect, reciprocity, and restraint.

We often don’t notice those social norms until someone breaks them, and Larry David’s genius is to make that break hilarious. Curb is, in essence, a sustained study of how thin the fabric of civilization really is—and how much we rely on small acts of civility to keep it intact.

Sometimes, as I observe the human condition—the absurdities and contradictions of ordinary life—I catch myself thinking: that would make a perfect Larry David episode.

So, I’ve started keeping a list of them.

Little moments of friction and misunderstanding, moral confusion and everyday absurdity—scenes that could easily unfold in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, HBO claims there will be no more seasons of Curb, so these great vignettes may never get their 15 minutes of fame. (Although LD has said the show has been over before, only to change his mind!)

But I hope you’ll enjoy them nonetheless.

In the spirit of Larry’s tragicomic brilliance, I’ll share with you from time to time some of these silly vignettes here. I hope they will be entertaining and illuminating in equal measure.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: “The Complainer”

Created by Alexandra O. Hudson

INT. LARRY’S HOUSE – MORNING

Larry is pacing in the kitchen, phone pressed to his ear.

LARRY

Yeah, I ordered sparkling, you sent still. It’s a big difference!

(pause)

No, I opened it, because I thought maybe the bubbles were shy!

He hangs up, annoyed. Cheryl looks up from her coffee.

CHERYL

You know, you could just let it go.

LARRY

Let it go? You ever try letting something go? You know what happens? It comes back. It’s like a boomerang of incompetence.

INT. COFFEE SHOP – LATER

Larry meets Jeff.

JEFF

You ever hear of this new thing, “Complaindr”?

LARRY

Complaindr?

JEFF

Yeah, it’s like a start-up. You outsource your complaints. You tell them what happened, and they complain for you. Refunds, customer service calls, parking tickets, whatever.

LARRY (brightening)

So I can delegate my anger?

JEFF

Exactly.

LARRY

This could change lives.

INT. LARRY’S OFFICE – DAY

Larry’s on Zoom with two twenty-something founders, pale from too much screen time.

FOUNDER #1

We handle grievances big and small. Retail errors, public service disputes—

LARRY

What about people who don’t say “thank you” when you hold a door?

FOUNDER #2

That’s… more of a social issue.

LARRY

It’s a societal issue.

They nod nervously.

LARRY

I’m in.