Larry David's humor is often dismissed as cynical or nihilistic. Even those who follow and enjoy it call it that, and I wouldn't put my hand in the fire for David himself, who, flirtatious as he is, may also come across as a cynic and a nihilist. He has said much worse things about himself. I, on the other hand, have always considered it very humanistic, in the best literary and intellectual tradition of the West, which comes to us in Spain through Cervantes and Goya, the one written in prison, in exile or in the tavern and it is never put on a pulpit .
This hooligan humor may seem insensitive in these moral times, but one would have to be very blind not to see the tenderness it hides. Larry David gave me countless laughs with a guilty conscience, but also a lot of light. He did it in Seinfeld, so full of poetry about the monstrous, and he did it for nearly twenty years in Curb Your Enthusiasm, where goodness and grace were embodied in Richard Lewis, who died this week.
I was saddened by the death of Lewis, whose physical decline the series documented. In the final chapters of this final season (actually the last one), he doesn't even appear standing. He improvises his text while sitting and does not have to walk or gesture in order to fulfill his role as a prudent and loyal friend who forgives the incorrigible David in advance for all his impurities. I think most of us fans of the series adored him and identified with him.
The friend dies and Larry David's autobiographical series (or whatever it was) ends, and I feel like with them a way of laughing and being in the world dies. I'm probably exaggerating. The Demon of Premature Nostalgia is writing this column for me – but I'll charge for it: I learned from Larry David; Even if the work is done for you by someone else, the invoice will always be in your name – although sometimes you have to agree. Neither Trump nor Putin are amused by jokes about Jewish hooligans. This radical humanism, based on the joy of existing as a human being even when the body itches, aches, gets sick and dies, will soon be swept away by anti-humanists, those who believe in paradises. We still have a few episodes of Larry David left before the curtain falls. Let's enjoy them.
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