In Curb Your Enthusiasm Larry David routinely says the wrong thing and gets himself into scrapes. But the line between the real and fictionalised versions of his persona seem to be increasingly blurred.
Hosting an episode of popular US TV show Saturday Night Live this weekend, the Seinfeld co-creator peppered his opening monologue with off-colour remarks about the preponderance of Jewish offenders among the perpetrators of the Hollywood sex abuse scandal and, for good measure, finished off with a Holocaust gag.
Addressing the Weinstein case, David said: "I couldn't help but notice a very disturbing pattern emerging, which is that many of the predators — not all, but many of them — are Jews."
Moving onto a more general point about the increasing complexity of flirting with women in a more sensitive age, he said "If I'd grown up in Poland when Hitler came to power and was sent to a concentration camp, would I still be checking out women in the camp?"
"I think I would - the problem is, there are no good opening lines in a concentration camp."
Speculating on how a concentration camp chat-up line might work he said “'How's it going? They treating you OK?'"
"'You know, if we ever get out of here, I'd love to take you out for some latkes. You like latkes?'"
The response to his jokes has been very strongly negative
#ReallyMakesMeCringe when we have people denying the holocaust & Larry David opens the door for them to think it's fine to joke about it. pic.twitter.com/w8SFjpieTa
— Red T Raccoon (@RedTRaccoon) November 5, 2017
#SNL I can't believe they did jokes about a concentration camp I just can't believe what I just saw #LarryDavid it will never be okay to do
— BuffaloBella (@BuffaloBella) November 5, 2017
Larry David went from making me laugh about his Jew jokes to making me cringe. #PleaseStopJokingAboutConcentrationCamps #SNL #LarryDavid
— David Solkowitz (@itz_Daveed) November 5, 2017
Jokes Re: checking out women in a concentration camp. If there was ever a scenario where, “too soon” is forever... #snl #LarryDavid
— Beth Miller (@bethtweet) November 5, 2017
Although other commenters have been more forgiving:
If Larry David isn't allowed to make holocaust jokes then what is the point of comedy or being Jewish
— Kath Barbadoro (@kathbarbadoro) November 5, 2017
What’s your take? Let us know on our Facebook page.
