When you think of celebrities that young people are obsessed with, who comes to mind? If you’re aware of TikTok, it might be someone like Addison Rae, the smiley 21-year-old dancer whose sunny optimism and exhausting body contortions have made her a global star. You might also think of Lil Nas X, the less than PG rapper whose Satan-themed music videos have taken social media by storm.
Almost certainly you wouldn’t consider Larry David. But for millions of millennials, 74-year-old David, a man who is literally older than the NHS, has become a cult hero.
David is undeniably having a moment. As the star, writer and producer of the astronomically successful Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO’s longest-running comedy, now back on Sky Comedy) Larry has found himself reaching an entirely new audience, most of whom weren’t even alive when the show began. Millions around the world may know him as the co-creator of Seinfeld but now even more are recognising him as the misanthropic face of millennial ennui.
Memes of the curmudgeonly pensioner are rife across social media, rejoicing in his total disdain for other people, loud music, and even Alan Dershowitz.
Earlier this summer, David made headlines across the world for doing what many of us would never be brave enough to do, sit in the front row of New York Fashion Week with his fingers in his ears trying to take a phone call and looking miserable.
Perhaps it’s Larry’s sheer unfiltered contempt that makes him so relatable, as he behaves the way many of us would love to. Maybe it’s the shamelessness of resenting the fashion community while at the same time inspiring a sold-out Curb-inspired clothing line from achingly cool streetwear brand Kith. Or — and maybe this is stretching it here — we’re all so grumpy from an 18-month pandemic where we were forced to go without social events, that we’ve all simply become Larry David, constantly perturbed at any interruptions to our daily lives.
Whatever the cause, the celebration of Larry David’s angst seems to be part of a wider trend. As GQ wrote this week in a piece heralding the era of “Viral old Jews”: “Kvetching without fear and wearing clashing patterns is something any of us can do, regardless of our bar mitzvah status. It’s a lifestyle.”
And David is far from the only old Jewish man to reach new heights of viral fame this year. From octogenarian Senator Bernie Sanders, who broke the internet by simply wearing the same outfit you’ve seen a thousand old men wear to shul, to a renegade group of old Jewish New Yorkers who went viral after they took to the streets outside Katz’s Deli to protest pastrami prices, it seems like it’s cool to kvetch.
With the return of Curb to our screens and the launch of Seinfeld on Netflix, we may truly be entering an era where the grumpy elder stereotype has broken out of Jewish cultural circles and into the mainstream. And it almost appears entirely by accident. Larry David doesn’t have social media, doesn’t tweet about his upcoming shows, doesn’t make a fuss of the fact that the show that made him a multi-millionaire is now available to hundreds of millions more viewers.
Like so many older people, Sanders, David and the like seem to have something that many young people don’t see in their daily lives. The simple attitude, that often comes with age, of not giving a damn. It’s a welcome respite from the hustle-obsessed culture of those under 50, who have to always be thinking about their brand, their side-projects and whether a restaurant they’ve booked will look good enough on Instagram to share with their followers.
For my birthday last year, my friend bought me a bright pink stencilled print of Larry David’s face. It’s now proudly displayed on the walls of my bedroom. It’s listed on the Instagram store he bought it from as one of their top-sellers. While the idea of adorning my walls with an illustration of a stranger that could be my grandfather might appear strange, in the era of viral old Jews, it’s about saying you appreciate the lifestyle that they signify. A sense of rejecting platitudes, cutting through the guff and telling it exactly how it is. As Stephen King once said, “all that is old becomes new again”, well it seems in the case of Larry David “all that’s old and Jewish becomes cool again”.
