Image via Complex Original
This week marks both the 18th anniversary of Curb Your Enthusiasm's HBO debut and the 19th anniversary of the standup special that set it all in motion. To be honest, though, we don't need a tenuous peg to have a reason to celebrate LD the GOAT and his top ten all-time, infinitely influential sitcom around here.
Curb's impact is so casual, I think we sometimes forget just how much of its vocabulary has proliferated contemporary culture, to say nothing of how many social behaviors and practices it gave sticky catchphrase life to. Granted, the last one or two seasons of the show are slightly hindered by Larry and his co-writers' own self-awareness and subsequent forced attempts to add new additions to the oeuvre (word to "the accidental text on purpose"). Still, from the everyday practices LD made a glossary for to the terms that have no real practicality outside of the show but are still hilarious nonetheless ("You Bucknered it!"), the Curb universe is one rich with references you probably don't even remember fully.
To that end, for no better reason than loving the show, missing the show (season 10 where you at??), and having it on a loop all day in the office last week, Complex presents: The Complete Curb Your Enthusiasm Encyclopedia.
Accidental Text On Purpose — otherwise known as, "a bullshit text."
Alanis Morrissette — Larry David, the only person who knows who "You Oughta Know" is about, from the woman herself...a secret he managed to keep for all of 12 hours.
Antoinette — Larry's beleaguered assistant for eight out of nine seasons.
Assasin, Social — someone's gotta do the hard job of shamelessly calling it how it is, and in season eight, Curb's thesis statement as finally given a title. Larry David, the selfless John Wick of social behaviorism.
Bam Bam — Funkhouser's crazy sister.
Beloved C*nt — the typo to end all typos. Also see O, obituary.
Ben Stiller — the would-be Producers co-star who nearly lost an eye in the struggle that is working with, nay, simply knowing, Larry David.
Birthday Cutoff — "Are you so desperate for a party that you have to have a party two weeks after? Wait til next year, you missed it!"
Black Family — Larry and Cheryl opened up their homes and their hearts, and the result? One of the series best arcs.
Bucknered — when one quite literally drops the ball, but thankfully, not the baby.
Chat n’ cut — because reasonably moving to the back of the line is for suckers.
Chet — R.I.P. Chet, but his taste in shirts lives on.
Cheryl — The beleaguered Mrs. David, for six seasons longer than most mortal humans would've in her situation.
Danny Duberstein — The Artist Formerly Known as Leon
David Schwimmer — When The Producers loses a Stiller, it gains a Friend.
Denise Handicap — top five Larry love interest.
Diamond Lane — the blessed plot device which paved the way for Larry taking a hooker to a Dodgers game.
Entourage — remember when Larry David bumped into Ari and Drama in the HBO offices? No? Well, it happened.
Ejaculate — of which Leon's botched pronunciation immediately declared J.B. Smoove as the series MVP.
Elizabeth Perkins — as Funkhouser's new girlfriend. Just don't insult her water.
Fatwa — as far as Larry and Curb are concerned, a death sentence; a short-lived Larry David vanity musical project.
Fatwa sex — an unexpected benefit of being a dead man walking.
Foisted — the art of dumping horribly incompetent employees onto an unsuspecting dupe while seeming like a good friend.
“Four-eyed-f*ck” — Susie's beloved nickname for LD.
Freak Book — the most hilarious read, apparently.
Funkhouser — arguably the GOAT among Larry's BFFs.
[Porno] Gil — Before he was Saul, Bob Odenkirk guested as the dinner host from hell in one of the series' most underrated episodes.
Graham, Lauren — losing Cheryl is worth it if it means Larry keeps casting national treasures like Ms. Graham for extended relationship arcs.
Greg — the swastika-loving, seven-year-old fashion ("the fashion!") icon.
Groats Disease — R.I.P Danny Duberstein and prayers up Michael Richards.
Guides — even the Almighties couldn't muster up enough patience to deal with Larry, giving him a new lease on life after spending just a few minutes in Heaven with him.
Haboos — the quintessential blind date.
Haskell Access — the benchmark by which we measure if a house-guest has earned upstairs privileges, as determined by Leave It to Beaver's Eddie Haskell.
HBO — in-show, the network where Larry is no longer welcome, all over a few missing shrimp.
Ida Funkhouser Roadside Memorial — the twice disrespected site honoring Marty's late mother; quietly one of the funniest episodes of the series.
Injury [neck] — "There are only two ways you can injure your neck. One is a car accident, the other is...cunnilingus."
Jason Alexander — famous for playing a LD facsimile on Seinfeld; fictional LD's nemesis on Curb.
Jeff Greene/Garlin — a true ride or die. No Jeff, no show.
Jerry Seinfeld — season seven is proof that whenever these guys wanna do a Seinfeld reunion for real, we'll be here for it.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus — the Seinfeld alum with the most Curb appearances, she's been killing it since season 1's "The Wire."
Kenny Funkhouser — three seasons after Larry desecrated Marty's mother's memorial, he set off a chain of events that ruined his nephew's baseball career, got him involved with a prostitute, and subsequently, killed. Dark.
Kidney — Lewis needed one, Larry was a match and after a half-season of failed schemes, he agreed to give his up. And died for it, for five whole minutes. (See G, Guides).
Krazee-Eyez Killa — GOAT episode, GOAT supporting character. Snap, crackle, pop.
Lampin — not to be confused with chillin, which is relaxing upright.
Larry David Sandwich — whitefish, sable, capers, onions & cheese. Not as appetizing as the Ted Danson.
Leon — hard to believe we went five whole seasons without this man leading Larry astray.
Lin-Manuel Miranda — an aggrieved Larry David co-star like Schwimmer and Stiller before him, only less funny.
Long-Ball Larry — medically speaking, "they're a bit more distended than the average testicles."
Lucy Lawless — the first evidence that Life After Cheryl would be an adventure of equal improbable wins and inevitable losses.
Medium Talk — the sophisticated conversationalist's elevation of Small Talk.
Mel Brooks — only a man trying to tank his play would cast Larry as the lead.
Michael J. Fox — Parkinson's sufferer or conniving, vindictive upstairs neighbor? Both? Both.
Mister Softee — a New York City staple, and the root cause of many of Larry's neuroses.
Nat — season five left it up for debate before ultimately settling it: Larry isn't adopted, Nat David is indeed, his dad.
New York — season eight shifts to the Big Apple for a change of pace, and it worked: some of the series' best episodes are in eight's NYC-set back half.
Non-recommend recommend — when you refer an acquaintance just to say you did, while subtly communicating that you don't actually believe in their skills.
Obituary — long live Jeff's beloved aunt, not to be confused with... (See B, Beloved C*nt)
Oscar (The Corpse-Sniffing-Dog) — the Greene family dog who had a whole prior career no one knew about until it was too late.
Omar Jones — the bowtie-wearing private eye, played by the one-and-only Mekhi Phifer.
Palestinian Chicken — too damn good to let something like Jewish loyalty get in the way.
Pants Tent — that awkward elevated flap that can easily be misconstrued for um, arousal, when a man sits is where it all began.
Periscope — before Waze, there was the Car Periscope.
Pretty good — pretty, pretty, pretty, prettttttay, prettay good.
Producers, The — starring Larry David and David Schwimmer, so bad it's good.
Reminder Beep — a subtle way of telling the driver in front of you, the light's green, time to go. Can be misconstrued as an Aggressive Beep in Teslas.
Reset button — like restoring your iPhone but for relationships, to conveniently erase all that complicated history and medium talk.
Richard Lewis — Larry's oldest friend of 47 years, a relationship so deep he can ask for a kidney and eventually get it.
Rosie O’Donnell — recurring LD nemesis, ready for war whether it be over check-paying-privileges or a bi-sexual.
Rushdie, Salmon — the OG Fatwa badass.
Sample Abuser — hint: if you ask to try a taste of the banana ice cream, it probably tastes like...banana!
Seinfeld — the past success by which present Larry is measured, and probably the closest we'll get to a true reunion-revival.
Scorsese, Martin — acclaimed director who, for some bemusing reason, cast TV Larry in his next opus (and not in a Mel Brooks self-sabotage way).
Shit-bow — the disrespectful version of a Japanese bow.
Ski Lift — the episode where Larry and Jeff had to pretend to be married to each other's wives, edible panties were a plot point, and Larry drove a woman to leap twenty-odd feet just to get away from him. Which is to say, a classic.
Sorry Window, The — the statue of limitations on expressing "sorry to hear that" condolences.
Stop n Chat — if you don't know Larry well enough, don't expect more than a cruising hello.
Susie — the profane goddess striking fear into emasculated husbands across the globe.
Ted Danson — television's favorite leading sitcom male is TV Larry's archnemesis.
TiVo — the unexpected (next-to) last straw in the Cheryl-Larry marital union.
Upstreaming — the act of abandoning any sense of cab tact by hailing from an earlier corner, a problem New Yorkers know all too well even post-Uber.
Virgin Mary — Larry getting flirty with the Virgin Mother turned a nice gesture of Christianity-embracing for Cheryl's family into a Christmas brawl with the holy family.
Vivica A. Fox — as Loretta Black, Leon's cousin and Larry's short-lived Cheryl rebound.
"Vow of Silence" — the episode that gave us "Chat n Cut," the best commercial Pinkberry never commissioned, and Larry being chased out of L.A.
Wanda Sykes — Cheryl's friend, Larry's foil and Krazee Eyez' one-time fiancé.
Wandering Bear — the Native American landscaper who's also a wizard with numb vagina advice.
Weatherman — the meteorologist Larry suspects of misreporting bad weather just so he can have the golf course to himself, and to add insult to injury, he has a special golf tip he shares with Funkhouser but forbids him from sharing with Larry.
Wendy Wheelchair — another disabled LD paramour (see: D, Denise Handicap)
Wizards of Waverly Place — the Disney channel teen sitcom that birthed Selena Gomez which Larry is forced to pretend to give a fuck about thanks to his annoying text message correspondence with a chatty nine-year-old.
Wood — no coaster, no respect.
Yenta — Yiddish slang for a gossiper, attributed to Ted Danson by LD, appropriated by Cam'ron for rap tough talk.