Maureen Dowd at the New York Times did a FaceTime interview with Larry David, who is obviously riding out the quarantine in his Pacific Palisades home, with his 20-something daughter and his girlfriend. The quarantine has not disrupted Larry’s life that much – he’s always been a social-distancer, and he’s always been a misanthrope and curmudgeon. He chatted with Dowd about hoarding, politics, and the daily life in coronavirus lockdown. You can read the full piece here – the biggest headline here is that Larry David, who plays Bernie Sanders on SNL, thinks Sanders should drop out. Some highlights:
He’s not a hoarder: “Not a hoarder. In fact, in a few months, if I walk into someone’s house and stumble onto 50 rolls of toilet paper in a closet somewhere, I will end the friendship. It’s tantamount to being a horse thief in the Old West. I never could have lived in the Old West. I would have been completely paranoid about someone stealing my horse. No locks. You tie them to a post! How could you go into a saloon and enjoy yourself knowing your horse could get taken any moment? I would be so distracted. Constantly checking to see if he was still there.”
He’s always been a germaphobe: “This might be the only thing I’ve ever agreed with Trump about, we should put an end to the [hand]shake. You know, we might as well end intercourse while we’re at it. That’s always been a lot of trouble.”
Lunch in the time of corona: “The one positive thing to come out of this for me is the lunch decision, which in normal times takes me at least 15 minutes. Now there’s nothing to it. It’s turkey or tuna. There’s nothing else in the house.”
No more social life: “I will say that the lack of invitations, OK, that’s been fantastic. Yeah, that I love. You don’t have to make up any excuses.”
On Donald Trump: “You know, it’s an amazing thing. The man has not one redeeming quality. You could take some of the worst dictators in history and I’m sure that all of them, you could find one decent quality. Stalin could have had one decent quality, we don’t know!”
He’s been watching the Hillary Clinton documentary on Hulu. “I’m not the first person to say this, obviously, but you never got the feeling that you were really seeing her. There was a problem warming up to her. But you see her in this documentary and you love her.”
On Bernie Sanders: “I feel he should drop out. Because he’s too far behind. He can’t get the nomination. And I think, you know, it’s no time to fool around here. Everybody’s got to support Biden.”
He’s also reading Woody Allen’s memoir: “Yeah, it’s pretty great, it’s a fantastic book, so funny. You feel like you’re in the room with him and yeah, it’s just a great book and it’s hard to walk away after reading that book thinking that this guy did anything wrong.”
I was mildly curious if the Bros were attacking Larry David now, so I glanced at one or two Twitter threads to see if the bro-swarm was in full effect. They were definitely there and definitely arguing that Sanders should NOT drop out, but they managed to avoid personally attacking Larry David. Gee, I wonder why. It’s so weird! It’s almost as if the Bros just want to scream at women IN GENERAL.
As for the rest of it… if we survive this mess, I suspect that there will be pop-culture thinkpieces written about how 2020 is The Year of the Introvert, or the Year of the Misanthrope, or something like that. Trendspotting: being self-contained and able to amuse oneself for weeks on end is the new “knitting.”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Sigh. He was doing so well, talking about Trump, Hillary, Sanders, hoarding, lunch time…very funny and dead on. Then it’s ruined by his defense of Woody Allen.
I’m so effing angry about that part. I really loved Larry David but ffs. Men can’t help themselves, can they?
That’s pretty much on brand for Larry. Saying and doing things that piss other people off. Frankly, his comments are not surprising at all.
David is reading Allen’s bio and hasn’t finished it yet. I think his reference is too Allen’s professional career which he’s admired, I don’t believe he was referencing the allegations.
He says “it’s hard to walk away after reading that book thinking that this guy did anything wrong.”
I thought he was actually admitting that Woody was guilty. I.e. “He wrote this great book, its hard to fathom he’s also capable of these horrible things.” But obviously its hard to interpret without hearing him and without clarification. Thoughts?
Minx, I was coming to say the same thing. Great, great, and then ended on such a repulsive note. Ugh.
I don’t think he was admitting Woody Allen was guilty or not guilty. He said at the end it’s hard to believe he did anything wrong. Of course you’d get that feeling, Allen wrote the book and has maintained his innocence all along. Why would he give you any other feeling?
I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the fact that he’s not getting destroyed on socials is that he’s Bernie’s cousin. But being a wealthy white dude definitely helps.
I really enjoy Larry David. I don’t think it’s wrong that he found the book funny… but it IS definitely wrong that he continued on past that to say it’s hard to believe he did anything wrong. If you want to be one of those people who consume things regardless of the person behind them, that’s whatever. But as soon as you start piping up with a defense or helping them get a leg up, I think all the criticism is fair game.
I did not know he was Bernt’s cousin.
Well, what do you know.
I might like him a little less now.
Each of them appeared on different episodes of PBS’s Finding Your Roots. As part of their appearances, the show traced their family trees and did genetic testing and found they were distant cousins.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/entertainment/bernie-sanders-larry-david-discover-theyre-cousins/2017/10/05/e4f2b0a6-aa15-11e7-9a98-07140d2eed02_video.html
He’s Bernie’s cousin? Oh, wow! Maybe he can organize a family intervention and convince Sanders to drop out…but I don’t see that working cos Bernie is Bernie!!!
I think there’s going to be an onslaught of Introvert think pieces soon. I was talking to my sister, who is an introvert, about this. Our other sister is an extrovert and was demanding to know why introverts were posting stuff online all the time about how they were so introverted and “doesn’t that mean they aren’t introverted?” I don’t tweet so I do think that behavior is really attention-seeking but I don’t think it means people who are doing it aren’t introverts. My little sister said introvert/extrovert is all about where you get your energy from, and it take waaaay less energy to tweet than hang out with people in person.
Bernie shares in the responsibility for what we are stuck with now.
DROP. IT.
LET IT GO.
#BlueNoMatterWho
#SickAndTiredOfOldWhiteMen
Maureen Dowd is disgusting and contributed to Hillary’s loss in 2016.
Nice remarks about Woody.
This stinks of white New York City smug privilege.
Call me crankypants this morning.
Larry have a seat. Thanks.
When even your cousin thinks you should drop out its time to drop out.
I am not sure that Larry actually thinks Woody is innocent. Maybe? but couldn’t he also be just sort of saying “Gee, that was a great book, you’s never think a disgusting, rapist pedophile could write such a great book, yet here we are.” Maybe I am giving him too much benefit of the doubt?
I think you’re totally right. this is the exact impression I got, and I’m surprised other people aren’t noticing this as well. I’ll be upset if I’m wrong though.