With its 12th and final season premiering Sunday, Feb. 4 at 10pm ET on HBO and Max, we’re finding it difficult to curb our enthusiasm for Curb Your Enthusiasm. Cut to Larry David looking befuddled. Cue the theme music.
One of HBO’s defining shows, Curb premiered with a one-hour special (Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm) in the fall of 1999, before the first season debuted a year later in 2000. Despite all of the changes to the culture over the past quarter century, Curb has remained consistently hilarious. That’s due in large part to the transgressive nature of David’s character, a self-absorbed TV writer and producer who has never found a social norm he won’t question, an axe he won’t grind, or a line of decency he won’t cross. The fact that Larry David – co-creator of Seinfeld – plays “Larry David” co-creator of Seinfeld has undoubtedly led to innumerable frustrations in David’s real life. But the show’s meta conceit was way ahead of the curve when it premiered, and everyone from Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen (who have recurring roles going all the way back to the second episode of the first season) to Martin Scorsese and Michael J. Fox have made appearances playing themselves on the show.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is also profoundly subversive. Assembling this list of the best episode from every season served as a vivid reminder of just how wrong (and therefore how hysterical) the show’s sense of humor can be. Being a family-friendly blog, we aren’t allowed to describe the plot of many of these episodes. But if you enjoy dark, cringey, uncomfortable humor, combined with exceptionally clever Seinfeld-esque plotting, and loose comic performances (famously, the episodes are outlined with story beats, but the most of the dialogue is improvised), Curb Your Enthusiasm is more than pretty, pretty good; it’s one of the best comedies ever made.
Check out our list of the best episode from the first 11 seasons of Curb below, and be sure to catch new episodes of Curb Sunday nights at 10pm ET on HBO and Max. Follow this link to add HBO and Max to your DISH account. Not a DISH subscriber? Follow this link to find the best offer and subscribe to DISH today!
Jump To:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
Season 11
Season 1
The season where…We’re introduced to Larry and the gang: His wife Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), his friend and manager Jeff (Jeff Garlin) and Jeff’s irascible wife Susie (Susie Essman), along with friends like Richard Lewis and Wanda Sykes who will have recurring roles.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “Beloved Aunt” – 8.7
Our pick: “Ted and Mary”
What happens: This episode introduces Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, and quickly establishes the frenemy dynamic that will continue for the entire series. We’re picking this as the top episode for that reason because, like basically every sitcom that has run for more than five seasons, the show hadn’t quite landed on its sense of humor, making its first season easily the worst.
Season 2
The season where…Larry attempts to launch a new project with Jason Alexander (and later Julia Louis-Dreyfus) about an actor who finds it difficult to find projects following the massive success of their previous sitcom. It does not go well.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “The Doll” – 9.2 (Tied for highest-rated episode overall)
Our pick: “The Doll”
What happens: On a recent podcast with Bill Simmons, David cited this episode as one of his favorites, and IMDB users apparently agree. So do we. It has all of the Curb hallmarks: Larry alienating others with his selfishness, a grave social mistake compounded by an ill-conceived quick fix, and a closing joke centered on a misunderstanding around a major social taboo. This is the episode where Curb becomes Curb.
Season 3
The season where…Larry and his celebrity friends attempt to open a new restaurant.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “The Grand Opening” – 9.0
Our pick: “The Grand Opening”
What happens: If you break down Curb scores by season on IMDB, the top-rated episodes are often the premiere or the finale. That’s probably due to the set-up and payoff of the season-long story arcs that Curb begins to incorporate beginning with its third season, in which Larry teams up with Ted Danson, Michael York and others to open a new restaurant. In the “The Grand Opening,” the season climaxes with Larry accidentally breaking a food critic’s thumbs and a chef who suffers from Tourette’s syndrome. In more ways than one, Curb is now cooking.
Season 4
The season where…Mel Brooks recruits Larry and Ben Stiller (and later David Schwimmer) to star in a revival of The Producers.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “The Car Pool Lane” – 9.1
Our pick: “The Car Pool Lane”
What happens: With apologies to “The Weatherman,” this episode – which gets its title from Larry hiring a prostitute just so he can access the HOV lane and make it to a Dodgers game on time – is one of the most consequential in the show’s history. That’s not only due to the hilariousness of the episode itself, but the fact that the footage shot at Dodgers stadium was later used to exonerate a man wrongly accused of murder (you read that right; for the full story, check out the Netflix doc Long Shot).
Season 5
The season where…Larry mistakenly thinks he’s adopted and offers to donate a kidney to Richard Lewis, a selfless act he almost instantly comes to regret.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “The Ski Lift” – 9.0
Our pick: “The Ski Lift”
What happens: We’re too embarrassed to get into the details of this episode, but suffice it to say that Larry intentionally hitting a rabbi’s car so that he can befriend him in order to get Richard to the top of the kidney donation list comes in a distant second to the other storyline on the “oh-no-they-didn’t” scale.
Season 6
The season where…We meet the Blacks and Larry and Cheryl split up.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “The Bat Mitzvah” – 9.0
Our pick: “The N Word”
What happens: A misunderstanding around the N word, obviously. Look, Curb is not for everyone, and even those of us who love the show are often watching scenes or entire episodes hunched over, collapsing in ourselves from mortification. This is one of those episodes. Big picture, season 6 introduces J.B. Smoove as Leon Black, who has become arguably the best supporting character on the show.
Season 7
The season where…Larry gets the Seinfeld cast back together for a reunion special.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “Seinfeld” – 9.2
Our pick: “Denise Handicapped”
What happens: All of the Seinfeld reunion stuff is fantastic throughout the season. But a few of the episodes that don’t really involve that storyline (including the controversial “The Bare Midriff” and “The Black Swan”) are among the strongest. Our favorite is “Denise Handicapped”, in which Larry starts dating a woman who uses a wheelchair. You can probably guess how that goes.
Season 8
The season where…Larry returns to New York.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “Palestinian Chicken” – 9.2
Our pick: “Larry vs. Michael J. Fox”
What happens: A quick note about “Palestinian Chicken.” “Palestinian Chicken”—which David recently cited as among his favorite episodes in the entire series—is an absolute classic. It’s also very difficult to laugh at in light of recent events. So we’re going with the season finale, which centers on Larry’s beef with one of the most likable and inspiring human beings on the planet, Michael J. Fox.
Season 9
The season where…After planning Fatwa!, a musical comedy based on The Satanic Verses controversy, Larry gets a fatwa issued against him.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “The Accidental Text On Purpose” – 9.0
Our pick: “Foisted!”
What happens: The season premiere “Foisted!” features a great performance from Portlandia’s Carrie Brownstein, who plays Larry’s incompetent assistant. It features Larry weighing in on the gender dynamics of lesbian nuptials (again, you can guess how well this goes). It features a funny cameo from Jimmy Kimmel. And it does a beautiful job setting up the season’s main storyline. 10/10, no notes.
Season 10
The season where…Larry is accused of sexual harassment and opens the Spite Store.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “Happy New Year/ Elizabeth, Margaret and Larry” – 9.1
Our pick: “Happy New Year”
What happens: Larry gets banned from Mocha Joe’s and decides to get revenge by opening his own coffee shop next door. Jeff gets confused for Harvey Weinstein, while Larry gets confused for being a Trump supporter (intentionally). This is Curb Curb-ing very hard, and we are here for it.
Season 11
The season where…Larry goes to unimaginable lengths to avoid building a five-foot fence after a would-be burglar drowns in his pool.
Top-rated episode on IMDB: “The Watermelon” – 8.7
Our pick: “IRASSHAIMASE!”
What happens: Given the angry response it elicits from the Sushi chefs at Katsuya, we’re not really comfortable typing out the name of this episode (or even Googling it, for that matter). Suffice it to say, the titular expression gets Larry in a heap of trouble, as does his inability to keep a secret, his failure to properly grieve, and his refusal to reciprocate after ruining Freddy Funkhouser’s favorite shirt. Other than that, things go just fine.
