rant · moment 18 of 19
Successful Men, Predators, and the Curb Your Enthusiasm Backlash
from This Is No Way To Live · #72
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minA long discussion about the overlap between traits that create successful, powerful people and predatory/monstrous behavior (Woody Allen, Cosby, Weinstein, Hitler, Putin), pivoting into a rant about newly 'woke' people suddenly criticizing Curb Your Enthusiasm and comedy's role as a mirror rather than a moral instructor, invoking George Carlin.
- 1:01:09Tim wonders if the ability to see the world in an interesting unique way makes predatory men feel unbounded by morality.
- 1:01:23Woody Allen's philosophy that artists create their own moral universe may be appearing in his films.
- 1:02:16Critics dismiss Curb Your Enthusiasm as just a rich white guy making fun of service workers, claiming it's not funny anymore.
- 1:02:37Tim argues that if you think the country broke during an election, you haven't looked at anything—George Bush was responsible for millions of deaths in wars.
- 1:03:22The sudden political consciousness of people becoming woke is infuriating when they've only recently started paying attention.
- 1:03:44Nothing is worse than a white guy coming out of jail and saying the prison system is broken—that's what's happening with Curb criticism.
- 1:04:07Comics shooting on Curb Your Enthusiasm because they think it's fashionable are just looking for approval and TV deals.
- 1:04:53The emphasis on optics creates the idea that comedy is conditioning people to devalue the lower class.
- 1:05:22Curb isn't making people more callous because if people thought that's how you should act, it wouldn't be funny.
- 1:05:46Critics want comics to create an equitable world on stage that's also funny and recognizable—an absurd task that George Carlin avoided by just pointing out how fucked up things are.
Bill CosbyWoody AllenGeorge W. BushHarvey WeinsteinDonald TrumpCharlie RoseCurb Your EnthusiasmGeorge CarlinLarry David