The Funniest Fashion Moments on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," in GIFs

The most hilarious style mishaps on Larry David's classic HBO series.

larry david curb your enthusiasm
Image via HBO

larry david curb your enthusiasm

larry david curb your enthusiasm

Curb Your Enthusiasm finally returns this fall after a long and excruciating six-year hiatus. Thankfully, even during the darkest point of the break when it seemed as if Larry David really might not return to grace us with ten more episodes of misanthropic misadventures, we still had 80 episodes worth of excellence to fall back on. And much like Larry's managed to offend just about every race, group and otherwise under the sun, across eight seasons he's also managed to cover almost every category of humor. You'd never know it from the guy who just wears tennis shoes, a shirt and slacks every episode, but fashion plays a big role in some of Curb's most crucial gags, a fact I took as an excuse to rewatch classic episodes so I could make original GIFs of the best moments. In honor of Larry's return, here are ​The Funniest Fashion Moments in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Here's hoping LD gives us ten more options this year.

 

Larry's "stolen" khakis in "Officer Krupke"

Only Larry would refuse to pay for a pair of new khakis after his own mysteriously disappear from the store's dressing room. And only LD would walk around with the "Scarlet Letter" of fashion, (aka the security tag) on his pants to prove a point. Bonus laughs for the idiot store clerk who has no handle on understanding sarcasm.

Larry versus the weatherman in "The Weatherman"

Larry suspects the local weatherman is manipulating forecasts to clear the golf course. So, being the stubborn misanthrope that he is, tries to beat him at his own game, only to fail miserably (see above). RIP to that Polo golf gear. On top of that, he never learns the man's mythical golf tip, but at least he walks away with a valuable life hack: never try to outsmart your local weatherman.

Haboos' burka mishap in "The Blind Date"

Larry just can't stop messing up this poor good samaritan's burka after she's nice enough to let him into her home for an emergency #1 bathroom relieve. First he drops a messy sandwich on her at a diner. Then, when he and his equally narcissistic blind homie show up for a date Larry arranged, his umbrella snags her hood and reveals that her looks are quite far from prettay, prettay good.

Larry scrambles to replace Martin Scorsese's blazer in "Krazee-Eyez Killa"

Until Larry comes through with that mythical ninth season, this will stand, untested, as the funniest episode of "Curb." Chris Williams deserved all the guest star awards available as the titular rapper with whom Larry quickly strikes up a friendship that yields one infinitely quotable exchange after another (he's basically proto-Leon). 

Krazee-Eyez dominates the episode so much that it can be hard to remember the episode still manages to check in with one of the season's recurring subplots, Larry's role in Scorsese's next opus. And even though TV Larry has all the accomplishments on his resumé of IRL Larry, he still freaks out the idea of disappointing the cinema god. So when he loses his character's signature sportcoat, then fucks up his only chance to buy a new one by—how else—pissing off the store owner in prime LD fashion, who should come through in the clutch but the Killa.

Krazee's closet is so fully stocked he couldn't give a fuck if Larry takes it, which is how a true N-word—or Caucasian—holds it down.

Larry rocks panties in "Officer Krupke"

"I'm Larry David and I happen to enjoy wearing women's panties." Marvel at the lengths Larry will go to for BFF Jeff to get him off the hook for infidelity from a suspicious Susie (Jeff claims a pair she found belong to Larry because, why not). Dude was all too eager to strip off the same "technically stolen" pants from previously on the list to drive their absurd cover-up home. But the catch here is Officer Krupke wasn't part of the plan, just a shrewd improvisation on LD's part. Which is to say, he actually spent the day sporting panties for the sake of the lie. Talk about method acting.

[via Uproxx]

Larry and Ted's thirst for dead Chet's shirt in "Chet's Shirt"

It's technically not wrong, but there's something reprehensible about Larry's eagerness to swagger-jack Cheryl's friend's recently deceased husband Chet for a shirt he used to favor. The black-and-cream bowling-type joint is something only old people would thirst for, i.e. Larry and frenemy Ted Danson. Maybe that's why, after they come up on the last three pairs, karma conspires to make sure neither of them can keep it undamaged for very long. 

Leon tests the "Black People With Glasses" theory in "Mister Softee"

Do white people respond more favorably to bespectacled African-Americans? Social observer Larry David seems to think so and when Leon decides to put it to the test, the hypothesis is proved correct tenfold. Leon goes from ratchet to respectable when he throws on a pair of frames in the eyes of every person he encounters, a scenario which of course he and Larry bend to their advantage.

Hugh Hefner swindles Larry for a doper smoking jacket in "The Smoking Jacket"

Larry visiting the Playboy Mansion is comedy gold unto itself. Larry visiting the mansion with his dad's classic smoking jacket that's basically identical to Hef's is platinum. Hef calls it a knockoff, asks to try it on, and then disappears...in the bathroom...for what seems like forever. The swift expression change on LD's face is hysterical and of course when Hef finally exits Larry conspires to switch the jackets, playing right into Hugh's apparent conspiracy to get the better jacket. And the best part? A dream meeting with golf gawd Gary Player goes the same way with his Masters blazer. Fashion heists in full effect.

Larry's "pants tent" in "The Pants Tent"

Fashion mishaps start the series off in the pilot that finds Larry in a never-ending case of Mistaken Erection. Blame it on the titular pants tent that his no longer trusty cords keep forming. Style: Larry David's mortal enemy since day one.

The edible underwear in "The Ski Lift"

What was Larry's P.I. doing with a pair of edible undies? We can only assume the worst, but they come in handy when Larry finds himself stranded on a faulty ski lift by episode's end. Of course a non-player like LD would end up uh, enjoying, them in a much more practical manner than their original intent.

Cheryl's hands-on stain removal in "Club Soda and Salt"

Jealousy rears its ugly head when Cheryl starts hanging out with a younger, conventionally handsome guy who's surely trying to float into her figurative DMs. Or is he just a nice, well-meaning BFF? The mystery is solved when he employs a famous stain removal trick after Cheryl spills wine on her chest while Larry is conveniently hemmed up by a guy he pissed off earlier.

Greg and the Swastika sham in "Larry vs. Michael J. Fox"

Is Larry out of line for assuming young Greg, his latest girl's son, is gay? Probably, but regardless, this kid, with his fashion-forward outbursts ("Get a life, Jewwws!" he says re: the swastika symbol) and flamboyant expressions, is hilarious. If this is the last "Curb" episode we'll ever be blessed with, then at least it has subplots like Greg and his Kanye/Confederate flag-esque decision to re-appropriate culturally offensive symbols into his style designs. Larry David is the last person you want giving your kid history (and style) lessons.

Larry sees his therapist at the beach in "The Thong"

Would you be cool with taking life advice from your therapist if you saw him at the beach airing it all out? When the anti-outdoors Larry takes Cheryl to the beach on his shrink's urge to be more compromising, he sees that dude is already there, and wild comfortable in his European banana hammock. Needless to say, by the next session Larry claims he's "cured" all while lying very badly about what he did and didn't see. Some fashion faux-pas just can't be forgotten by guys like LD.

Leon helps Larry get his Joe Pepitone baseball jersey back in "The Anonymous Donor"

Leon makes his grand entrance into the "Curb" universe when he helps Larry subvert the Unwritten Rule of Dry Cleaning and thugs the guy (Ken Jeong) who came up on his Joe Pepitone baseball jersey. Twice. When it turns out the first dude was an innocent that they technically robbed, Leon keeps one for himself and just like that the series' second best LD-bromance (Larry and Jeff 4ever) is born. Too bad Leon's not around at episode's end when Ken Jeong and his boys catch Larry in the street stunting in the Pepitone.

Larry and Jerry's crop-top favoring assistant in "The Bare Midriff"

This is ne of the show's most memorable sight gags, and not just because it has the combined comedic powers of both Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld reacting in hilarious disgust to it. Their new assistant is all about that crop-top/tight tee life, even though her obliques are basically non-existent. And wouldn't you know it, the episode gives her plenty of physical situations to wave her flab in Larry's face.

Latest in Style