HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm stars its creator, Larry David, as a fictionalized version of himself who voices the concerns that he would normally keep to himself. The character is a dark mirror version of all of us, complaining about social conventions that most people just put up with, despite hating them.
The supporting cast is made up of Larry’s roster of pals, but as a misanthrope who despises human contact, he gets along with astoundingly few of the people he considers to be his closest and dearest friends. So, here are Larry’s friends, ranked by how much he actually likes them.
Susie Greene
It’s a mystery why Susie even still hangs out with Larry. She’s married to Jeff, who’s Larry’s best friend, so they can’t completely avoid each other, but one has to wonder why Susie keeps inviting Larry to dinner parties and making plans with him. Every single time, they end up in a yelling match.
It’ll start off with something as simple as Susie offering to give Larry a tour of her new house, but sooner or later, they’ll start screaming. Once in a blue moon, Larry and Susie will have some fun banter together. Even then, though, it’s only a matter of time before it devolves into a full-volume argument.
Ted Danson
In “Ted and Mary,” the second-ever episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry openly tells Cheryl that he doesn’t particularly like Ted Danson. He doesn’t like the way he overuses the term “heaven” to describe things he likes. But for whatever reason, they’ve remained friends for all these years.
Whenever the two are in a room together, whether Ted is offering Larry a piece of pie or Larry is offering Ted a t-shirt as a gift, they eventually get into an argument. Ted even pointed out to Larry at one point, “Every time we get together, we push and pull like this!”
Marty Funkhouser
It’s a real shame that Marty Funkhouser won’t be appearing in the tenth season of Curb, following actor Bob Einstein’s unfortunate passing last year, because he’s always been one of the funniest characters on the show. Einstein always did a fantastic job of playing all of his scenes as Funkhouser completely straight.
Larry’s there, saying and doing horrible things, and Funkhouser contrasts brilliantly with that energy, due to Einstein’s deadpan delivery style. For some reason, Funkhouser has delusions about his friendship with Larry. At one point, he referred to him as his best friend and Larry laughed and said to Cheryl, “He’s not my best friend.”
Rosie O’Donnell
As a fellow stand-up comic from New York, Larry David gets along with Rosie O’Donnell really well. Living in California, Larry doesn’t get to hang out with a lot of New Yorkers, so when Rosie’s in town, he’s happy to spend time with her. (This is actually why Larry and Susie have a strange connection; they constantly yell at each other, but they’re both Brooklynites living on the West Coast.)
At Marty Funkhouser’s anniversary party, he even asked to be seated next to Rosie O’Donnell. In the season 8 episode “The Bisexual,” Larry and Rosie compete over the affections of a bisexual woman who gave her number out to both of them, which put their friendship to the test, but it didn’t ruin their relationship.
Wanda Sykes
Larry likes Wanda Sykes. The only problem is that Wanda doesn’t really like Larry. She was more of a friend of Cheryl’s than Larry’s, and their divorce was a convenient way out of her friendship with Larry. Larry has a tendency to say inappropriate things to Wanda (“Hey, I’d know that tush anywhere!”) and she’s fully aware that he sees her as his “link into the black world.”
In season 8, she said that she left L.A. and came to New York to get away from Larry, so after Larry moved out to New York, it wouldn’t be long before she headed back to California. Larry recommended his personal trainer to Wanda and she ended up taking Larry’s place on the trainer’s roster of clients, edging out Larry.
Richard Lewis
The real Larry David and Richard Lewis didn’t get along when they first met. They met at a summer camp when they were kids and hated each other. They didn’t become friends until they reunited on New York’s standup scene in their twenties.
Every time their fictional selves get together on Curb, Larry and Richard get into an argument. It’s usually a result of Richard being upset by Larry’s insensitivity, like when he joked about the death of his parakeet. But they keep making lunch plans and hanging out, so they obviously have a strong enough friendship to weather that kind of disagreement.
Leon Black
Leon just decided to move into Larry’s house when the rest of his family took off. For all intents and purposes, Larry could take legal action to get Leon out of his house. But he likes having Leon around.
Despite being from very different worlds (Larry’s a neurotic old white man from the East Coast, whereas Leon’s a laidback young black man from the West Coast), Larry and Leon are able to offer each other advice when they have problems. Leon’s always got Larry’s back, even fighting a man for a Joe Pepitone jersey he believed he’d stolen from Larry.
Jeff Greene
Although he’s his manager and, as such, a paid employee, Jeff is Larry’s best friend. Unless Jeff is admitting to masturbating to his wife or yelling at him for some wrongdoing of his, Larry genuinely enjoys spending time with Jeff. They get together for everything from watching basketball games to the Passover Seder.
Jeff is one of the few people that Larry can trust with his many lies and deceits. When Cheryl left, Jeff was there for Larry. And even though Larry is aware of what a terrible guy Jeff is, frequently cheating on his wife, he’s able to laugh it off with a “You do you” kind of attitude.
