9 Best Curb Your Enthusiasm Celebrity Cameos
From film stars to professional athletes to politicians, HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm has featured an abundance of memorable cameos by household name celebrities.
This list was not an easy one to make, considering the endless enumeration of celebs who’ve appeared on the show. However, we believe we’ve compiled the nine best ones.
In order to qualify for the list, said celebrity has to play him/herself (so no Mindy Kaling as Richard Lewis’s lunatic secretary), and said celebrity can only appear in one episode (so no Mel Brooks, Ben Stiller, or David Schwimmer — they had recurring roles throughout Season 4).
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Michael J. Fox (best known for playing Marty McFly in the “Back to the Future” film franchise)
Until the announcement of Season 9, Larry vs. Michael J. Fox (2011) was the very last episode of Curb we ever got, but it was quite possibly the best one in the whole series. Michael J. Fox plays himself as Larry’s upstairs neighbor, and throughout the episode commits minor acts which Larry views as direct attempts to undermine him. These include handing Larry a shaken-up bottle of coke, stomping on the ground in combat boots in the middle of the night, and bumping into him in the apartment lobby.
Fox insists these events are all accidental occurrences resulting from his having Parkinson’s Disease, but Larry suspects that Fox is using his Parkinson’s as an excuse to commit these acts intentionally.
— MS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI4lFjWoFqc
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Shaquille O’Neal (best known for being a 4x NBA champion, 3x NBA Finals MVP, 1x NBA MVP, and 15x NBA All Star)
One of the classics. Larry and Richard Lewis are sitting court-side at a Lakers game, but of course, it isn’t 100% perfect for LD. He stretches out his legs just as Shaq is about to check into the game. Three seconds later, Shaq trips over Larry’s legs, injures himself, and before we know it, is out for the season.
Later on, Larry visits Shaq in the hospital and brings him a box of Seinfeld cassettes (Shaq’s favorite show). While he’s there, Shaq and his doctor are having a bit of an argument while playing a game of Scattergories. Shaq asks Larry to weigh in on the whole “peanut butter being a dairy product” fiasco and things get quite interesting from there.
— JD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA582tX6UOE
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Barbara Boxer (best known for being California Senator from 1993–2017)
Larry loses his Joe Pepitone Yankees jersey at the dry cleaners, and is told that the unwritten law of dry cleaning is “you win some, you lose some,” or in other words: sometimes you lose an item, sometimes you go home with an item that’s not yours — but in the end, it all balances out.
Larry is enraged by this social norm, because in his case it never balances out — he loses items, but never gains any. Luckily, he bumps into long-time California Senator Barbara Boxer at a fundraiser event for the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and uses the opportunity to try to convince the senator to write into law the banning of the “unwritten law of dry cleaning.”
— MS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIEjp3o_Zgc
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Bill Buckner (best known for committing an error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series which arguably cost the Boston Red Sox the World Series)
Larry attends a baseball card show to grab Mookie Wilson’s autograph for his manager Jeff Greene, and while there, he runs into Bill Buckner. Having just committed a championship-blowing error in a softball game, Larry befriends the athlete and seeks advice for how to cope with the mistake (although Larry’s error was in a friendly softball game, while Buckner’s was in the World Series).
The episode ends on a positive note, with Buckner making a diving catch to save a baby from a burning building. My favorite part of this episode is the way in which they absolutely call attention to what Buckner is remembered for, and how they never let you for forget it.
— JD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyKB0ft9N28
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Mayor Michael Bloomberg (best known for being a billionaire businessman and NYC’s mayor from 2002–2013)
We return to Larry vs. Michael J. Fox. LD and Jeff are at a charity event hosted by Fox to raise money for Parkinson’s research. LD begins talking to Jeff during Fox’s speech about how he bought a violin for his girlfriend’s son as a gift. After being shushed, he tries to further explain the gift by playing “air violin.” Fox immediately spots Larry and accuses him of playing the “violin sign,” a universal sign to express boredom.
Mayor Bloomberg, who is in attendance at the charity event, hops up to the podium to ban Larry from New York City. At the end of the episode, we find out that Larry has relocated to Paris.
— MS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f48KdQidXjM
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Christian Slater (best known for his lead roles in the films “True Romance” and “Heathers”)
Larry is at one of Ted Danson’s dinner parties, and while he’s there, he gets a bit hungry. He heads over to the hors d’oeuvres table and bumps into Christian Slater, who also seems a bit famished. Slater is in the process of scooping caviar onto a cracker, but LD thinks he is going way over his allotment. He confronts Christian, indicating that he is beyond the designated portion, but Slater fires back by taking more and more.
I don’t know about you, but I have a massive amount of food guilt. If I see that there is one piece of a dish left on a plate, I completely analyze the intentions of all the other guests in the room and will almost always refuse to take the last piece.
— JD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfcr66-xR-M
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Michael Richards (best known for playing the role of Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld)
Okay we lied, we’re featuring a celeb who appeared in more than one episode (he appeared in two).
Seinfeld fans finally got the reunion they had long waited for, an eight-minute special nested in the 40-minute season seven finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm. While Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Jason Alexander had all appeared as themselves either throughout the seventh season or earlier in the show, Michael Richards was yet to make a cameo. This was likely due in part to his staying out of the public spotlight after the infamous comedy club incident in late 2006, where he hurled racial epithets at attendees and hecklers in the audience.
In his reprised role of himself playing the beloved Cosmo Kramer, Richards finds himself in hot water. He gets in an argument with Larry’s friend Leon Black, who is black. This scene was an effort to poke fun at the real-life incident, which to many, irreparably damaged Richards’ illustrious career.
— MS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktZde2tEK1Y
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John McEnroe (best known for being one of the greatest tennis players of all time)
For some strange reason Larry buys Ted Danson Mondo Freaks, a book on unique and rather odd people, and decides to have him open this gift at a dinner party. This doesn’t go over too well and inevitably Ted gives the book back to Larry. Fast forward a few minutes later in the episode, and Larry finds himself as a limo driver for John McEnroe (don’t ask us how, just watch the episode). Larry brings the book with him, and McEnroe absolutely loves it.
They eventually get to their destination (Staples center in LA) and Larry shmoozes his way into a pre-concert party with the tennis star. While there, they decide to read through the book. Not their best idea. Minutes later, they get tossed out of the arena because they kept yelling about the strange people in the book. The ever so famous McEnroe screaming bouts, of which he perhaps was best remembered for during his tennis matches, ensue.
— JD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4eVdx7u7iY
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Ricky Gervais (best known for co-writing and co-directing The Office (British version), and for his stand-up comedy and TV/film production and writing)
Ricky Gervais comes to New York to star in a new Broadway show called Mister Simmington. Larry spots Gervais at a restaurant and sends a $300 bottle of wine to his table.
Gervais later returns the favor by saving a show ticket for Larry at Will Call, but instead of giving it as a gift, charges him $200! LD’s now down $500.
Every interaction between the two Involves an attempt to out-snark one another, usually with Gervais getting the upper hand. In the episode’s final scene, Larry catches Ricky on a date with Donna, whom Larry had begun dating earlier in the episode. Next, Larry finally gets the upper hand… or does he?
— MS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTwZpnQ8mdI
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Next week (August 20th): 9 Best Larry David Stare-Downs
Other installments:
Week 1 — 9 Executive Orders Under a Larry David Presidency
Week 2 — 9 Most Absurd and Very Best Curb Arguments
Week 4 — Are You Sure? — The 9 Best Larry David Stare-Downs
Week 5 — 9 Insane Moments that Are Honestly Too Insane for Curb Your Enthusiasm
Week 6 — A Tribute to Comic Shelley Berman, Larry David’s TV Dad
Week 7 — COMING SOON (September 17, 2017)
Week 8 — COMING SOON (September 24, 2017)
Week 9 — COMING SOON (October 1, 2017)
