History Series / CurbYourEnthusiasm

* RightPlaceRightTimeWrongReason: The episode "Carpool Lane" follows Larry on his trip to a [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} Los Angeles Dodgers]] game with a prostitute. This included shooting footage at a real game, including mundane footage of Larry going up and down stadium stairs and sitting down and getting up from his seat, most of which never made the final cut. However, in the exact same row sat Juan Catalan, who would later be accused of a murder that took place at the ''exact same time'' as the shoot. So even though the footage didn't make the episode, it ended up clearing an innocent man of murder.

* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Leon. In season 6, Larry and Cheryl decide to temporarily house a family of African-American victims of the fictitious Hurricane Edna: single mother Loretta Black, her children Keysha and Daryl, and their Auntie Rae. Loretta's brother, Leon decides to move in too, even though he wasn't affected by the hurricane. Larry and Cheryl eventually split up, and Larry starts a relationship with Loretta. In season 7, when she (mistakenly) thinks that Larry is cheating on her, she leaves with her family... but Leon stays behind. In the episode "The Safe House", Larry complains: "He just moved in, doesn't pay any rent and he eats all my food. He knows all about me. He knows my mother's maiden name. I've got to get this guy out of my house. It's driving me crazy." In later seasons, he gives up and acdepts that Leon is a permanent part of his life.

** The voluptuous sign language interpreter in "Fatwah!" is played by real-life ASL performer Tina Sirimarco.

* ShowWithinAShow: ''Film/TheProducers'' in season 4, the ''Seinfeld'' reunion in season 7 and ''Fatwa!'' (a musical based on the story of Creator/SalmanRushdie) in season 9.

* TheyDo: This trope is discussed on several levels and ultimately parodied in the Seinfeld arc. George's relationship with his ex-wife is used as a way to discuss how believable/satisfying it would be for Larry and Cheryl to get back together. Then the season 7 finale seems to build up a standard TheyDo ending... [[spoiler:Only for it to be subverted at the last moment with Larry's standard behavior ruining their moment.]]
** Arguably this doesn't get subverted until the first episode of season 8. [[spoiler:The end of season 7 is quite sweet and gives the impression that their relationship is back to normal. It's only in the next episode that we see it going wrong.]]

* ExactlyWhatItSaysO TheTin: The focus of the aptly named “The Bare Midriff”. Larry’s secretary (played by Jillian Bell) has recently lost a lot of weight and is wearing a belly shirt, but is still large enough that her still-considerable belly makes people uncomfortable.

* BareYourMidriff: The focus of the aptly named “The Bare Midriff”. Larry’s secretary (played by Jillian Bell) has recently lost a lot of weight and is wearing a belly shirt, but is still large enough that her still-considerable belly makes people uncomfortable.

In a typical episode, Larry casually offends someone in the first act, then discovers that he desperately needs their help in the second, and ''then'' makes matters worse trying to secure it in the third. Usually, he acts like such an unrepentant {{jerkass}} to everybody he meets that when there's a [[NotWhatItLooksLike genuine misunderstanding]], he can't convince anybody of his innocence. Of course, this varies from one episode to the next. Sometimes, Larry is the more-or-less [[TheChewToy hapless victim]] of circumstance; sometimes, he makes all the [[WhatAnIdiot worst possible choices]] on the way to his comeuppance. Either way, the comeuppance is the punchline to the show, and will be saved for [[InterruptedByTheEnd the very end]].

* TeethFlying: Larry is accidentally hit in the mouth by a kid trying to hit a piñata in "Chet's Shirt". He has to get emergency dental surgery.

** The series proper doesn't have as much of this as many other shows; they seemed to nail the concept almost immediately. Regardless, there are some oddities to the first season: Larry and Cheryl lived in a different house, Cheryl had darker hair, and there wasn't a season-long story arc. Also, Wanda and Sammi don't appear until season 2.

* ToughRoom: Averted, as Larry David claims it's unrealistic and unnatural for friends in sitcoms to deliver incredibly witty one-liners and nobody laughs. In this show, if a character makes a legitimately funny observation and another character happens to laugh at it, [[ThrowItIn it's kept in the show.]] A good example is the first episode, when Richard Lewis chuckles at one of Larry's jokes, despite being mad at him.

* ToughRoom: Averted, as Larry David claims it's unrealistic and unnatural for friends in sitcoms to deliver incredibly witty one-liners and nobody laughs. In this show, if a character makes a legitimately funny observation and another character [[{{Corpsing}} happens to laugh at it]], [[ThrowItIn it's kept in the show.]] A good example is the first episode, when Richard Lewis chuckles at one of Larry's jokes, despite being mad at him.

* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Leon. In season 6, Larry and Cheryl decide to temporarily house a family of African-American victims of the fictitious Hurricane Edna: single mother Loretta Black, her children Keysha and Daryl, and their Auntie Rae. Loretta's brother, Leon decides to move in too, even though he wasn't affected by the hurricane. Larry and Cheryl eventually split up, and Larry starts a relationship with Loretta. In season 7, when she (mistakenly) thinks that Larry is cheating on her, she leaves with her family... but Leon stays behind. In the episode "The Safe House", Larry complains: "He just moved in, doesn't pay any rent and he eats all my food. He knows all about me. He knows my mother's maiden name. I've got to get this guy out of my house. It's driving me crazy."

* AbortedArc: Season 10 had one: [[spoiler:Larry and Cheryl sleep together in the heat of the moment, but they don't end up getting back together. It's dropped after episode 4.]]

** Creator/MichaelRichards gets into an argument on the street with a black man over SomethingCompletelyDifferent[[note]](Richards thought he had some sort of odd disease, and he was referred to someone who was also living with it, who was black)[[/note]]. He doesn't say anything racial and it's definitely NotWhatItLooksLike, but considering [[RippedFromTheHeadlines what happened to him a few years prior]], and, well...

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: While the characters are not as unpleasant as Larry David's other show Seinfeld, Larry David makes the show very cynical.

-->'''Denise:''' Why are you fighting women?
-->'''Larry:''' She started it!

** Cheryl is usually the voice of reason why Larry is being his usual self.

** We never do find out what David Schwimmer told the flight attendant in "Opening Night".

* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Leon. In season 6, Larry and Cheryl decide to temporarily house a family of African-American victims of the fictitious Hurricane Edna: single mother Loretta Black, her children Keysha and Daryl, and their Auntie Rae. Loretta's brother, Leon decides to move in too, even though he wasn't affected by the hurricane. Larry and Cheryl eventually split up, and Larry starts a relationship with Loretta. In season 7, when she (mistakenly) thinks that Larry is cheating on her, she leaves with her family... but Leon stays behind. In the episode "The Safe House", Larry complains: "He just moved in, doesn't pay any rent and he eats all my food. He knows all about me. He knows my mother's maiden name. I've got to get this guy out of my house. It's driving me crazy."

* PersonAsVerb: In "Mister Softee", Larry makes a fielding error that costs his softball team the game, causing the coach to scream that he "Bucknered" it, after former Boston Red Sox first baseman [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Buckner Bill Buckner]]'s infamous ground ball fielding error that cost his team Game 6 of the 1986 World Series (allowing the New York Mets to tie and ultimately win the pennant).

* OriginalPositionFallacy: Larry would sometimes initiate actions that backfires on him later.