Parodying one’s self on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is a celebrity rite of passage, with everyone from Martin Scorsese and Bruce Springsteen to Salman Rushdie and Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman stopping by Larry David’s HBO sitcom to celebrate their own neuroses over the past quarter century. But now that the show has finally wrapped after a 12-season run, the cast can admit that some cameos tower above the competition in the pantheon of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” history.
During a panel discussion about the show’s 12th season moderated by Judd Apatow at PaleyFest LA 2024, longtime series regular J.B. Smoove reflected on his favorite celebrity appearances on the show. He singled out Michael J. Fox‘s two episodes in Seasons 8 and 9 (which aired six years apart due to the show’s hiatus), as a high point in the series.
“Oh man, I think, I think one of the greatest people I’ve seen do the show was Michael J. Fox,” Smoove said. “I used to drive home saying to myself, That’s fucked up what Larry did to him.”
Fox first appeared in a storyline that saw him moving into the apartment above David, forcing the “Seinfeld” co-creator to speculate about whether the noise coming from Fox’s apartment was a result of his Parkinson’s Disease or simply bad manners. The episode is the stuff of legend thanks to Fox’s willing self-deprecation, and Smoove revealed that the cast improvised some jokes with Fox that took the dark humor even further.
“Larry and I has some funny shit,” he said when asked about jokes that were cut from Fox’s episodes. “One was you give that motherfucker a carton of milk, it’s going turn into a milkshake. I said you’re lucky you don’t have a dick in your hand. ‘Why would I have a dick in my hand?’”
Despite all of the jokes, Smoove went on to express his sincere admiration for Fox’s ability to come on the show and find humor in his real-life struggles.
“I think that was the bravest shit I’ve ever seen in my life because he’s dealing with that shit for real,” he said. “And he came on his show, man, and he showed he was human, he showed he was funny — all these things. It just touched me so much, man. You know what, and I what we fucking do so well, which is make people happy through own pain we define greatness because they relate to us.”
Reporting by Marcus Jones.
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