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“I know him,” Larry David admitted, when asked about his friendship with former President Barack Obama during a SXSW panel on Friday. “Don’t look down on him for that. We play golf together from time to time.”
It appears to be more than just a casual friendship, as the pair are producing an upcoming comedy series (also starring David) for HBO about American history tied to the country’s 250th anniversary. The show places David in many famous scenarios throughout the country’s history. It’s a strange time to celebrate the United States, as David’s longtime collaborator Jeff Schiffer pointed out during the event, but they seemed proud of the work nonetheless — previewing a clip of David as a sexual predator in the famous VJ Day photo of the soldier kissing a dental assistant in Times Square.
“It’s like throwing a birthday party for your friend who’s in rehab,” Schiffer said of America. “He messed it up. But I love him.” (The comedy writer’s criticisms were not country-specific; he also referred to HBO, which is in the process of being acquired by Larry Ellison-backed Paramount along with the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery, as “Oracle’s great division.”)
Their series, by the way, now has a title. It’s called Larry’s Life and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An American History Almost. It’s basically “Curb your enthusiasm “In fashion,” the husband pointed out. It will premiere on June 26.
But beyond the details of the project, which included news of appearances by the likes of Jon Hamm, Susie Iseman, Lin-Manuel Miranda and many more, the highlight of the panel was undoubtedly Schiffer’s questioning of the way David treated his fellow producer — again, that’s President Barack Obama — while working on the show.
Their time in the room together included a lot of Obama mocking David, Schiffer said. “He was angry about the golf you play, he was angry about the amount of sunscreen you put on,” he noted.
“I said, ‘I’m sorry my father wasn’t born in Kenya,’” David said, because perhaps he was the only one who could get away with that.
But the real joy of the event was an anecdote about Obama trying to make a note about one of the drawings David had suggested. His disapproval of the humor in the clip, which Schiffer said came 45 minutes after Obama praised David, was not well received by the famous curmudgeon. Obama stressed, as Schiffer said, that throughout his presidency he was subject to the guidance of experts in their fields.
David said he was not impressed. “on curb and Seinfeld“I’m used to being the boss. Obama is also used to being the boss. He’s used to me being the boss,” David explained. We got kind of at loggerheads there.”
At that point, David said, he turned to Obama and offered the following compromise: “I said, ‘I’m the boss here.’”
