Logo text
Of all the ways people decided to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, there are a few that were on the left side of the collaborative comedy scene between Larry David and President Barack Obama.
Jeff Schiffer, David’s frequent writing partner and showrunner Life, Larry and the pursuit of unhappinessHe seems to realize this as much as anyone else. But when the Obamas and their production company, Higher Ground, expressed interest, who was he to turn them down? The fruits of their labor, a seven-episode exploration of American history through David’s seedy eyes, are already halfway through their HBO show. And yes, it’s a little educational. “I enjoy history, but I like ancient history — the Greek and Roman stuff,” Schiffer says. “But Larry’s knowledge of American history was amazing. He wanted to do something to win the popular vote but he lost the election, and he said, ‘You know, like Samuel J. Tilden.’ Who? He could have been a country music star for all I know.”
During the last episode of Hollywood Reporter podcast, I have a ring (Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple) Schiffer talked about collaborating with a former president and creating a production schedule that accommodated the sitting president’s erratic behavior. (And to his credit, he discussed one of the unexpected gems of his long comedy career: “Scotty Don’t Know.”)
***
You and Larry David were having a conversation on South by Southwest earlier this year, and you compared a series celebrating country now to “throwing a birthday party for your friend who’s in rehab.”
He’s in a methadone clinic now He was all wrong, but we still love him. So we will celebrate it and hope it gets better soon.
Especially before they closed the methadone clinics.
I hope our friend doesn’t live in a rural area.
For many, this was no “respite” for the Fourth of July. But this is also a time to acknowledge the country’s history and work with a beloved former president.[[The series is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama through their production company Higher Ground.]How does this combination of variables affect the experience?
This is the yin and yang of the American experience, isn’t it? Larry is there to complain about it, and President Obama is there to say, “Hey, no matter how complicated things get, we can still find inspiration in each other.” It’s a comedy, so there’s a lot of Larry here. But there are also times, especially at the beginning and the end, where we want to make sure we’re saying something as well. We can get past this. This messy and strange experiment in democracy is still effective. We celebrate America, warts and all. Now there is a flabby orange wart that we hope will disappear as soon as possible. But the body is still fine.
So, Larry and President Obama know each other, but it’s still an odd pairing. How did this happen?
Higher Ground and the Obamas wanted to do something to celebrate the 250th anniversary. Larry — who says “no” to everything, like you and me — is an American history buff. It piqued his interest. I really think the genesis of Larry’s interest began four years ago, when Larry and I did a commercial where he played someone who was tinkering with humanity’s best inventions. We did it for FTX. I wonder what happened to them. They were so nice. (He laughs.) Anyway, he remembered how much fun he had wearing costumes – and forgot how much he hated wearing wigs. So we just started talking about events and other things and had some funny ideas.
I realize the president wasn’t in the writers’ room with you two, but what was the dynamic when the three of you were talking about the series?
The coolest part about this is seeing Larry and President Obama together. The first meeting we had – I’d never met the president before – and he just said to me, “Do you play golf?” Not real. Then he pointed at Larry and said, “This guy is better than you think, but he’s wearing too much sunscreen.” Obama shits all over Larry. “I’m sorry my father isn’t from Kenya,” Larry says. This is the first minute. These two are so funny together. So my big task was that I just needed to get them both on screen. That’s all I want. And when you see them on screen together, they are so funny. They are a very interesting odd couple.
How contemporary did you want to make this? I think the closest thing I’ve seen today is Rosa Parks.
We’ve almost come to the present day, but the only thing we’ve really tried to do is talk about things that are happening now through a historical lens. There’s a diagram where we talk about vaccinations, but we don’t talk about the vaccination problems that are happening now. We’re talking about when the polio vaccine first appeared. When you look at America’s history, we’ve made a lot of the same mistakes over and over again. We’ve learned very little really.
Was that helpful for you to realize, given the current conflict we’re experiencing?
We are still here! There was an enormous amount of skepticism about the polio vaccine when it was introduced. And now we do it again? It’s one step forward and one step back—this American experience. Selfishness and pettiness are not inventions of the twentieth century.
There are cracks in Trump, without any direct hits. One sketch in particular features Jimmy Kimmel playing a man who can’t understand a president trying to run for more than two terms. Were they such cathartic jokes?
We shot this sketch in November 2025, and we knew Trump was going to do more crazy, evil things between the time of filming and the time it aired. So we left spaces so we can go back and chronicle each new horror of King Trump’s madness. We know that if you give this guy a few months, he’s going to do something else that’s so diabolical and stupid that we never expected it to be: things like sending troops into American cities to harass and even kill American citizens. It was between starting wars with foreign countries to distract from the fact that you are best friends with a homosexual. We left room for entry and refilling.
You and Larry work with a lot of artistic freedom, but you’re still doing it with another production company. What does Obama’s memo look like?
We had one meeting, and President Obama read some preliminary drawings. He was very complimentary. And I remember he had a note about a certain sketch, and Larry said, “Yes, yes, we’ll take care of it.” “I see what it would be like,” Obama says. “You know, when I was in the Oval Office, I like to think I listened to my advisors and took advice from them. And I was president of the United States. And then Larry said, ‘Yes, but I’m the president of this.'” Obama spent half an hour talking. [him] How funny I think this is. One note and [he] He gets into a defensive crouch.” But they gave very good feedback. And for some of the drawings, which we haven’t gotten to yet, their knowledge was helpful.
Looking back over your long resume, what’s something you’ve worked on that you thought should have been more successful than it was?
There are things like Eurotrip. Alec Berg, Dave Mandel, and I wrote it and directed it. When it came out, not many people saw it. But thanks to DVDs, she has that life. The song “Scotty Don’t Know” is like some kind of renaissance that I don’t understand. A lot of my friends’ kids are in college, and they send me stuff from the bars and they sing “Scotty Don’t Know” when it’s time to play it. I think we were disappointed that more people didn’t see it when it came out. But she had the life we wanted her to have. We wanted to make a movie for teens to watch together in their parents’ basement while stealing their parents’ liquor. It happened.
This movie came out when I was in the middle of college, and by my senior year, “Scotty Doesn’t Know” was being played at most parties.
There is a gold record here. We got a gold record from the single.
We’ve never talked about this, so can you tell me how it all came together? Matt Damon’s appearance as a pop punk pioneer was an unexpected way to start this movie.
We wrote and Alec and dave with the band lustra lyrics. The band clearly came up with an amazing hook. We were shooting this movie in Prague during SARS and… [Iraq] war. We didn’t have much money. We couldn’t fly people. Matt was filming The Brothers Grimm in Prague. His head was shaved because he wore a wig all the time. He had quit smoking, so, as he put it, he was as swollen as a tick. So we were like, “Hey, do you want to do this?” He only had one night available, the shortest night of the year. It was literally June 21st. There’s about five hours of the night to get this thing done. But it was so much fun, we raced to get it. It’s crazy that he even existed. If Matt wasn’t there. If only it didn’t look like that. It all came together. I was talking to Matt a little while ago, and he was like, “I was Private Ryan W Saving Private Ryan. I was Ripley’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. I was Will Hunting Goodwill fishing. I’m walking down the street, and people say, “Scotty doesn’t know!”
***
Life, Larry and the pursuit of unhappiness New episodes release Fridays on HBO Max.
