However now that we’ve reached the top, the place will Curb Your Enthusiasm land within the context of pop-culture comedy historical past, and can it maintain up? Feinberg (2024) states, “in a world through which social media has made us into a nation of Larry Davids platforming everyone’s microaggressions, Curb Your Enthusiasm didn’t have a place anymore.” I’m not certain I totally agree, but it surely definitely is an fascinating level. With the evolving and shifting house for efficiency, from theatre, to tv, to social media, the place does the Shakespearean idiot at the moment reside? Feinberg implies that anybody with a gripe on Tik-Tok fills this void. No matter social media’s democratization and amplification of public voices, I believe there’s nonetheless a function reserved for designated court docket jesters, or on the very least, court docket jesters in scripted media. Larry David did extra than simply “platform microaggressions;” he took huge dangers along with his social commentary and did so for a massive, designated viewers. Shakespeare’s relevance transcends centuries, and this longevity (together with the cultural shifts that relegated it to a greater standing) is what immortalizes and pedestals his work. I wouldn’t be stunned if Larry David’s work will stand the take a look at of time, particularly as solely his present, not him, is at the moment “canceled” (perhaps all of us simply cherished his Bernie Sanders impression an excessive amount of). Going ahead, I’m certain new Shakespearean fools’ voices will emerge. Curb Your Enthusiasm might not all the time be culturally related, however like Shakespearean themes on humanity, Larry David’s show and touch upon social annoyance, will probably proceed to ring “fairly, fairly, fairly” true.
Works Cited
Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Style. Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Press
Levine, L. (1990) Intellectual/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Press
Lotz, A. D. (2018). We Now Disrupt This Broadcast: How Cable Reworked Tv and the Web Revolutionized it All. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Williams, R. (1958). “Tradition is Abnormal.” Raymond Williams on Tradition & Society: Important Writings, edited by Jim McGuigan. Sage Publishers, 1-18.
Biography
Lauren Alexandra Sowa is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication at Pepperdine College. She lately acquired her Ph.D. from the Annenberg College of Communication and Journalism on the College of Southern California. Her analysis focuses on intersectional feminism and illustration inside manufacturing cultures, tv, and common tradition. These pursuits stem from her several-decade profession within the leisure business as member of SAG/AFTRA and AEA. Lauren is a proud Disneyland Magic Key holder and fanatic of many fandoms.
