ETM said (February 5, 2010):

There's a video in our small town video store called 'the Aristocrats' featuring many comedians talking about in-family abuse as 'humour'.

Ben said (February 4, 2010):

Henry: I have never heard of Larry David as I don't watch anything but educational television. None of what you say surprises me though! I gave up regular television when it started to insult everything I stood for. That was in the early 80's.

What I don't understand is. How can a person of any substance watch regular television these days? OK, if you are very selective, you can watch educational television and old movies such as I do on occasion, but everything else is just visual effluent! Including the commercials and the so called "news".

Dan said (February 4, 2010):

When I watched the clip of David in the doctor's office the humor was lost on me because to me, he sounded like a lunatic. But the young mother in the previous scenes had sounded like a lunatic to me also. In the office scene where the mother speaks with David again, he asks, 'how's that pussy by the way?' and casually she answers "it's not as itchy, thanks for asking". In front of a bewildered Jerry Seinfeld that we must presume is only shocked because he assumes she's talking about herself, not her daughter.

Such is 'situation comedy' - the sitcom. I've read that situation comedy came out of Vaudeville as a form of 'skit' between comedic actors portraying what appears to be an everyday 'situation' familiar to the audience, as a family or friends in a home or public setting. These weren't considered controversial until around 1970 producer Norman Lear introduced a form of situation comedy which purported to use comedy to deal with sensitive social issues. Lear's technique was well known situation in which proponents of social norms were backward buffoons, while characters with radical views came off as saavy and hip. Lear understood as well as Eddie Bernays with mass psychology an audience sides with the 'winner'.

I don't know what happened either after Larry David's doctor called the cops to report him as a suspected pedophile but I can imagine that it ended with the 'misunderstanding' being cleared up, with the cops and doctor having to apologize to David. Maybe there could be a second episode with David suing the doctor for libel.

Michael said (February 4, 2010):

The following quote comes from none other than "insider" Zbigniew Brzezinski's book Out Of Control - Global Turmoil On The Eve Of The
21st Century. (1993)

"Television gives the young viewer a first glimpse of the outside world. It first defines - and does so compellingly by combining the
visual and audio impact - the meaning of the good life. It sets the standard of what is to be considered achievement, fulfillment, good
taste, and proper conduct. It conditions desires, defines aspirations and expectations, and draws the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. With audiences around the world increasingly glued to television sets, there is nothing comparable, either in the era of enforced religious orthodoxy or even at the high point of
totalitarian indoctrination, to the cultural and philosophical conditioning that television exercises on its viewers.

The sad fact is that television producers who are cultural pornographers have in effect a competitive advantage over those who are not. The net result is that Western television has become
progressively more and more inclined to the sensual, sexual, and sensational. Even a single days test of the content of the "sitcoms"
that dominate daily viewing, and much of the evening entertainment, not to speak of the advertisements themselves, conveys the foregoing
with intense impact.

Moreover, to the extent that any values can be extrapolated from television programming, they clearly extol self-gratification, they
normalize intense violence and brutality, they encourage sexual promiscuity through example and stimulated peer pressures (advertisements for condoms addressed to American teenagers and
children describe potential customers as sexually "active" -with the obvious negative inference that the others are "inactive") and they
pander to the worst public instincts.

The result is loss of control over social behavior."

---------
I question the "loss of social control" and tend to see it as acquisition of control.

Marshall said (February 4, 2010):

Touche’ on the Larry David article Henry. I’m filing that video right in with Sarah Silverman’s “I’d *&(^ing kill Christ again in heartbeat” folder, beside the sitcom episode of her licking her dog’s behind. I visit “Tzvee’s Talmudic Blog” every so often. He opines on current issues from a Talmudic perspective. I’d be interested to see what his take is on this current David episode. David seems to be getting worse as he goes. I also have to wonder if Seinfeld was actually speechless or was just acting, considering how long they have worked together.

http://tzvee.blogspot.com/

JAK said (February 4, 2010):

You wrote: "This originates from the Sabbatean-Frankist Jewish heresy of the 17th & 18th centuries, a satanic movement which spawned the Illuminati, Communism, Hitler and the holocaust."

Negative, "they" are FAR older than that and go all the way back to the dawn of mankind upon the planet and before that.

Older than Babylon, Memphis, and mankind put together. Now is the time of their final manifestation upon the so called "Earth plane".

Becky said (February 3, 2010):

Henry--'Larry David is a comic genius'??? He is a gutter dweller who does not deserve identity as a human being. He is despicable beyond words. He not only demeans Jews, he demeans morality and virtue of the whole human race. What he does is promote the lowest form of behaviour--that being preying on our children. There is nothing more despicable than that. He should be jailed and the key thrown away for promoting paedophilia. I have never seen or heard the scumbag. Sadly, if this is what passes for 'comedy' we are in worse shape than I thought.

Michael said (February 3, 2010):

Hi Henry. First time responding to one of your articles; I like most of them.

Here's a perspective from a traditional Roman Catholic who has rejected all of the antipopes since John XXIII in 1958.

The enemies of Christ, no matter what title can be attached to them, wish to destroy, not only the Faith, but all Christian morality which is attached to it. This comes not only from a hatred of Our Lord and Saviour (and Judge), but also of His Most Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Such people detest purity and virginity which can help one to lead the holiest of lives, which is very pleasing to God. Such people wish to destroy the natural purity of children, with sex-ed and media filth, and since they have succeeded for the most part, there is a place reserved for them in the deepest pits of hell together with their true love, Satan.

The sexual act is meant to be a consummation of true love, -after- the spiritual unity established by the sacrament of marriage. Its natural fruit is the creation of new life, which itself is the expression of true love - if God did not love us before He created us, we would not be alive.

Original Sin destroyed the Order which God had intended, and, because of this, our lesser, baser selves is constantly in conflict with our higher, intellectual and spiritual selves. Only God's Grace which is obtained primarily through prayer (and the true sacraments, wherever one can find them), together with a firm intention to abstain from all impurity, can we achieve victory over those sins and temptations from the devil.

Sex is not something to be toyed with, since it can result in the creation of a new immortal soul, the image of God, whose destiny is to be together forever with Him in Heaven, but who, like the rest of us, is in danger of falling into hell. But God will not change His plan to accommodate sin. We have to change to accommodate Him in our lives. After all, we owe Him everything, and He owes us nothing.