Conclusion
Viewing … or, turning away: upending the ‘gaze,’ upending the subject
Like in Fornes’ plays, there has, of course, been “unease” before in the theatre, and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was one of the first plays to really capture that feeling of “unease,” as the airing of one’s private dirty laundry via a spousal quarrel in front of strangers made the audience squirm (and certainly in the 1960s).1 But while one may feel uneasy about watching spouses quarrel in public, one also has trouble not looking away. There is a curiosity factor that keeps one attuned, though the “pressure cooker” is clearly whistling, and one knows when it is time to look away. It is one thing, however, when the audience—or “viewers,” rather—feels they must leave the “pressure cooker” of the performance, but what happens when viewers feel the need to turn away when viewers cannot even look?
To conclude, I intend to play off Laura Mulvey’s seminal essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” to discuss when a viewer simply cannot watch. As such, I attempt to respond to many of the same issues that Mulvey brings up in her essay. Like Mulvey, I will employ a psychoanalytic mode of interpretation to read, in this instance, Curb your Enthusiasm. Unlike Mulvey, who argues that cinema is “a political weapon, demonstrating the way the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form,”2 ultimately, I suggest that the television show, Curb your Enthusiasm, deconstructs the notion of patriarchal privilege by tapping into the audience’s sense of moral disgust. My purpose here is not to disagree with Mulvey but to suggest that an alternative cinema/television show to the patriarchal cinema does exist. But even more so, Curb, as it is affectionately often called, raises the specter of a viewer who can no longer—or does not want to—view.
Visceral displeasure and narrative television: Curb your enthusiasm
The audience’s reaction is generally an either/or reaction to such moral self-degradation: schadenfreude if we align ourselves with the main character, Larry David; denial if we align ourselves with the victims of Larry’s deeds (Larry is simply put into a box of troublemaker [which is an attempt at splitting] and the audience member refuses to acknowledge the unpleasant truths that Larry dwells on); or unease and the uncanny if we recognize the interaction of the two parties (Larry’s ability to [try to] manipulate a situation is both humorous and almost charming and simultaneously morally repulsive). There are three reasons that Curb your Enthusiasm generates these types of reactions: 1) the main character, Larry David (who is [playing] supposedly “himself” in real life), is visually displeasing; 2) self-degradation in the form of humor; and, 3) the assumptions of viewing a “well-made” play/movie are subverted to leave the audience unfulfilled and ill at ease. Ultimately, these taken together, the “gaze” through the eyes of the patriarchal male becomes transformed into a squirming sensation and the difficulty of “gazing” at this show. At times, one must turn away their “gaze” away from the show because of disgust, moral repulsion, and an overwhelming sense of uneasiness and being uncomfortable.
Main character is visually displeasing
Larry is the typical middle-aged Jewish, Woody Allen-type whose neuroses are symbolically marked by his less-than-flattering features: not too tall, wears glasses, has a biggish nose, and has male-pattern baldness. In fact, the boxes of the DVDs for each of the show’s seasons have Larry, in all of his un-glory, making clearly unpleasant faces. In the style of the show—a type of cinema verite—the audience is forcefully drawn through a day or two of Larry’s uncannily typical-and-atypical life. There is no mistaking the fact that Larry is the object of our “gaze.” This is, in part, dictated by the plot of the episodes, which clearly follows a sort of day-in-the-life-of-Larry schema. But this also has to do with the fact that we metaphorically gaze at the world through Larry’s eyes. Larry sees the world as an ugly place and, therefore, we see it as ugly, as well.
Schadenfreude—The audience member either 1) identifies with Larry’s less-than-average appearance and roots for the underdog and enjoys seeing the victims of Larry’s manipulations suffer, or 2) is subconsciously maligned against Larry because of his displeasing looks and this same audience member enjoys seeing Larry suffer.
Denial—The audience member refuses to acknowledge the good, the right, and/or the well-intentioned in Larry because they see his displeasing looks as a sign of his troubled psyche. Therefore, the audience member subconsciously chalks up Larry’s villainy, in part, to his displeasing looks.
Sense of the Uncanny—The audience member sees both Larry’s well-intentioned nature, but also his anti-establishment values. This might be reflected in Larry’s clothes: he attempts to look nice (usually wears khaki or corduroy pants and, sometimes, a sports jacket), but he rebels in defiance against fashion (and by extension, society) by wearing sneakers. As demonstrated by the sneakers’ casualness, this inability to take things seriously is threatening to audience members who see life as intrinsically purposeful and good. In terms of his physiognomy, Larry is unthreatening as an unheroic, middle-aged man, but his willingness (or enjoyment) of engaging in societally threatening behavior is too much for this audience member who pushes Larry away.
Self-degradation
It must be acknowledged that this television show decidedly plays off Jewish humor, and especially, its use of self-degradation. Continuing from the previous section, the very fact that Larry is not particularly good-looking and generally suffers, in the end, can be seen in stark contrast to the Hollywood hero whose dashing good looks help the audience align himself or herself with how genuinely good they are and how this hero is rewarded at the end for his heroism and goodness (that are implied by his manly, but woman-appealing qualities).
Schadenfreude—The audience member who is self-degrading himself or herself will not mind the failings of Larry and will, subconsciously, see these failings as a way to cope with the same hostile world that Larry encounters.
Denial—The audience member who has a lack of self-confidence and cannot make fun of himself or herself will undoubtedly find the show’s self-degrading humor as threatening. This type of audience member will actually see themselves in Larry, in their unflattering view of themselves, and hate themselves. The other response will be to project their own feelings of unworthiness onto Larry and thus detest in Larry what they detest in themselves.
Sense of the Uncanny—The audience member who is not used to this type of humor will not fully understand Larry and the show’s self-degrading nature. After all, Larry is the creator of Seinfeld, is married to a beautiful wife (for most of the seven seasons), and has rich and famous friends. How can someone so successful put themselves down so much, this audience member asks. The conclusion is that there must be something wrong with him, or he is maligned with the world, or just simply so neurotic that we must pass him off as societally unfit.
The “well-made play”
Eugene Scribe is credited with pioneering the form of the “well-made play.” His 1842 play, The Glass of Water, is a masterpiece in play construction. The fate of characters and nations rests on simply a glass of water. By the end of the play, the audience experiences a sense of satisfaction in that all of the potentially entropic elements of the play are neatly put back into order. The good guys win; the bad guys lose.
However, in Curb your Enthusiasm, which extends the structure pioneered by Seinfeld, the audience experiences the same sense of entropy-based upon trifling objects or actions. However, unlike in the well-made play, or in a typical Hollywood romantic comedy, the sense of entropy usually climaxes at the moment the show ends, offering no chance of order or redemption. This absence of a dénouement was felt similarly by early audiences who saw Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. However, whereas Waiting for Godot ended without an “end,” there was also an absence of a climax. To end with a climax without resolution, Curb your Enthusiasm does not allow for any type of comedic catharsis that is needed by the audience because of the buildup of comedic, dramatic tension.
Schadenfreude—The audience member who, especially, is prone to dislike him and wants to see him suffer will be rewarded because Larry is stuck in a moment of unease and entropy himself. Larry does not get a nice resolution, and thus, this type of audience member gets to see Larry in an extremely uncomfortable position.
Denial—The audience member who needs resolution and happy endings will be unsatisfied and left with agitation because there is no resolution. Whereas Larry can clearly bounce back from awkward or uncomfortable situations, this audience member cannot. The typical response is to say that Curb your Enthusiasm is a bad show and/or poorly made. This was a typical early response to Waiting for Godot.
Sense of the Uncanny—The audience member both sees how everything wraps up in the end, with a sensical climax, but he or she is also aware of the lack of an ending where he or she can let go of the dramatic tension that has built up. The negative visceral response to not being fulfilled is too much for the pleasure of the intellect.
⋆⋆⋆
The visceral displeasure brought on by Curb your Enthusiasm functions as a way of heightening our senses to the absurdity of the world, where, via Camus, our desires are not met by the reality of the world. Through Larry, the audience is faced with the failure of a patriarchal figure (one whose color, success, and wealth all signify the supposed power of the white male). Instead of seeing that patriarchal figure enact order on the world, the world and all of its inhabitants create a world of chaos for Larry that is echoed by subverting the “well-made play.” Larry’s imperfect looks and his self-degrading humor turn the patriarchy into a neurotic failure. Those who can wade through the visceral displeasure of Curb your Enthusiasm will be rewarded by seeing their own imperfections in themselves and their own world astutely observed in Larry and his world.