Larry David Say His Mom Wrote to Columnist Worried He 'Hates People' at 12 Years Old

While Larry David has made a successful career out of having a general disdain for humanity, the curmudgeonly 76-year-old comedian has apparently been griping about people his whole life! Long before he and Jerry Seinfeld took their unique schtick of griping about human foibles and behaviors to the national airwaves on Seinfeld -- and later on David's own Curb Your Enthusiasm -- his general attitude was leaving his mother concerned. Chatting with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Tuesday, David shared his long-held conviction that his mother called him out (anonymously) at just 12 years old when she wrote into a newspaper columnist about her son. According to David, his mother was a huge fan of a syndicated advice column that ran in the New York Post called "Human Relation," written by psychiatrist Dr. Rose Fanzblau. David said she would talk about the column so much when he was younger that he would even read it from time to time. It was during one such reading that he found something that rang kind of familiar to his young ears. "I recognized that this was my mother writing to the psychiatrist," he said of the letter. "It was my mother, I know it." "She's saying that my son, he's 12 years old, he hates people, he's morose, he's taciturn," David told Fallon while laughing about the memory. "And, what really gave it away, he doesn't trick-or-treat." It was the last detail that convinced David that the article was about him, because he'd already rejected the whole concept of trick-or-treat by the time he was 12. It's a stance he still stands by, calling the Halloween tradition "stupid." "You're dealing with strangers all over the place. Every apartment is a stranger. It's rude to [go] banging on someone's door. It's stupid," David declared. "I didn't want to see all those people. And then the costume?!The costume! You gotta put a costume on? Come on!" It's not the first time that David has mentioned his assertion that his mother wrote the letter he purportedly read all those years ago; he briefly mentioned it in passing for a New York Times interview in 2020. But the New York Post said they've not been able to find it in their archives, nor have archivists at the Columbia University Libraries, who maintain a physical collection of Franzblau's columns and writings. Nevertheless, the anecdote perfectly sums up David's public persona, and suggests that it may have even more roots in his truth than most people have suspected for real. Curb may have been a heightened version of Larry David, but many aspects of it appear to ring true -- and have for at least 64 years.

Moderated by Tomas Kauer Moderated by Tomas Kauer
Apr 18, 2024 - 03:56
Larry David Say His Mom Wrote to Columnist Worried He 'Hates People' at 12 Years Old

While he hasn't confirmed it, 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' star Larry David breaks down for Jimmy Fallon why he is positive his mother wrote the anonymous letter to a prominent psychologist newspaper columnist.

While Larry David has made a successful career out of having a general disdain for humanity, the curmudgeonly 76-year-old comedian has apparently been griping about people his whole life!

Long before he and Jerry Seinfeld took their unique schtick of griping about human foibles and behaviors to the national airwaves on Seinfeld -- and later on David's own Curb Your Enthusiasm -- his general attitude was leaving his mother concerned.

Chatting with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Tuesday, David shared his long-held conviction that his mother called him out (anonymously) at just 12 years old when she wrote into a newspaper columnist about her son.

According to David, his mother was a huge fan of a syndicated advice column that ran in the New York Post called "Human Relation," written by psychiatrist Dr. Rose Fanzblau. David said she would talk about the column so much when he was younger that he would even read it from time to time.

It was during one such reading that he found something that rang kind of familiar to his young ears. "I recognized that this was my mother writing to the psychiatrist," he said of the letter. "It was my mother, I know it."

"She's saying that my son, he's 12 years old, he hates people, he's morose, he's taciturn," David told Fallon while laughing about the memory. "And, what really gave it away, he doesn't trick-or-treat."

It was the last detail that convinced David that the article was about him, because he'd already rejected the whole concept of trick-or-treat by the time he was 12. It's a stance he still stands by, calling the Halloween tradition "stupid."

"You're dealing with strangers all over the place. Every apartment is a stranger. It's rude to [go] banging on someone's door. It's stupid," David declared. "I didn't want to see all those people. And then the costume?!The costume! You gotta put a costume on? Come on!"

It's not the first time that David has mentioned his assertion that his mother wrote the letter he purportedly read all those years ago; he briefly mentioned it in passing for a New York Times interview in 2020.

But the New York Post said they've not been able to find it in their archives, nor have archivists at the Columbia University Libraries, who maintain a physical collection of Franzblau's columns and writings.

Nevertheless, the anecdote perfectly sums up David's public persona, and suggests that it may have even more roots in his truth than most people have suspected for real. Curb may have been a heightened version of Larry David, but many aspects of it appear to ring true -- and have for at least 64 years.

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