Vince Young Enthusiasm

by Peter Bean on Apr 13, 2007 12:45 PM CDT in Texas Longhorns Football

Well, hot damn! Via Deadspin, I just learned that Larry David is a Vince Young fan!

Yes, according to Sports Review Magazine, the Seinfeld creator who currently stars as himself in the HBO hit comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm begged the New York Jets to draft the former Longhorn superstar in last year's NFL draft:

Sports Illustrated just confirmed something relayed to us last year by a New York Jets assistant: Larry David is in regular communication with Jets brass and staff, relaying advice, especially at draft time. Now, David will soon dine with Jets GM, Scouting Director and even head coach Eric Mangini with his draft advice. This is no joke. Apparently David reads all the scouting reports, watches game film, breaks it down. Last year he begged the Jets to take Vince Young, who had a remarkable rookie year, despite our shouting that his Wonderlic proved he'd never navigate complicated NFL defensive schemes.

So, along with being one of the funniest human beings ever to live, Larry David is also a football junkie and has enough wits to recognize Vince Young's pro potential.

This more or less made my day...

--PB--

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by the way

ever since Curb Your Enthusiasm started, I feel like Seinfeld (Jerry and the show) has been substantially devalued. I always wondered how someone whose stand-up schtick I never really found all that funny could create a show that was so off the wall fantastic. Well, now I know: Larry David. His genius is only confirmed by his VY love.

Curb is everything Seinfeld could have been had it not had to follow at least some of the sitcom conventions of the time (laugh track, etc.). But it's Larry David, not Jerry Seinfeld, who (we now see) was the driving force behind all the non-conformist ideas of the show. It's sad, in a way, to get to understand some of the behind the scenes creative process. It sort of ruins the enjoyment of the show itself. Sort of like realizing that the Lost producers didn't have Ben written in the series past the 2nd season, but they realized he was popular so they kept him. It sucks to realize that they don't have the entire thing plotted out. That to a certain extent, they're just making it up as they go.

It's like watching sausage get made or, to take an issue near and dear to me, it's like working within the criminal justice (specifically capital punishment) system. Once you see what actually goes into it, your perception of it is never the same.

by billyzane on Apr 13, 2007 1:30 PM CDT reply actions

curb and lost

I couldn't disagree with you more. Seinfeld certainly owes a great debt to Larry David, but I think it was the incredible result of the perfect blending of the two creators -- not Larry saving Jerry.

And as much as I love Curb, it has had about as many clunkers in its 50 episodes that Seinfeld had in its 180 (confirmed by rewatching the DVD sets).

But why let the behind-the-scenes process ruin your enjoyment of any show? Do you think Lost has suffered with Ben still playing a role? (By the way, where's your info on this?) Would you rather the creators have kept trying to pigeonhole Nikki and Paulo into storylines when their introduction clearly wasn't working? I don't understand the logic.

There's no way they can have the entire thing plotted out episode by episode. Plus some things probably work a lot better on the page than on the screen. Season 2 failed because of the forced story of the "tailies" and the prolonged split of the initial survivors. Was that plotted out?

by Jason Mayer on Apr 13, 2007 2:37 PM CDT up reply actions

i know, i know...

it's completely irrational to believe that they have this elaborate story with everything plotted out. i just wish they did. it seems less like a magical story unfolding one episodde at a time, but instead more contrived, based on the vicissitudes of life. i mean, of course it's contrived, everything is. but it's harder to immerse yourself in some art form if you know how it was made.

for instance, "Adaptation" made it harder for me to enjoy charlie kaufman's other movies (being john malkovich, eternal sunshine, etc.) because as i watch them, i just think about charlie kaufman (played by nic cage of course) typing this dialogue out on a typewriter and generally being weird.

if you know the person that wrote something, it makes it harder (though of course not impossible) to enjoy their writing purely for what it is on its own because you begin reading with preconceived notions about what it's going to be like and you spend more time thinking about how it was written than about what you're actually reading.

it's not impossible to overcome certainly, but it makes it harder for me.

by billyzane on Apr 13, 2007 4:44 PM CDT up reply actions

same feeling

I share a similar feeling to the one you referred to with the behind-the-scenes in Seinfeld. After I worked at a restaurant when I was 16, dining out seemed so much less appealing. I feel like part of what made restaurants so good to me was that mystique I felt when I imagined my food being cooked by the top chef (and not some cook who had been there for a week). After I worked there, it was almost embarrassing to dine with people who heaped praises on the food because really, it's all just an impersonal food assembly line.

by whoopspat on Apr 13, 2007 5:20 PM CDT up reply actions

lost and BENJAMIN LINUS

wow, talking about lost on a BON forum. This is a sweet escape from work. I also hope I'm not banned for this. Obviously not every single thing in the whole show is planned out, but I think that they always intended to have the ben character, they just didn't know it was going to be that actor, and they didn't know they were going to introduce him in that way. I think it's pretty absurd at this point to think that the writers don't have some sort of overall plan to endgame the series. Maybe I'm in denial (and I probably am), but I guess after so much time devoted to watching it, I'm really not prepared to listen to reason in refuting my claim.

also, I never got the curb sense of humor. I'm a huge arrested development fan though. Does one sense of humor have intellectual superiority over the other? can they overlap? Why aren't our scrimmages on ESPN HD?

by cowboyhorn on Apr 13, 2007 5:41 PM CDT up reply actions

well...

i'm not quite sure how you're an arrested development fan (the funniest show in the history of the universe) and not a curb your enthusiasm fan, but the fact that you're an arrested development fan is good enough for me. i'll take arrested humor over curb humor any day.

by billyzane on Apr 14, 2007 12:42 AM CDT up reply actions

by the way...

that took like 7 drafts because i'm drunk off my ass. but i still like to look presentable. seriously, this post has taken like 4 drafts also. i'm drunk. leave me alone. as a side note, why hasn't anyone mentioned that kurt vonnegut died? one of the top 5 authors of my lifetime. i'm hurt. just because this is a sports blog? to quote GOB....."COME ON!" it's the offseason! let's get some vonnegut love... seriously though, i need help.

by billyzane on Apr 14, 2007 12:50 AM CDT up reply actions

lo siento

I'm sorry for antagonizing you. Just know that I am better than you. YOu know why? My name is Aleksey Vayner (Vaynor?). Watch my Youtube Video. And then watch my George Michael spoof of my video resume I sent into an investment banking firm, which they subsequently leaked to youtube. And then check out my wikipedia page, of which you can see I am the biggest liar ever.

I need to stop hating things. I'll go watch curb now. To make it up to you for making you try to look so presentable. ROFLCOPTER!

Night.

by cowboyhorn on Apr 14, 2007 1:40 AM CDT up reply actions

I met Kurt Vonnegut once

He was an angry old man, and he threw a hard, glass ashtray at female friend of mine.

My memories of the event are actually quite affectionate, as I believe he went up in my estimation that day. He did, after all, survive the bombing of Dresden, so who am I to correct the demeanor of a man who has seen (and produced) more than I ever will. Rest in Peace old man.

by BrooklynHorn on Apr 14, 2007 11:38 AM CDT up reply actions

I always saw two minds behind "Seinfeld"

The coincidental and ironic plot-twists along with the everyone-is-too-judgemental, the-world-is-out-to-get-me aspect was a product of Larry David.

The superman jokes and the wordplay ("he's a close-talker / she's a re-gifter") was Seinfeld's contribution.

Basically, Curb Your Enthusiasm is Seinfeld without the boyish humor.

by BrooklynHorn on Apr 13, 2007 3:05 PM CDT up reply actions

Except...

...when David left the show, the plot twists got more ironic and more coincidental (I identify phases of the show by Elaine's hair style, though you will still see David as a writer on a few episodes later on). Without him, it was a much cheesier, self-referential, cartoonish show. Still hilarious, but you got much less from the characters and more from the weird situations they found themselves in.

I saw this HBO thing honoring Seinfeld recently, and he was complimented for being a wordsmith. I think 'Seinfeld' is a lot of Larry David's mind through Seinfeld's more palatable showmanship. A lot of the plots revolved around "low talkers," "re-gifters," etc., which seems like Jerry's way of "sitcomming" Larry David's social neuroses - you never hear phrases like that on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' and you do hear a lot more argument and direct conflict. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

by smq on Apr 16, 2007 8:39 AM CDT up reply actions

if you happen to be in new york

go on the "Kramer Reality Tour." The real Kramer talks for almost an hour about the impact and all the things Larry did on that show, it's very interesting if you're a fan. And then you get in a bus and ride around New York with the guy. I don't know if he still does it though, that was like five years ago.

by greenman on Apr 16, 2007 10:40 AM CDT up reply actions

Curb

This should call for a Curb Your Enthusiasm 54b Weekly Challenge. I think it'd be prettyyyyy pretttyyyy pretttyyy good.

by greenman on Apr 13, 2007 1:36 PM CDT reply actions

PTI talked about Larry David

a few weeks ago. I think it was a discussion of celebs giving sports advice and Tony mentioned Larry David. That was the first time I had heard of Larry's sports obsession.

Does anyone know if Curb will ever come out with new episodes? I've seen just about every one multiple times.

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Apr 13, 2007 2:10 PM CDT reply actions

curb

They started filming early this year and new episodes will probably start airing in the fall or early winter.

At least, that seems to be the plan right now.

by Jason Mayer on Apr 13, 2007 2:26 PM CDT up reply actions

fave episode

was when he smoked out with his dad and picked up a prostitute so he can go in the HOV lane..hilarious!

by bachelorette on Apr 13, 2007 3:50 PM CDT reply actions

Great minds...

I like that Larry David is a VY fan, because I was such a huge VY fan. I was really upset when the Saints signed Drew Brees. I wanted a placeholder guy like Jon Kitna and then Young in the draft. I could lie about that, because it worked out so well with Brees and Reggie Bush falling in the Saints' lap, but at the time I kept saying there is no one I could sign, no move I could make that would entice me to give up the chance to draft Vince Young. I may look dumb about Brees and Kitna, but not about Young.

by smq on Apr 16, 2007 8:28 AM CDT reply actions