Curb Your Enthusiasm “The Nanny From Hell”

Well, that’s something.  Like, sometimes Larry says something that gets him in trouble, and it makes no sense why anyone would get that upset.  But then there’s times like this episode where he says something completely inexplicable, and I can honestly say I don’t know why Larry would say such a thing, and he deserves to get in trouble for it.

So, there’s a lot going on here.  For one thing, Larry’s stubbornness still means the restaurant lacks a head chef, but that’s a minor thing for this episode.  Then there’s how Jeff and Suzie are getting back together in part because Suzie is pregnant.  There’s a bakery going out of business, and Jeff loves the sponge cake, but Suzie isn’t so pleased when Larry buys a dozen cakes in saran wrap.

But then there are two things that stand out.  First, Larry and Jeff, with their wives, are invited to a pool party for another investor, the man responsible for Bartlett’s Book of Quotations, and Richard Lewis would love nothing more than to get in there for allegedly coining the phrase “the _____ from Hell.”  Did Richard Lewis coin that phrase?  Probably not, but he thinks he did.  Anyway, Larry and Co. spot the man’s young son’s penis, and the kid is apparently hung like an adult, and Larry for some reason feels the need to complement his business partner on that fact.

Um, why?  Cripes, Larry, you got what you deserved for that one.

But then there’s the Nanny from Hell, a woman Larry got fired when he talked her into letting him use the bathroom at the pool party.  She’s played by Cheri Oteri–what the heck ever happened to her anyway?–and she’s like a character from a different, much zanier show.  And in this case, that is not a complaint.  After her dismissal, she shows up at Larry’s house with a suitcase, and she’s prone to flashbacks involving the Loony Tunes characters.  That makes sense.  She’s a bit daffy herself.

As it is, in many episodes, Larry’s falling out with the editor would be the end of a given episode, but since he managed to get the Nanny from Hell hired at Jeff and Suzie’s, the episode actually ends with a flashback where an injured Suzie recounts how the Nanny, overhearing the Loony Tunes theme, went nuts, and in the course of the scuffle, knocked Suzie off a balcony.  Fortunately, Suzie was fine since she landed in a pile of sponge cakes.

So, Larry’s massive cake purchase that Suzie hated saved her life.  Granted, Larry was the reason the Nanny from Hell threatened Suzie’s life in the first place…