GLENN: You know, good comedy is hard to pull it off. Larry David proved it on Saturday Night over the weekend, because he didn't pull it off. His opening monologue fell completely flat, which is weird, because Larry David has become a professional comedian in one form or another for decades. And he can be really, really funny. But, you know, live stand-up is -- is hard. And he went places that not everybody would go.
He started his monologue struggling through jokes about the homeless. Blind people. Ugly people. Sexual predators. A few laughs here and there. A lot of dead air. It was awkward.
But that's Larry David. He's an awkward guy. Surely, it could only go up from those topics. Right?
No. Uh-uh. No. He ended the skit, talking about how he would have hit on women, even if he had been in a concentration camp during the haul. Listen.
DAVID: I've always, always been obsessed with women. And I've often wondered, if I had grown up in Poland when Hitler came to power and was sent to a concentration camp, would I still be checking out women in the camp?
(laughter)
DAVID: I think I would, you know. Hey, Slo-mo, Slo-mo, look at that one by Barracks Eight. Oh, my God. Is she gorgeous. Oh. I've had my eye on her for weeks. I'd like to go up and say something to her.
Of course, the problem is, there are no good opening lines at a concentration camp.
(laughter)
How's it going?
They treating you okay?
You know, if we ever get out of here, I'd love to take you for some (inaudible).
You like that? What? What did I say?
Is it me or is it the whole thing? It's because I'm bald, isn't it?
GLENN: I have to be honest with you, first of all, you have one of the biggest comedy stages in the country. It's not like you need to reach for the Holocaust joke to fill time. But I have to tell you, this is Larry David. This is Larry David.
STU: It's what he does.
GLENN: It's what he does.
This is Seinfeld. If -- if Seinfeld wasn't this all the time, the uncomfortable, ugliest thing you could possibly say -- the thing that changed television with Seinfeld was that Seinfeld was a show about people you wouldn't like. You wouldn't want to hang out with. There was nobody on the show that was truly happy. They were all miserable, with an exception of maybe Cramer.
And he was just crazy. Everyone else was unlikable.
Well, Seinfeld was Larry David. Seinfeld's George. That's the real guy. You don't think George would have said that in the 1990s?
Do you know who Colonel Klink was on Hogan's Heroes? Werner Klemperer. Look him up. See his family history take a minute. And Google him.
He became Colonel Klink, making fun of a concentration camp?
Werner Klemperer? Huh?
Look, I don't -- I mean, he's a professional comedian, you know, with decades of material to draw on. A week of Washington political news, you know, could -- he could probably do that without breaking a sweat. He's cranky. He's willing to say the non-PC joke. I don't know -- I don't get getting for the Holocaust thing, especially in the year that America is having. But if you don't like it, turn it off.