Don’t Be Alone with the Opposite Sex After Sundown

September 20, 2009

In anticipation of the 7^th season premiere of the always-hilarious Curb Your Enthusiasm tonight, check out this religion-related clip from season 5.

The setup: Larry David is pretending to be an Orthodox Jew. He gets stuck on a ski lift with an Orthodox Jewish woman. According to Jewish law, a single woman is not allowed to be next to a man who is not her husband after sundown…

Let the hilarity ensue:

I’m with Larry. Some religious people are just $&#%ing nuts. Not every law in a holy book needs to be followed at all times.

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Alec

I love that episode! I love the part when Larry eats the edible panties, and offers her some.
«bønez_brigade»

lulz!
The Christ Nail episode is also blasphemously brilliant.
muggle

And to think, I was saying, “Christ, it’s just candy. Eat some already.” When she started telling him to jump, I was saying out loud, “No, fucking way, hon.!” Personally, I’d have been more worried about frostbite.
Jonas

Not every law in a holy book needs to be followed at all times.

Hemant is correct, and Jewish law does recognize extenuating circumstances, as Larry David’s character pointed out. As an example breastfeeding babies do not have to fast. So I think this episode misses it here. At best humor, and worst a straw man fallacy.
shaun

Some religious people are just $&#%ing nuts. Not every law in a holy book needs to be followed at all times.

Couldn’t you substitute the word “religious” with just about any other word and the sentence still be true? Isn’t it a common comedic strategy to take the everyday and exaggerate it into something funny?

Your second sentence would likely be true if your assumptions are:
1. A ‘holy book’ is a set of laws.
2. There is no authority behind the book. Could your same argument be said of the U.S. penal system? Not legally.

For the record the Bible is not simply a set of laws to be followed.
suzanna

well, off the can’t-laugh-or-crack-a-smile-commentary, i thought it was hilarious
Judith Bandsma

Jewish law not only recognizes extenuating circumstances but she was wrong about not being allowed to be with him there. The ‘rule’ pertains to behind closed doors. Even if it were in a house or apartment, if the doors are left open she wouldn’t be in violation.

And the second place where she screwed the pooch was when she jumped. She put herself at risk for serious injury or death and that’s a no-no unless it’s in the defense of the life of another.

I guess all religions have their members who thump their handbooks rather than read them…let alone try to understand them.
Vincent

shaun,
your first point is true, but your second point is not.
The civil law does also allow for extenuating circumstances for enforcement of some, if not all laws.

p.s.
I thought the joke was that she had her phone on her the whole time but never used it.
Gabriel G.

@Vincent
Maybe they didn’t have a signal?

@Judith
I think that was probably the point of the scene, not to make fun of religious people in general, but to make fun of the fucking nuts ones.
Polly

That was the first episode I ever watched. Jumping off the lift? @#$ing nuts is right! I burst out laughing when Larry said that. All the pretension suddenly disappeared. It was fun to see him stop groveling and “get real” all of a sudden when the nuttiness stopped being harmless. It was a good build to that scene because normally he can’t keep himself from talking, to his own detriment – like the skin cream episode.

The best episode was the burqa-blind-date.
CatBallou

The phone was irrelevant—the authorities already knew that the lift was stuck.
I seem to recall a real case like this in law school, though. The girl was Muslim, and she jumped to her death. Her family brought a wrongful-death suit.

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