What We Can Learn From Larry David and Beavis & Butthead

Larry David recently wrapped up Curb Your Enthusiasm, a show where the actors were given the story outline and then were tasked with improvising their way through the scene, doing take after take, until they had enough good stuff for the show.

The Smartless podcast hosts recently asked Larry how he handled special guest appearances, specifically when an actor, unused to the improv format, was bombing.  

David’s response: I would tell them to stop trying to be funny. It was the people who were forcing the comedy that were the least funny. 

This week I have been laughing about Saturday Night Live’s Beavis & Butthead sketch.

The idea for the sketch was on the table for five years before they finally decided Ryan Gosling was the perfect guest host to pull it off. As random and funny as the bit was, it was show player Heidi Gardner’s not being able to keep it together that gets the biggest laugh.

If you’re reading this, you probably do a show or podcast. And I bet you can recall the funniest moments on your show being improvised, not scripted. The funniest moments that I hear on shows every week are moments when people are not trying to be comedians, but are being their awkward, imperfect selves. 

Keep showing up, and showing up as your honest imperfect self!