Jewish Ephemera: Larry David Calls Col. Muammar Gaddafi

If somebody asked me to explain the early 80s television show Fridays to them, I’d either tell them that, “It was the show where Andy Kaufman got into a fight with cast members because he didn’t want to perform a sketch,” or I’d tell them, “It was the poor man’s Saturday Night Live.”

One of the few things the show had in common was Larry David.  Fridays employed David as a writer and cast member during its two-year run, and SNL (under) utilized David’s talents for one year as a writer who only got one sketch to run. David quit the show midway through the season, only to return to work the next Monday like nothing happened.  If that sounds like the plot of a Seinfeld episode, that’s because it is.

But long before David would mine personal moments into comedic gold with Jerry Seinfeld, and later on Curb Your Enthusiasm, he was using Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi in his skits.  Nearly thirty years before the United States would wage a war that isn’t really a war according to our government, Larry David was making jokes about the dictator.

Wait, doesn’t that sound a bit like a Seinfeld skit too?  That was “a show about nothing,” and the conflict in Libya is a war that isn’t really a war.

Interesting…