Those of us who felt compelled to rewatch beloved shows during the more locked-down days of the pandemic may have noticed a certain “ruckus” was missing from the earlier seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm. That’s because, if you’ve acclimated to the pace of the later seasons, especially nine through 11, Leon Black (portrayed by actor/writer/comedian J.B. Smoove) has been a force in defining it.
Where Larry David is self-loathing, Leon is all self-love; when Larry has a wild idea, Leon either immediately cosigns it, or goes wilder. And Larry supports Leon’s big schemes as well, even driving him to different spots around town to step in for workers who need someone to watch their post as they go pee (a business endeavor Leon and Larry named Gotta Go in season 11). The comedic escalation that Smoove’s improvising chops have brought to this show is rare and undeniable.
Really, what better than to see Larry with a live-in best friend, an always-there sounding board who reserves what appears to be his one stated commitment, hosting “Big Johnson Club” meetings, for times when his pal is out of town? And Leon gets a sweet place to live rent-free in L.A. with all the cheeses and meats—and pickles—he could possibly want out of this deal. Larry’s other pals typically play the straight man to him. He needs a pal for antics, and that’s exactly where Leon comes in in all his confident and whimsical glory. So before the show enters its 12fth and final season on February 4, we’re counting down just 10 of the times Smoove was the best thing on Curb.
10. Leon is “in the house” (“The Bisexual,” season 8, episode 7)
Larry is in New York City, staying in a swanky spot, and Leon road trips it his way to crash with him for no real reason (of course). It’s great when they go from the topic of Larry pursuing a bisexual woman who seems interested in both Larry and Rosie O’Donnell to assessing their level of attractiveness to each other if they themselves were bisexual. Leon really physicalizes how he would “regurgitate [his] own shit” at the thought of being with Larry. But the best part is more subtle. When Leon first walks into the fancy suite where Larry’s staying, he stands in front of the windows looking over an expansive city view and shouts, “New York City, baby! I’m here!” Then he turns to Larry and says “You’ve gotta tell people you’re here sometimes, right?” Leon: the king of great asides.
9. Leon and Larry work on the Spite Store “(You’re Not Going To Get Me To Say Anything Bad About Mickey,” season 10, episode 4)
What can we say? We love it when Leon handles the electrician working on Latte Larry’s (Larry’s spite store) by chewing him out over the phone to make him head over sooner. (He “gets in dat ass,” so to speak.) We also love when Mocha Joe brings them some of his coffee to flex on them with his superior beans and Leon says, “Fuck you, Vanilla Joe!” But we especially love the montage of Larry and Leon going all around L.A. trying different coffees—anything from a food-truck variety to some brewed in a fancy, lab-like drip configuration—with pensive expressions, ultimately rejecting each one. Imagine if Larry went on this quest alone. It just wouldn’t hit the same.
8. Once Leon starts laughing… (“Running With The Bulls,” season 9, episode 4)
It’s kind of a thing with Leon: He loves talking about his “big Johnson.” When Larry starts complaining about some pants he has with a short fly, it gives Leon the perfect opportunity to really get descriptive about his pants, where he buys them (Jamaica) and some of the issues his anatomy has caused him. It’s funny, but that’s not why this makes the list. It’s how he steals the moment when Jeff lets himself in and tries to have his own conversation with Larry. They’re talking about Richard Lewis, Jeff says something, and Leon chuckles. Jeff turns to Leon and asks if he and Larry can have a moment alone, but Leon self-advocates, “Once I start laughing, I’m a part of this shit.” We can use that, probably.
7. Leon calls out a pretentious Pickle Boy (“The Pickle Gambit,” season 9, episode 2)
As soon as Marty Funkhauser introduces his nephew to Larry and Leon, and starts listing off all the clubs and activities he takes part in, we see Leon’s expression sour. He says nobody can “do all that shit in one day.” We know he’s not gonna like this kid. He hates an overachiever—it’s contrary to Leon’s whole vibe. So when the poor boy’s pitching arm gets whacked and cracks in a tug of war to be the guy to open a tricky pickle jar and he’s heading off to the hospital, Leon is all too eager to shout the funniest line of the episode (and one of the show’s best): “You’re doing too much! Valedictorian? Now you want to be Pickle Boy!”
6. Leon shares some TV faves (“The Surprise Party,” season 10, episode 6)
This really could have been a boring, strictly expository scene—but not with Leon around. Larry is telling Freddy Funkhauser his suspicions about the guy who has engineered some special mugs to keep coffee from getting cold at Latte Larry’s, as well as his feeling that Susie may have ill intentions trying to throw Jeff a surprise party when the man has a heart condition. We know those things are going to matter plot-wise, but the scene is only really entertaining because Leon is there, latching onto any weird little detail that reminds him of something he likes. He goes from talk about how he loves tornado chasers (but they’re “dumb as fuck”) to an invention he has in mind (“Pussy Tea”) to Columbo being so convincing as a TV detective that by the end of watching an episode, he thought he himself had done the crime. He makes the whole scene.
5. Leon channels Danny Duberstein (“The Table Read,” season 7, episode 9)
Dressing up and pretending to be someone else to trick a person is such a classic gag, and it’s a joy to see Leon do it. During the show’s fictional Seinfeld reboot, Leon comes to Michael Richards as Danny Duberstein, a Jewish survivor of Groat’s Disease, there to counsel and comfort Richards who has just been diagnosed himself. Leon makes up so much shit, both to establish himself as Jewish (he says he’s been bar mitzvahed three times, every 13 years to “recharge the mitzvah” and keep it at “mitzvah capacity”) and to ensure him that he has had, and beaten, Groat’s Disease. He makes up some truly outrageous symptoms, like everything tasting like peaches or forgetting how to multiply due to Groat’s. But the wildest part is when he credits his recovery from the illness to the hat that he’s wearing. “This hat saved my life,” he says. And Richards buys it … for a while.
4. Leon teaches Larry how to deal with bigots (“The Lefty Call,” season 6, episode 4)
When Larry encounters a skinhead at the doctor’s office, who lobs some slurs at him, and he comes to Leon for advice, his pal offers him a simple, yet not so simple, answer: “get in dat ass.” (Fun fact: This is apparently one of the lines that gets shouted at Smoove most when he’s recognized in public.) We say his answer is not so simple, because he elaborates on its meaning in the most kaleidoscopic way. You’re not supposed to just get in someone’s face and give them a verbal tongue-lashing to defend your manhood; you have to, “pull that asshole open, step into [it],” spray-paint, “Larry was here, wash me, all that kind of shit”—and even throw paper on the floor: Snickers wrappers, the newspaper you apparently just read while you were in there. And of course, you leave that asshole open when you exit. How else would he know you’ve been there? This was early in Smoove’s run on the show, and it establishes exactly the kind of wildly inventive improvisational mind he has.
3. Leon hints at a colorful past (“Foisted!” season 9, episode 1)
This whole clip is great, from Leon delivering an explanation of what distinguishes “lampin’” from “chillin’” (the former is done with feet up, while the latter is done upright) to sharing his belief that Jimmy Kimmel “foisted” an ineffective assistant onto Larry (i.e. recommended her knowing full well she was bad at her job). As Larry details his woes concerning this bad assistant calling out sick due to a simple case of constipation, Leon jumps in to take his side and share a few impressive things he has done while constipated: shot a porno, ran a 5K, and entered a hot-dog-eating contest (and won). And hey, according to the actor, those little facts of Leon’s life may just pop up again sometime. (We hope they do.)
2. Leon enjoys a forbidden fruit (“The Watermelon,” season 11, episode 4)
Larry walks into the kitchen to find a fruity smell and Leon “scurrying” back to the kitchen table. A quick peek in the trash reveals a half watermelon, clearly just cast aside. After admitting that his fear of serving as a visual confirmation of a persistent stereotype about Black people has kept Leon from enjoying his “favorite fucking fruit in the world,” the two men go grocery shopping together to buy the foods they’ve been keeping from themselves for ethnic reasons (Larry, a Jewish fellow, buys gefilte fish), and Leon even makes a new pal who has lived with the same shame about his own love of watermelon. It’s funny, but it’s also … sweet?
1. Leon describes courtship in the 1940s (“Insufficient Praise,” season 10, episode 5)
Leon goes through some of Larry’s parents’ boxed-up stuff with him, and they find some neat old junk. First, there’s Larry’s baseball glove, which looks, to Leon, like the kind a little kid might have played with during the polio scourge. “I didn’t have polio, asshole,” Larry snaps back. Then, there’s Larry’s mother’s mink stole, which prompts Leon to explain to Larry what gender roles were like in the 1940s: fellas calling women “Toots”—as in “Hey, Toots”—and women seductively wagging a finger at men while saying, “Poo poo pa doop,” as a “cute thing” to get “a rise out of guys.” Yes, he acts it out. And yes, it’s the best.
Meredith Hobbs Coons writes for the A.V. club, which like The Root is owned by G/O media.
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