I am here today to spread the wisdom of Larry David, who plays a character by the same name on my favorite TV show, "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
If you've watched "Curb," which opened its ninth season in hilarious form last Sunday night on HBO, you know by now that David portrays a blunt, cantankerous character who, among other traits, is, as his always-funny friend and occasional co-star Richard Lewis once said on the show, "a language cop."
David demands that people take the English language at face value and not give in to short cuts or "Orwellian abuses. David is clearly no fan of the Internet shorthand "LOL," for instance.
What's wrong with that?
On the show, David will have no compunction about telling the hostess of a dinner party that her potatoes were cold or that teenagers were not a welcomed site at an adult gathering. He speaks his mind.
Wouldn't you want your friends to tell you if your clothes fit badly or even that your parking skills needed shaping up?
Wouldn't the United States, for starters, be a much better country if the distinguished men and women of the U.S. Congress told one another exactly what they think of their legislative ideas or scandalous behavior and didn't mince words?
Wouldn't the voters be impressed if one of the representatives told the absolute truth once in a while, just for a change? I sure would.
Maybe David does go overboard in his crude remarks now and then, but it is a fair trade-off for the mealy mouthed talk that passes for conversations among friends, too. Sometimes people need to be jarred, and Larry is just the guy to do it for them.
Rest assured, in season nine, "Curb" is just as funny as ever. I've already seen a few of the upcoming HBO episodes, and I can assure that if you liked the first eight seasons, you'll totally love the ninth installment. I don't know how David keeps coming up with such brilliant plot lines year after year, but I'm glad he shares them with the rest of us misanthropes.
Jon Friedman writes the Media Web column for MarketWatch.com. Click here to read his latest column.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.