Despite being considered a misanthrope, there is one way the character of Larry David has shown to be an optimist time and time again on Curb Your Enthusiasm: his catchphrase! Over the course of 12 seasons, periodically Larry froze an episode in its tracks just to really make a meal out of declaring something to be “pretty, pretty good.” Larry doesn’t inherently hate the world — he just hates when things don’t go how he believes they should, which is often. When things do go his way, he won’t just say it’s “good” or “pretty good”; he’ll say it’s “pretty, pretty good,” and sometimes even “pretty, pretty, pretty good.” With Curb Your Enthusiasm’s series finale airing this weekend — during which he’ll possibly say his popular catchphrase one last time — here are the 15 things Larry declared to be pretty, pretty good over the course of the show’s run.
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Episode: “Porno Gil”
Season: One
While lost, Larry flags down then approaches an oncoming car. It’s Brian (Brian Palermo). Earlier that day, Brian dropped one of his golf balls near Larry, but Larry didn’t pick it up because he deemed it “maybe a little closer to [him].” As a result, Brian angrily refuses to help Larry. When Larry returns to his car, Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) asks, “So, how’d it go?” Larry stares blankly ahead and responds, “Good … Pretty good … Prettyy, prettyyy, prettyyyy, pretty good.”
Photo: HBO
Episode: “The Thong”
Season: Two
Larry wants to stop going to therapy after seeing his therapist, Dr. Weiss (John Pleshette), on the beach in a thong, so he tells him, “I think I’m all better.” Dr. Weiss expresses his surprise. Larry responds, “I’m feeling pretty good. Prettyyy, prettyyyy, prettyyy, prettyyyyy, pretty good.”
Episode: “The Survivor”
Season: Four
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After ten years, Larry and Cheryl are renewing their vows (Cheryl’s idea). Larry doesn’t know what to say. The rabbi tells him to speak from his heart. “Things have been good,” he starts. “It’s a very good … relationship … ten years. Pretty good! It’s prettyyyy, prettyyyy, prettyyyy, pretty good.”
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Episode: “The Bowtie”
Season: Five
Marty Funkhouser (Bob Einstein) introduces Larry to Dan (Josh Cooke), the new boyfriend of Marty’s lesbian daughter, Jodi. Impressed that he was not intimidated by the fact that she previously had been with women, Larry says it is “fantastic, great news.” “Pretty good,” he adds with a double finger point. “Prettyyy, prettyyyy, prettyyy, pretty good.”
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Episode: “The Smoking Jacket”
Season: Five
Invited to the Playboy Mansion, Larry runs into Hugh Hefner, flanked by two of the three Girls Next Door, wearing a smoking jacket. Larry gets his dad’s smoking jacket out of the car to show Hugh that he has an identical one. Hugh, despite saying it is a knock-off Roselli, asks to try it on. Larry thinks the jacket looks “pretty good” on Hugh. “Prettyyy, pretty good.”
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Episode: “The End”
Season: Five
Larry dies after giving Richard Lewis his kidney. In heaven, he mentions to his guides (Dustin Hoffman and Sacha Baron Cohen) that he noticed he hasn’t had to go to the bathroom since arriving and wonders if that is going to continue being the case. If so, “that’s gonna be prettyy good … prettyy good.”
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Episode: “Meet the Blacks”
Season: Six
After trying a piece at Marty Funkhouser’s house, Larry and Cheryl want to get the same cake for a party they are having for the Blacks, a New Orleans family displaced by a recent hurricane. However, once they realize the cake is from an erotic bakery, they decide to not serve it at their party. Jeff (Jeff Garlin) did not realize it was an erotic bakery and brings the cake, which is shaped like a giant penis, to the party, and horrifies the Black children. After the party, Larry is eating a giant slice alone in the kitchen when their mother, Loretta Black (Vivica A. Fox), approaches. She asks, defiantly, “How’s the cake?” With cake in his mouth, he mumbles, “Pretty good … prettyyy, pretty good.”
Photo: HBO
Episode: “Anonymous Donor”
Season: Six
At the opening of the NRDC, Larry sees the signage that reads “Wing Donated by Larry David” and is excited. “Never had a wing before!” he tells Cheryl. “That’s pretty good … Prettyyy good.” (Of course, moments later, he sees a wing donated by “Anonymous,” and it’s a whole thing.)
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Episode: “Freak Book”
Season: Six
Larry is attending Ted Danson’s birthday party (he got him a coffee-table book about freaks). He approaches a bartender wearing a bowtie. The bartender asks how he’s doing. “I am doing …” he says. He then ponders the question, and with a little point of the finger, responds, “… pretty good. Prettyyy, pretty good.”
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Episode: “Vehicular Fellatio”
Season: Seven
Larry wants to break up with Loretta, so he sets her up with an appointment with a doctor who encourages people with cancer to leave bad relationships. Afterward, while driving with a visibly angry Loretta in the passenger seat, Larry says, “I got a pretty good vibe from that doctor. Prettyyyy, prettyyyy, prettyyyy, pretty good.”
Photo: HBO
Episode: “Foisted”
Season: Nine
After she misses two days of work because she was constipated, Larry wants to fire his assistant (Carrie Brownstein), but feels like he can’t because her uncle molested her many years ago. He realizes his only option is to foist her on someone else, like Jimmy Kimmel foisted her on him. Lucky for him, he runs into Susie (Susie Essman), who tells him that her company Soaps On is really taking off and she needs to hire an assistant. He says she can have his assistant (“best I ever had”) since he’ll be in New York working on his new musical, Fatwa! “I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” she tells Larry. He responds, “Me too.” Susie walks away and shouts “Fantastic!” in celebration. Shouting toward her, but mostly talking to himself, Larry says, “Pretty good! Prettyyy, prettyyyy … pretty, pretty good.”
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Episode: “A Disturbance in the Kitchen”
Season: Nine
After Larry does an impression of the Ayatollah on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the Ayatollah issues a fatwa against him, forcing Larry to live in hiding and wear a disguise when outside the house. He then seeks out Salman Rushdie, who winds up telling him about all the good things about a fatwa. First, of course, is fatwa sex. But there is also the ability to use the fatwa as an excuse to not do things you don’t want to do, like pick someone up from the airport. “You know what’s happening?” Larry asks Salman rhetorically. “I’m feeling pretty good! Prettyyyy, pretty good.”
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Episode: “Artificial Fruit”
Season: Ten
In developing his store to spite Mocha Joe, Larry seeks out the pastry chef responsible for the best scone he ever had. Chulu (William Stanford Davis) hasn’t baked for years, but decides to make scones again because of a similar hatred of Mocha Joe. He whips up a batch for Larry. Larry takes a bite. “Well, whatcha think?” asks Chulu. Larry pauses and smiles. “Pretty good! Prettyyy, prettyyy, prettyy, pretty good.”
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Episode: “Elizabeth, Margaret and Larry”
Season: Ten
Larry is getting lunch with Richard Lewis. Jon Hamm is also there, because he is shadowing Larry to prepare to play a character like Larry in a movie. Jon points out how much of the hummus Richard ate, saying he went way over his “appetizer allotment” and that they each are supposed to get a third. Richard asks who makes up these rules, and in unison, Larry and Jon say, “It’s an unwritten rule.” “There’s two Larry Davids,” Richard says, putting his head in his hands. “Pretty good!” says Larry. “Prettyyy, pretty good,” adds Jon.
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Episode: “Irma Kostroski”
Season: 11
The waitress (Jessica McKenna) at the country club says there is a special: fresh Maine lobster with drawn butter and lemon. Larry says that sounds “prettyyy, prettyyy, pretty good.”
