‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ finale and its ‘Seinfeld’ moment: ‘A joke 26 years in the making’

In the finale of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David says he’s never learned a life lesson. Neither the fake Larry David, who has spent 12 seasons calling out “pig parkers” and insulting someone’s “beloved aunt ” — and who now can’t even pay attention as his attorney Sibby Sanders attempts to deify him to a jury — nor the real Larry David, who is a staunch defender of the similar ending for his and Jerry Seinfeld’s NBC sitcom “Seinfeld,” has ever been capable of learning a life lesson “Curb” executive producer and showrunner Jeff Schaffer, who also directed Sunday’s finale, says the impetus for the finale came when they were writing a scene from earlier in the episode when a boy hits David’s character in the head with a ball. “We realized we should own that and tell everyone Larry’s never learned a lesson and just do the finale again,” Schaffer says, adding that “Larry doesn’t care what you thought about the ‘Seinfeld’ finale. Still, Schaffer says “the parallel between the ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Curb’ instigating incident doesn’t really exist” and that “it wasn’t something that motivated us in the writing.” “It was Larry saying, ‘You know, this is crazy law in Georgia, I should get arrested for that,’” Schaffer explains.