Larry David confronts a tucked in videographer (played by Mike Castle)
about his sweater wearing tendencies in a season 11 episode of
Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO, 2021)
I.
One of the disadvantages of living with a Greek woman who likes to cook and bake is that you inevitably end up eating more than you should of things that you probably shouldn't be eating in the first place and, as a result of that, one - just as inevitably - puts on weight.
Thus it was that my waist measurement ballooned from 32" to 34" and even 34" was beginning to feel tight.
Now, I don't really care about raised blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the threat of type 2 diabetes or any of the other health issues linked to obesity that doctors try to scare you with - but looking fat was not something I was prepared to accept ... And so, action had to be taken!
And, as a matter of fact, it proved quite easy to lose weight: eat less, eat healthier, and move more; it really is as simple as that. So now I'm back to having a 32" waist and can once more pass naked before a mirror without (too much) embarrassment and shame.
II.
Now, however, I have a new problem: the trousers bought a few months ago with a 34" waist keep slipping down unless I use a belt, which, unfortunately, I don't like wearing.
To try and get around this, I have decided to tuck in my sweater; even though I have never been a natural tucker in of clothes and would drive my mother nuts when I was a child insisting that my shirt be pulled out and the cuffs and collars always left unbuttoned. I hated the idea of looking neat and tidy like a good little boy (is there, one wonders, a punk gene?).
However, times change and people change and - to my surprise and amusement - I now discover that I like having my sweater tucked in! Indeed, I'm almost tempted to say that it is the more stylish option, depending of course on the type of sweater; it's material, its construction, its fit etc. You don't want to try and tuck a bulky jumper with a ribbed hem down your trousers as this does not result in a good look.
I used to think tucking in a sweater was always something of a fashion faux pas. But now I know it isn't; that it can create shape and help define one's waistline.
III.
And so now I watch a little differently the scene in Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Larry David gives a stylish young videographer a hard time about the fact he has tucked his sweater into his pants, asking him how long he's been doing it; do people comment on it; has he ever noticed other people doing it; were there other tuckers in his family, etc. [1]
According to Larry, the only other person he's seen tucking in a sweater is James Mason (playing Humbert) in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film adaptation of Nabokov's darkly comic novel Lolita (1955) and he even treats us to dialogue from the movie:
"Lolita, do you think
I should tuck in my sweater?
Does it look good?
What would you do?
What would you advise me?
Would you advise me to tuck?" [2]
It should be noted, however, that this scene and these lines are either misremembered or entirely invented by David for comic effect.
Notes
[1] Curb Your Enthusiasm,
'What Have I Done? (season 11, episode 8), dir. Jeff Schaffer, written
by Larry David and Jeff Schaffer (first aired 12 Dec 2021). The videographer is played by Mike Castle. The scene can be watched on YouTube by clicking here.
[2] Dialogue from the episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm cited and linked to above.
