Larry David turned his onetime friendship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into a brutal punchline.
In a sketch for his new HBO show, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America, the comedian features a thinly veiled version of President Donald Trump’s health secretary as a leather-tanned, painfully hoarse vaccine skeptic who gets eviscerated by polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk’s mother, played by David.
As Salk works on his discovery, his kvetching, craggy-voiced neighbor “Bobby” drives him nuts, complaining: “That vaccine’s gonna kill people. It’s gonna give them heart attacks!”
Salk’s mom snaps back: “Drop dead, Bobby. You should die a dog’s death. You don’t know anything about science; you’re not a doctor. If you were in charge, God help us all! If some idiot, some moron, ever put you in charge, that would be a dark day for humanity.”
The vaccine skeptic then rails about fluoride causing gender confusion and other wild theories, and is eventually escorted away by two men in white coats.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Kennedy for comment.
Kennedy is not the only political target in the historically inspired sketch series, which is produced by former President Barack Obama. Another episode featured a group of colonialists, with David warning them about a potential future leader, some “narcissistic p---k who doesn’t follow the Constitution” and uses the presidency to ”enrich himself and his family.”
David’s character adds: “Did I mention he’s friends with a pedophile?” The character playing the current president responds: “I can’t ever fathom the existence of such men.”
As for David and Kennedy, they were once good friends. The comedian even introduced Kennedy to his current wife, Cheryl Hines, who played David’s spouse on his long-running sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm. But David and Kennedy took decidedly different political turns.
David launched his latest series using almost all the major characters from Curb Your Enthusiasm—except for Hines.
During an appearance on Obsessed: The Podcast, David’s co-creator Jeff Schaffer confirmed that Hines was not asked to be part of the new show. “My experiences working with her were nothing but the best, the warmest, the funniest, just a delight, loved working with her,” he recalled. “So, I don’t know, people make choices.”
Hines said in an interview that she hadn’t spoken to David since the series finale of Curb because “I think he’s mad [that] Bobby’s in the administration.”
