Larry David, the "co—creator" of Seinfeld, is a comic genius who unfortunately married a left—wing woman late in life, and has subsequently been spouting (and funding) looney—left causes. Laurie David has been known to harrangue SUV drivers, while riding on private jets for her visits from Los Angeles to New York City, a route flown by commercial jetliners dozens of times a day. Nevertheless, Larry David's genius is genuine, and often enough appears to satirize the mentality his much—younger wife espouses.

Today marks the fictional holiday "Festivus," introduced as the invention of George Costanza's (Larry David's alter ego) father. For the few people who have not seen the episode in question, Festivus involves the traditional pre—dinner Airing of Grievances, in which family members tell each other how they have been disappointed by them during the year.

As parody of the regrettable tendency of big family gatherings to degenerate, especially as holiday spirits are imbibed, Festivus works well, and is fully congruent with the information that heart attacks increase sharply at this time of the year. It is all—too—human to spoil joyous occasions with our underlying anger over petty matters. The dark side of human nature remains an underlying theme of Larry David's opus, and is one reason why I admire his work so deeply.

But I also love the implicit satire of Kwanzaa, another bogus made—up  holiday, aimed at separatism, and by extension, the airing of grievances.

To my mind, being a sharp satirist, Larry David cannot help but turn his wit against the regnant left, even as he overtly seems to be parroting his wife Laurie's  political line. I am in no position to judge whether or not this represents a passive—aggressive, Seinfeldian sneaky bit of human dynamics between Mr. and Mrs David. I hate to admit that I sort of hope so. Many of the greatest works of commentary under oppressive regimes have used second—order satire, overtly attacking one (safe) target, while implicitly ridiculing another sacred cow of those who hold power.

Thomas Lifson  12 23 04