Larry David Discusses His Decision to Quit ‘SNL’

Writer, producer and actor Larry David has had an amazing career. His portrayal of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm is in the pantheon of TV fan favorites right next to Steve Carell’s Michael Scott.

What many of his fans didn’t realize was that before he became the Larry David we know today, he was a writer for one of the greatest sketch comedy shows of all-time, Saturday Night Live. What even fewer of us knew was that he quit the show out of frustration when his sketches weren’t being used. Larry talked to David Steinberg of Showtime’s new series Inside Comedy about the decision.

“On SNL I got disgusted with not having anything on the show, even though my sketches were doing well in the read through,” recalled David. “They just cut another sketch of mine and I yelled, ‘That’s it! I quit!”

David would not be out of work long. Fortunately, he talked it over with a friend and got some good advice.

“Kenny Kramer, my next door neighbor – I went into his apartment – and he goes, ‘Well, what are you doing here?’ I said, ‘Well, I quit the show.’ He said, ‘You should go in on Monday and pretend the whole thing never happened.’”

After a weekend of mulling it over, David went back to the SNL offices, doing exactly what his friend suggested. Amazingly, everyone else pretended nothing happened also and David continued working on the show.

You can catch Inside Comedy Thursdays at 11 p.m. EST. Check out this video of Ricky Gervais meeting David:

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