That photo has been viewed by close to 3 million people. In the spirit of “If you can’t beat them, join them,” I posted a Facebook photo of me wearing the T-shirt, with the caption, “I don’t suppose this is going to help matters.” It didn’t. A few months ago, a friend emailed to simply ask, “Do you get a piece of this?” The message included a link to a site selling T-shirts emblazoned with “Directed by Robert B. In the last year, my Facebook fan page has gone from 200 loyalists to 90,000 very misguided meme fans.Ī tiny cottage industry has even popped up in response to the memes. (“You’d better take that video down before I get the proper authorities involved! I filmed it!”) Others would send me their videos and ask if I would “please add the famous credit.” This last demand was eventually met by a website called Curb Your Video, which allows anyone to attach the music and prized credit onto their videos. Then came the threats from people insisting that I take down the plagiarized videos from the internet in which I had surreptitiously added my name to their work. Countless posts were popping up, referring to me as the “Meme King.” Marriage proposals came my way as did inquiries for employment at my “studio.” I work from home. Weide” and, sure enough, there were hundreds of videos of humiliating interactions, human error, stunts gone wrong, all followed by the “Curb” music and my directing credit.Īs my followers and the videos continued to multiply, I pinned a disclaimer on my fan page, clarifying that I had nothing to do with these memes. This response led me to Google “Directed by Robert B. One follower’s concise response: “You’re part of a new video meme on the internet, basically any short but funny video with your credits rolling at the end.”
Curious as to why, the page manager posted a message, asking what was bringing people to the page. For the first couple of years, it had a modest following of about 200 people, but last year, that following started growing exponentially.
“Sicko.” “Misanthropic moron.” “Freak of nature.” “Bona fide racist.”Ī few years ago, an official Facebook “fan” page was created for me. Perspective: ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ is back and so is Larry David, TV’s greatest philosopher At these moments, we are all Larry David. But to many viewers, it’s come to represent the existential moment in all our lives when we realize that our best-laid plans are subject to complete failure, and we’re hit with karmic payback in the most spectacular and humiliating ways. To us, this final moment was based on the simple showbiz adage of going out on a laugh. Because I directed most of the episodes during the first five seasons, a title card would usually appear reading “Directed by Robert B. (We called it our Italian circus music.) Then the screen suddenly goes black.
That moistens me up meme series#
A signature of the series is the final moment of each episode, when every conniving, self-serving move Larry has made over the previous half-hour results in an unexpected comic payback that explodes in his face like a revenge-seeking missile, after which the theme music, “Frolic” by Luciano Michelini, is boldly reprised. In 1999, I produced and directed an HBO special called “Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which spawned a cable series that recently completed its 10th season. So why is the most Googled director in the world someone you probably never heard of?Īs they say on Facebook, it’s complicated. Sit down at your computer or open your nearest mobile device and Google these words: “Directed by.” What’s the first predictive text that comes up? Martin Scorsese? Quentin Tarantino? Ingmar Bergman? Chances are the first name Google suggested was Robert B.