PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Larry David, creator of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” satirized Bill Maher’s recent dinner with Donald Trump in a New York Times op-ed titled “My Dinner With Adolf.”
👥 Who’s Involved: Larry David, Bill Maher, and Donald Trump.
📍 Where & When: The op-ed was published in the New York Times, and Maher’s comments were made during an April episode of “Real Time With Bill Maher.”
💬 Key Quote: Larry David wrote, “Suddenly he seemed so human… this private Hitler was a completely different animal.”
⚠️ Impact: None, to be honest.
IN FULL:
In a satirical op-ed titled “My Dinner With Adolf,” Larry David, known for his work on Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, openly critiqued Bill Maher’s recent dinner with President Donald J. Trump. The op-ed, featured in the New York Times, uses hypothetical historical context to analogize Maher’s encounter.
The piece riffs on Maher’s April discussion about his dinner with Trump. During his show “Real Time With Bill Maher,” Maher noted his unexpected experience with Trump, including the fact that he laughed during their interaction. David’s piece draws a tired and played-out parallel, imagining a dinner with Adolf Hitler in 1939, where he observed a different, more human side of the public figure.
The likely unrecognized irony of David’s piece, however, is that the New York Times itself once uncritically published excerpts from Hitler’s Mein Kampf in 1941. David made no mention of this in his piece:
Two hours later, the dinner was over, and the Führer escorted me to the door. “I am so glad to have met you. I hope I’m no longer the monster you thought I was.” “I must say, mein Führer, I’m so thankful I came. Although we disagree on many issues, it doesn’t mean that we have to hate each other.” And with that, I gave him a Nazi salute and walked out into the night.
The piece is unlikely to change Maher’s mind, though David happily shared a stage with Trump during a 2015 episode of Saturday Night Live.