Curb Your Enthusiasm finale pulls off perfect joke 26 years in the making

Seinfeld fans were given a huge treat as Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm finally came to an end this week. WARNING: Spoilers.

Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David.

WARNING: Curb Your Enthusiasm spoilers below.

Acclaimed comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm finally came to an end yesterday, after 12 seasons spread across an incredible 24 years.

But series creator and star Larry David looked back even further than that to nail the show’s ending, giving fans a hilarious “do-over” of one of the most controversial series finales of all time.

The Seinfeld co-creator had left that classic sitcom after seven seasons, but famously returned two years later to write Seinfeld’s much-anticipated 1998 finale.

Larry David (centre) with Curb co-stars Tracey Ullman (left) and Susie Essman. Picture:Getty

And it was a divisive ending, with David penning a caustic final episode that saw Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer thrown in jail after they unknowingly violated a local law in another US state.

Seinfeld’s finale featured a litany of supporting players from throughout the show’s nine seasons, taking to the stand to testify about the four leads’ truly awful characters. By show’s end, all four were sentenced to serve a year in prison.

Viewers and critics hated it – Entertainment Weekly called it “off-key and bloated,” while many felt unsatisfied that the characters they’d grown to love over nine seasons were given such a miserable ending.

Stream Curb Your Enthusiasm now on BINGE and Foxtel, available on Hubbl

Seinfeld ended with all four main characters in prison.

So what did Larry David do, given the opportunity to bring another iconic series to a close some 26 years later?

He did it all over again, of course... with one key difference.

Several references were made in the episode to Larry never having learned a lesson in his life, suggesting he was about to recreate the much-maligned Seinfeld finale, beat for beat.

And sure enough, Curb Your Enthusiasm ended with Larry on trial – just like Seinfeld and co, for violating an obscure local law in another US state – in a court case that quickly went south for him as witness after witness from his past was called to the stand to testify about his bad behaviour over the years.

And so the verdict was declared: Just like Seinfeld did all those years ago, David would serve one year in prison.

As David sat in his holding cell, more bothered by a “pants tent” bunching in his slacks than his impeding internment (a great callback to the Curb’s pilot episode), suddenly, his fortunes changed.

It emerged that one juror hadn’t followed the rules of the trial, meaning the verdict had to be abandoned and the case thrown out. He was free to go.

That news was delivered to David personally by Jerry Seinfeld, who’d been present at the trial to support him.

As the pair walk out of prison together, David a free man, he suddenly has a brainwave: “Oh god. This is how we should’ve ended the [Seinfeld] finale.”

A joke with a 26-year payoff.

“Oh my god you’re right! I didn’t even think of that,” says Jerry knowingly, as the pair throw their hands up in “whaddaya gonna do” unison.

A perfect joke to end a near-perfect series – and this time, it seems fans loved it.

“The Curb Your Enthusiasm finale was perfection,” one viewer tweeted.

Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld walk out of prison one last time.

“The only lesson Larry David ever learned in his entire life was that the Seinfeld finale could’ve been a little better. What a perfect end,” wrote another.

”Curb your enthusiasm was just a ploy for larry to spite everyone that’s bitched and complained about the seinfeld finale these past decades,” another fan joked. “I get it now.”

“Larry David repeating the Seinfeld finale to a “T” after two decades plus of hearing people bitch and moan about it is the most baller, cocky, and fantastic move he could have made. What a high note to go out on,” said another.

Larry David has in recent months been open about his reason for bringing Curb to a close now: At 76, he feels he’s getting too old. It’s a sentiment echoed by co-star Susie Essman in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“I think it’s final. It feels final to me, but in a positive way. We’ve done 12 seasons, we’ve done this for 24 years. It’s been amazing, it’s been the greatest professional experience of my life,” she said.

“Nothing can last forever — we’re all getting old!”

Curb Your Enthusiasm is available to stream locally on BINGE and Foxtel.