Before Election Day, Larry gets involved in local politics while mediating a conflict on his set.
WAR
97.1
Wins Above Replacement
“Irma Kostroski” ranks #41 of 120 Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 83.6 — Elite. The episode packs 83 scored jokes at 1.8 per minute, averaging 7.3 on craft and 7.1 on impact, with Larry landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Larry: Well, I hate people individually, but I love mankind.
Larry Observational Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Larry: I stand by that statement. And yet for some reason... I'm inexplicably drawn to that which repels me.
Larry Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Larry: If a cactus touched your penis, you would've been thrilled at that age. Okay?
Larry Observational Absurdist ★ Rewatch Irma: I know how we lost by one vote. Larry David thought the line was too long, so he didn't vote.
Irma Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Leon: My first time tapping wasn't some gorgeous-ass actress. It was this lady that made donuts and shit, donut shop. You don't see me coming back years later, asking for 400,000 dollars in donuts.
Leon Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 83 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Larry · Jeff: You can sit here, but you can't go to Broadway when I'm selling out show after show for ten weeks. We have an obligation imbalance, okay?
Larry Jeff Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Larry · Jeff: The Prince Charles? Exactly, Mussolini's view.
Larry · Jeff: No, I said, 'Myoo-solini.' You said, 'Muss-olini.' No, it's not 'Myoo-solini' like 'muesli.'
Jeff: I confuse it with Mucilex. I take that for my coughs.
Jeff Character Comedy Absurdist Larry: What are you... Are we married? I don't... I don't understand. Am I dating you?
Larry Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Larry · Jeff: You're the worst-dressed person I've ever seen. I can't even look at you. I get depressed. When are you gonna die? Will you just... will you please die?
Larry Jeff Escalation Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Larry: That's the guy who's in, uh, my new show. Young Larry. He's playing me, when I was in my 20s.
Larry Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Larry: Believe me, he wants to be tapped.
Larry Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Irma: I do not like being tapped, and I will not tap a stranger.
Irma Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Larry · Irma · Audience Member: You're talking. / No, you're talking. / You're talking, and you keep talking!
Larry: Where'd you get that dress anyway, at a substitute teacher designer warehouse?
Larry Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Woman: You mid-level celebrities, you think you're so smart with all your banter.
Woman Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Unknown woman: You mid-level celebrities, you think you're so smart with all your banter.
Larry: You see somebody in a hat that says, 'St. Petersburg, Florida,' do you wanna go there?
Larry Observational Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Larry: Non-pros, there's nothing they love more than when actors tell them what they think.
Larry Observational Irony/Sarcasm Larry: An open bad book, that after ten pages you'll put down, okay?
Larry Character Comedy Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Jimmy: Irma Kostroski. She's a city councilwoman, very powerful. The most hideous... disagreeable person.
Jimmy Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Unknown man · Marcia: Who lives with his 75-year-old uncle? I do. Why can't you be normal? I'm perfectly normal. Marcia, am I normal?
Woman · Man: My mother thinks you're mental! Really? Yes. She told me! Why are you telling me?
Woman Man Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Marcia: I've seen the apartment, and it's really nice. And I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time there. So you can see why... this is a toughie.
Marcia Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Larry · Jeff: A real mechayeh. He's what? What's that? He's a mechayeh, he's a pleasure. Oh, 'pleasure.'
Larry · Jeff: Do you have any ideas? Yeah. Shoot her.
Larry Jeff Dark/Subversive Deadpan/Understatement Asa: I feel these mugs, they're not true.
Asa Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Larry · Asa: It wasn't important at all, Asa! Please, um, would you mind calling me Larry?
Larry Asa Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Larry: Isn't that what actors do? They fake it?
Larry Observational Irony/Sarcasm Asa: Well, I think Stella Adler would, uh, beg to differ.
Larry: He's the biggest mug here, if you ask me.
Larry Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Producer: I heard something. I don't know if it's true or not, but somebody told me that he was sexually abused... as a young actor when he was, like, 17 or something
Producer Dark/Subversive Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Stan: I'll get five more for little prick Larry.
Stan Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Stan: And if he rejects those... I can tell you where it'll end up.
Larry: Unequivocally, the worst acting I've ever seen. Ever!
Larry Character Comedy Escalation Producer · Larry: Lilly Collins's manager, you know, really... They were really interested in this. She was? Yeah. You shouldn't have even told me that.
Larry: Are you out of your mind? What am I, a Fuller Brush salesman?
Larry Character Comedy Observational Jeff: They make the law, they can repeal the law. It's just a matter of votes. They gotta get the votes.
Jeff Character Comedy Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Council member: It's like a dance with death with those scooters for the seniors.
Larry · Irma: Have you ever thought about maybe running for, uh, senator, or congresswoman? Uh, no? What about a congresswoman? I don't wanna move to D.C. Too cold.
Larry Irma Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Larry · Irma: Oh, but don't tell me it's with an 'E.' 'Erm'? With an... No, an 'I.' I have to go.
Irma · Larry: Gas here, you know? I get a bubble. Oh, you get a bubble? Yeah. Larry with a 'Y'? Yeah. Yeah, funny.
Larry: He took the worst aspects of ten different people and put 'em into her.
Larry Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Jeff: So you gotta become the... the groom of Frankenstein to get rid of this fucking actress?
Jeff Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Larry · Jeff: How can Frankenstein have a kid? Dr. Frankenstein made love to fucking the bride of Frankenstein, and he had a fucking kid, I guess.
Jeff: How you make a woman like that and not tap it? How? How?
Jeff Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Callback Larry · Leon: Really hate giving up that time slot. Can't a motherfucker live a life? Sometimes, no. Yeah. But that golf, that's white man problems. Yeah. We have golf. You have voting.
Larry Leon Observational Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Stan · Asa: Pick a pair of fucking glasses. I'll tell you what. Put these in the maybes. That's it. They're the ones, all right? In the maybe pile.
Stan: That little Asa there, when he was a 17-year-old kid, was 'taken advantage of' by the beautiful 37-year-old Adrianna Amante, the Italian actress. Fuckin' smoke show! Stunning!
Stan Dark/Subversive Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Callback Larry: Were you as lucky at 17, to be taken advantage of by a supermodel? Yeah, right. I was traumatized because I didn't have any sex at all.
Larry Observational Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Larry: If a cactus touched your penis, you would've been thrilled at that age. Okay?
Larry Observational Absurdist ★ Rewatch Asa: They would've named the high school after me.
Asa Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Irma: He's gonna make 'em homed. Homed!
Irma Wordplay/Pun Absurdist Larry · Voter: You can't say 'Happy New Year' after January 7th. I like that. Very smart. Last year I got a Happy New Year during Black History Month.
Larry · Voter: No child under ten allowed in restaurants. Oh, now that's awesome.
Irma Absurdist Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Larry · Voter: He's eliminating hand shaking. He's my man!
Larry: What, you got the Cliff Notes, huh?
Larry Character Comedy Observational Cheryl · Larry: The Sound and the Fury. / Faulkner. / You two are reading Faulkner? / Yes, we are. What?
Larry: I wouldn't canvass with you because you turn people off, and I didn't... I didn't want you to turn people off.
Larry Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Larry: Well, I hate people individually, but I love mankind.
Larry Observational Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Larry: Well, you know, maybe when I was married to you, you held me back from the person I really wanted to be.
Larry Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Cheryl · Larry: You hate pins 'cause they make holes in your sweater. Well, it's a thin pin. Oh. A thin pin.
Larry · Cheryl: Oh, yeah, you have a great interest in turn-of-the-century Mississippi. I do!
Irma: You never pee when you canvass.
Irma Character Comedy Absurdist Stan's wife: Fucking rat poison! Has to be vegan, of course. You know how hard they are to find in the Valley?
Stan: He rejected these because he said they were too ''90s.' And he's looking for a '70s vibe.
Stan Character Comedy Absurdist Stan: Too vegan? What does too fucking vegan mean, Larry?
Stan Character Comedy Absurdist Stan: He wants the cups to be dolphin-friendly. What the fuck does that even mean, Larry?
Stan Character Comedy Absurdist Stan: I'm telling you now, man, I'll shove those fingers so far up his arse, they'll pop out of his mouth and he can use them as a hand puppet.
Stan: Look, they look like something from fucking Starsky and Hutch. Seventies written all over that, Lar.
Stan Observational Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Leon: This little motherfucker got a piece of ass, which is priceless. Then he got 400,000 dollars on top of that shit? And the movie paid him. He got paid three fucking times, and he still complains.
Leon Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Larry · Leon: How old were you when you first got laid? Fourteen years old. Fourteen? So if you were in the Boy Scouts, you would've got your, uh, intercourse badge.
Leon: My first time tapping wasn't some gorgeous-ass actress. It was this lady that made donuts and shit, donut shop. You don't see me coming back years later, asking for 400,000 dollars in donuts.
Leon Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Leon: I tapped the lady that made the holes, you understand?
Leon Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Larry: That's Ruth Berman! She's not the widow. She's Berman's ex-wife. They've been divorced for ten years. She's as much a widow as I'm a widow.
Larry Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Larry: You're not a widow, okay? You're the ex-wife of a dead man.
Larry Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Larry: No such thing as a thin pin, okay? It doesn't exist.
Larry Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Asa: I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to make art.
Random guy · Larry: Yeah, I'd... I'd like that. Yeah, I'd... Down there? Yeah. Fuck yeah. And what if she, uh, touched you down there? And what if she invited you back to her apartment to have sex with her, and then she gave you 400,000 dollars? Who wouldn't take that? Yeah. Who wouldn't take that? Sign me up.
Larry · Random guy: If a woman who looks like this was interested in you, what would you say? Yeah, I'd... I'd like that. And what if she, uh, touched you down there? Down there? Yeah. Fuck yeah.
Larry: We kinda cancel each other out. You know, this line? Why don't we get the hell outta here?
Larry Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Larry: I stand by that statement. And yet for some reason... I'm inexplicably drawn to that which repels me.
Larry Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback News anchor: With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, the winner is Jay Reimenschneider. With all precincts in now, it appears as if Mayhew lost by one vote.
Irma: I know how we lost by one vote. Larry David thought the line was too long, so he didn't vote.
Irma Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Larry: I made a deal with a Reimenschneider voter. The line was so long, so we both decided to leave, because we would cancel each other out, so it didn't make a difference.
Larry Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Larry: It was that fucking widow, Ruth Berman!
Larry Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Top Episodes — Curb Your Enthusiasm