{"id":522649,"date":"2026-03-14T06:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/522649\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T06:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:18:14","slug":"larry-david-on-collaborating-with-obama-on-hbo-series-at-sxsw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/522649\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry David on Collaborating With Obama on HBO Series at SXSW"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cI know him,\u201d Larry David<\/a> conceded, when asked about his friendship with former President Barack Obama<\/a> during a Friday SXSW<\/a> panel. \u201cDon\u2019t look down on him because of that. We play golf together from time to time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt seems to be more than a casual friendship, as the duo are producing a forthcoming sketch comedy series (also starring David) for HBO<\/a> about American history pegged to the country\u2019s 250th anniversary. The show puts David in various famous scenarios throughout the country\u2019s history. It\u2019s a weird time to be celebrating the U.S., longtime David collaborator Jeff Schaffer noted during the event, but they seem proud of the work all the same \u2014 previewing a clip of David as a bit of a sexual predator in the famous VJ Day photo of the soldier kissing a dental assistant in Times Square.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s sort of like throwing a birthday party for your friend that\u2019s in rehab,\u201d Schaffer said of America. \u201cHe\u2019s fucked up. But I love him.\u201d (The comedy scribe\u2019s barbs were not reserved for the country, he also referred to HBO, in the process of being acquired by the Larry Ellison-backed Paramount along with the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery, as \u201cthe cool division of Oracle.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir series, by the way, now has a title. It\u2019s called\u00a0Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America. It\u2019s essentially \u201cCurb Your Enthusiasm in costumes,\u201d the pair noted. And it premieres June 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut beyond the details of the project, which included news of cameos from the likes of Jon Hamm, Susie Essman, Lin-Manuel Miranda and many, many more, the highlight of the panel was unquestionably Schaffer interrogating the manner in which David engaged with his fellow producer \u2014 again, that\u2019s President Barack Obama<\/a> \u2014 while working on the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSchaffer said their time in the room together included plenty of Obama ribbing David. \u201cHe was ragging on your golf game, ragging on how much sunscreen you wear,\u201d he observed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m sorry my father wasn\u2019t born in Kenya,’\u201d said David, as perhaps only he could get away with saying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the real delight of the event had to be an anecdote about Obama trying to give a note on one of David\u2019s proposed sketches. His disagreement with the humor of the bit, which Schaffer said followed a solid 45 minutes of Obama praising David, was not well-received by the famous curmudgeon. Obama, as Schaffer told it, then stressed that throughout his presidency he deferred to the guidance of experts in their fields.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid, he said, was unmoved. \u201cOn Curb and Seinfeld, I\u2019m used to being the boss,\u201d David elaborated. \u201cObama is also quite used to being the boss. We came to bit of a loggerhead there.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that point, David said he turned to Obama and offered the following compromise: \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m president here.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLarry David and Jeff Schaffer at Featured Session: A Waste of Time With Larry David and Jeff Schaffer during the SXSW Conference & Festivals held at JW Marriott on March 13, 2026, in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMike Jordan\/SXSW Conference & Festivals\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI know him,\u201d Larry David conceded, when asked about his friendship with former President Barack Obama during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[8833,88,1035,15820,25242,66422,92],"class_list":["post-522649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-barack-obama","tag-entertainment","tag-hbo","tag-larry-david","tag-obama","tag-sxsw","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}