{"id":806555,"date":"2026-08-08T07:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/806555\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:02:08","slug":"hbo-sketch-actor-barack-obama-apparently-has-a-very-larry-david-ketchup-vendetta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/806555\/","title":{"rendered":"HBO sketch actor Barack Obama apparently has a very Larry David ketchup vendetta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Larry David\u2019s HBO sketch series\u00a0Life, Larry, And The Pursuit Of Unhappiness<\/a>\u00a0is airing its final episode tonight, ending a run through American history that spent more time than we would have liked on the fairly exhausted question, \u201cWhat if there was a Larry David-style asshole hanging around some very famous historical event?\u201d The series was\u00a0a pretty good source of oddball cameos (and the occasional swipe at a former co-star\u2019s vaccine-hating husband<\/a>), though, something it proved right up through the final installment, which saw an appearance from a largely untested actor named Barack Obama.*<\/p>\n

(*Better known for other work.)<\/p>\n

Obama, a producer on the series through the Higher Ground production company he runs with his wife Michelle, already appeared in the first episode of the series, but that was in a strictly \u201cLet\u2019s stick a former president in this thing to give it a little clout during the introduction\u201d sense. The show\u2019s finale this week saw Obama actually appear in a sketch opposite David, who\u2019s apparently to blame for the \u201ctan suit controversy\u201d\u2014an actual incident America decided it gave a shit about back in 2014, when various pundits were shocked that Obama would give a live press conference on ISIS while wearing \u201cunpresidential\u201d earth tones. (Seriously, people were mad about this; it has its own Wikipedia page<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

In a recent conversation with\u00a0Variety<\/a>, producers on the show were quick to praise Obama\u2019s comedic chops, but also revealed a rather disturbing fact about the filming of the series. I.e., that the longer Obama spent with David, the more he started to sound like him. \u201cI have fun being annoyed by Larry,\u201d series co-creator Jeff Schaffer, a long-time David collaborator, recalls Obama saying during their downtime on the four-hour shoot, \u201cAnd when we get together, I realize I start sounding like him.\u201d That includes what is easily the weirdest moment of the whole behind-the-scenes examination of the series, and one that we kind of wish had made it in front of a camera: Obama\u2019s apparently militant takes (delivered with what sounds like minimum prompting) on condiments. \u201cNo one should be using ketchup after age 12,\u201d Schaffer reports the man who once ordered the death of Osama Bin Laden declaring to his rapt listeners. \u201cThat\u2019s a child\u2019s condiment. It\u2019s just sugar. Use mustard! Use an adult condiment!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Larry David\u2019s HBO sketch series\u00a0Life, Larry, And The Pursuit Of Unhappiness\u00a0is airing its final episode tonight, ending a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-806555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806555","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=806555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}