Curb Your Enthusiasm Billboard
INDECLINE
Talk about life imitating art.
A real-life Curb Your Enthusiasm billboard that recently went up on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles was graffitied to match Susie Greene’s (Susie Greene) Catch as Caftan billboard that appeared in episode six of the show’s 12th and final season last week.
In the episode titled “The Gettysburg Address,” David gets quite the laugh when he sees Susie’s billboard that she purchased for her new business venture hit by a graffiti artist — two large penises were spray-painted on the billboard.
The Hollywood Reporter learned last week that HBO was planning a marketing scheme to display a real billboard to promote Susie’s business (one without graffiti). “Imagine the traffic jams if we actually had a Susie poster on Santa Monica Boulevard where she was getting double-dosed,” Jeff Schaffer said at the time.
But the Curb Your Enthusiasm boss also shared a prediction with THR, “I don’t know how many graffiti artists are fans of the show, but I’m praying for a few dicks. If we’re lucky enough to get a few on that poster, I think the sales are going to go through the roof.”
And it turns out, someone was listening to Schaffer’s prayers. The real-life Curb billboard was spotted this week with two penises drawn on it to reference the show, and the activist art collective INDECLINE took all the credit on Friday.
INDECLINE shared in a statement with THR, “As kids growing up in the ’90s, we didn’t bond with our fathers’ watching sports. We found common ground through Larry David and Seinfeld. To this day, we can quote more inspirational lines from George Costanza than any U.S. President. It was Elaine who turned us onto A Streetcar Named Desire, not our English teachers. And let’s not forget about “shrinkage”. Simply put, if it weren’t for the comedic genius of Larry David, our collective wouldn’t have realized the galvanizing nature of comedy, particularly in the face of adversity or social/political unrest.
“A few nights ago, we watched in awe as one of our favorite pastimes, “billboard liberation,” was incorporated into the latest episode,” the statement continued. “We received a flood of texts and DMs about the existence of the billboard in Los Angeles and even saw that Jeff Garland was on Instagram calling for it to be altered. So, as a thank you to Larry David, for his contribution to the field of art imitating life, we give you our contribution to the practice of life imitating art.”
THR has reached out to HBO for comment on the altered billboard.
The official Instagram for Curb did share a screenshot of a Los Angeles Magazine story about the graffitied billboard, as well as a quote from Susie in the caption, “I’m gonna go call the billboard company and get that dick out of my mouth.”
Earlier this week, the show also shared a photo of the real L.A. billboard (pre-graffiti) on the show’s social media account, with the caption, “Life imitates art.”