Larry David’s Violent Attack on Elmo Is Cringier Than Any ’Curb’ Episode

This real-life Curb Your Enthusiasm plotline is brought to you by the letter “P” for “Painfully Uncomfortable.”

In all Today Show history, there may not have been a more ill-fitting double feature of celebrity guests than today’s tandem of Elmo the Muppet and Larry David, who advocated for caring/wellness and chaos/war respectively during the disastrous morning show. David appeared on the show in order to promote the final season of Curb and explain that, at 76 years old, it’s really time for him to hang up his glasses and end the show on a high note. Elmo, on the other hand, is in the news for recently posting a viral tweet in which the simple question posed to his fans of, “How is everybody doing?” devolved into a thread filled with doom, gloom and existential dread that still wasn’t as upsetting as what David did to Elmo in front of a horrified Hoda Kotb.

Seemingly unprovoked, David stormed the Today sitting area and began to throttle the empathetic, positive red puppet's face while play-smacking him over the head as his microphone crinkled and cracked from the ferocity. The strangling stunt went over about as well with the Today cast as a sex offender at a seder.

Clearly, the outburst was made without any warning to the Today team — a flabbergasted Al Roker’s awkward return to the weather report at the end of the tussle makes me think that, much like how he treats his scene partners on Curb, Larry decided to subject his hosts to a little bit of his signature improvisation to keep them on their toes.

To that effect, Elmo is the only person (puppet?) in the room who didn’t seem rattled by the bizarre, embarrassing attempt on his life, glibly shouting after the assailant as he made his escape, “Mr. Larry, Elmo liked you before!” Elmo even invited the Seinfeld co-creator to sit on the couch and talk through the violent emotions that caused such a cringey confrontation.

The Today hosts were sure to make David apologize to Elmo before resuming his segment, seeing as the crying children whose parents are no doubt clogging the NBC call-in lines could use an appropriate conclusion to the alarming attack. Maybe Larry can send them all sewing machines to make up for it.