Today Is the Last Day You Can Say ‘Happy New Year,’ According to Larry David

It hasn’t even been a full week since New Year’s Day, but according to TV’s biggest crank, enough is enough already. 

As pointed out by the “No Context Curb Your Enthusiasm” social media account, today, January 7th, is the day that the Larry David character has suggested should be the last acceptable day for wishing people a “Happy New Year.”

This wasn’t just an idle comment, Larry’s suggestion was an unofficial campaign pledge. In Season 11, Larry goes door-to-door canvassing for a mayoral candidate along with City Councilwoman Irma Kostroski (played by the great Tracey Ullman) and interjects a few of his own policies into the mix. When a voter asks where the candidate stands “on the issues,” Larry proposes the “Happy New Year cutoff.” Surprisingly, the random citizen is very enthusiastic about this idea, responding, “I like that. Very smart. Last year, I got a ‘Happy New Year’ during Black History Month.”

Larry also floats several other impromptu policies, including banning children under the age of 10 from restaurants and a law “eliminating handshaking.”

Just one season earlier, in an episode literally called “Happy New Year,” Larry rejects a “Happy New Year” greeting from a friend of Susie’s, telling her that “it’s a little late, frankly, for the Happy New Years.” When she points out that it’s only been a couple of weeks, he claims that the “statute of limitations has kind of run out on the New Year.”

He also proposes an even tighter window for wishing someone a “Happy New Year” (“Three days. Plenty”), and adds another reason for disliking the pleasantry: “By the way, everything doesn’t have to be happy.” 

Later in the same episode, Larry gets in a screaming match with his soon-to-be enemy Mocha Joe, and “Happy New Year” becomes an instrument of aggression, not well-wishing. 

Clearly this is a long-running pet peeve of David’s, because this wasn’t the first time that he used his TV platform to criticize belated “Happy New Year” greetings. The Season Five Seinfeld episode “The Dinner Party” (written by David) opens with Elaine complaining that she got “Happy New Year-ed” in February, and Jerry sharing that he “once got Happy New Year-ed in March.”

Elaine calls the untimely sentiment “disgusting,” while Jerry blasts it as “pathetic.”

While Larry David the real-life writer and performer is a very different person than the TV character who shares his name, this is one topic that both men agree on. The actual David once gave an interview to CNN’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace and complained about how his friends text him “menial pleasantries” such as “Happy New Year.”

“Why are you sending that to me? I don’t care. I don’t care about a new year,” David argued. “What does it even mean?” 

Hopefully, Larry David will still observe the tradition of a New Year’s resolution, and, perhaps, resolve to not attack any beloved Muppets in 2025.