Larry David owes a lot of his comedy shtick to Woody Allen. You know, the Jewish, neuro-eccentric style of comedy that Allen basically made his own in the early to late ‘70s with classics such as “Bananas,” “Sleeper,” “Love and Death,” “Annie Hall,” etc. Jerry Seinfeld and David eventually took that style of comedy and infused it with the kind of everyday minimalism in “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Hell, David was even cast as the lead to Allen’s 2009 “comedy “Whatever Works.”
And so, is it any surprise that David doesn’t think Woody Allen is as horrible a person as the media and #MeToo brigaders make him out to be? Speaking to the New York Times, David discussed the COVID-19 pandemic, Bernie Sanders, “Tiger King,” and yes, Woody Allen. The 84-year-old filmmaker was brought up when David was asked about his thoughts on the new Allen memoir, “Apropos of Nothing.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty great, it’s a fantastic book, so funny,” David said. “You feel like you’re in the room with him and yeah, it’s just a great book and it’s hard to walk away after reading that book thinking that this guy did anything wrong.”
Although David’s comments could be deemed “controversial,” if you’ve read my piece “The Case for Woody Allen’s Innocence,” they may also not be too far off from the actual truth.
Woody’s adopted son “Moses Farrow, has vehemently defended his dad, Woody Allen, over the years, saying “My mother [Mia Farrow] drummed it into me to hate my father for tearing apart the family and sexually molesting my sister, and I hated him for her for years. I see now that this was a vengeful way to pay him back for falling in love with Soon-Yi.”
“If you are the kind of person who is open-minded and would rather inform themself rather than be lazy and just trust inauthentic views of the Woody Allen case, then by all means, read Robert Weide’s excellent dissections of Allen vs Farrow which were posted on 12.13.17, 5.30.16, and, most recently, 1.14.18.”