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It’s difficult to imagine Larry David before his life as the creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s especially difficult to imagine him on his hands and knees in the mud for army training. But that’s exactly what ‘LD’ did when he was a member of the United States Army Reserve from 1970 to 1975.
During a recent appearance on the Smartless podcast hosted by actors and friends Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes, the 76-year-old funnyman recalled his days in the Reserves and told the story about how he got out of it: by claiming to be suicidally depressed.
“I got out of the reserves in two years with a psychiatric discharge,” David explained to Bateman, Arnett, and Hayes.
“I told this story on Howard Stern, it’s kind of a long story. I was in the army, the reserves. I went to basic training. It was horrendous, it was the worst experience of my life. I was ducking under live ammunition and firing weapons and I had bayonettes,” David continued.
“So I did that for eight weeks… and then after I got out I had to go to meetings once a month at Floyd Bennett Field, an airplane hangar. Then I heard about a psychiatrist who was writing letters to get people out [of the armed forces]. So I borrowed $250, I went to see the psychiatrist, I convinced him that I was insane. He wrote me a letter saying I was insane…”
While David has told the story before — he made headlines with it back in February, in fact — this version of the tale includes a new detail: he told the doctor he was suicidal in order to receive the note.
“Woah, woah, woah,” Batman interjects. “Stop there. How do you convince him you’re insane? What was your flavor?”
“My flavor was I wanted to kill myself,” David replied. “I had suicidal ruminations. Life was just too hard.”
David was full of stereotypical anecdotes during the interview, as he also revealed that he’ll sometimes eat his snacks in the bathroom so he can escape his begging dogs.
All 12 seasons of David’s beloved comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, which concluded its final season in April 2024, are streaming on MAX, while all nine seasons of Seinfeld are on Netflix.