Last Wednesday night I received an email out of the blue from Larry David, the comedian and creator of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” saying that he had a guest essay submission. I opened the document and read the first line: “Imagine my surprise when in the spring of 1939 a letter arrived at my house inviting me to dinner at the Old Chancellery with the world’s most reviled man, Adolf Hitler.”
“OK,” I thought. “This is different.”
Times Opinion has a high bar for satire — our mission is geared toward idea-driven, fact-based arguments — and we have a really, really high bar for commenting on today’s world by invoking Hitler. As a general rule, we seek to avoid Nazi references unless that is the literal subject matter; callbacks to history can be offensive, imprecise or in terrible taste when you are leveraging genocidal dictators to make a point.
I also understood Larry’s intent in writing this piece. We had spoken about American politics and how some on the left and in the center think it’s important to talk and engage with President Trump. Like many people, Larry listened to Bill Maher talk about his recent dinner with Trump; Bill, a comedian Larry respects, said in a monologue on his Max show that he found the president to be “gracious and measured” compared with the man who attacks him on Truth Social. Larry’s piece is not equating Trump with Hitler. It is about seeing someone for who they really are and not losing sight of that.
Sometimes the best way to make an opinion argument isn’t in a traditional essay. Americans are inundated with news; it can sometimes take a satirical provocation to break through, even at the risk of causing offense.
Larry David, in a provocation of his own, is arguing that during a single dinner or a private meeting, anyone can be human, and it means nothing in the end about what they’re capable of.
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