I like Larry and this show.
I've seen him in and out of this show consistently hating his own bald head and insulting it.
I can understand he has issues, and the self hating baldness seems innocent enough to repeat it as something true.
But it bugs me how it's never called out as a shortcoming of anybody who thinks baldness is bad.
All the more so considering how old Larry is.
Enough bald hate already. Be a man!
> But it bugs me how it's never called out as a shortcoming of anybody thinking baldness is bad.
Huh? What does that mean?
That if somebody starts saying some insulting adjective or noun (like nigger, cripple, retard, kike, old fart etc) it will be called a racist, ignorant and hostile.
If Larry is called a bald fuck or calls himself "I'm just a skinny, bald man, what can I do to defend you?" as if baldness is something bad, why are they never seen as silly or stupid or ignorant?
There are 2 options only here:
1, baldness is bad, like any unwanted handicap, hence it cannot be legitimately used as an insult by decent people.
2, baldness is not bad, hence it cannot be used as an insult by anyone (like calling somebody "tall" or "handsome").
It's just one of those things.
Some people look better bald, and some don't.
But I think mainly a thick head of hair visually denotes youth to women, so all other things being equal women are more attracted to someone younger, except if the person is rich or powerful, or has some other less superficial attractive attribute. How can you say it's bad? It's like saying women with small breasts are bad. It just depends and it is a personal choice. People use flat-chested, or big nose, or chimpanzee ears, or knobby knees ... it's just something people pick on, and for dramatic and comedic purposes it gets used.
Look at Jeff. Larry calls him the fat man all the time.
I don't think it is a big thing, most of us have to live with things that make us insecure. Worrying about it doesn't solve the problem.
You made many good points.
I am bald.
Of course, I did not want to be. I am tall and handsome, with all my hair I was stunning.
So fucking what? I feel more manly without my hair and less "pretty", I still look good and I prefer my current look to teenage locks.
Some women prefer youthful looks, many women love a shiny bald head (which can look youthful too). The vast majority don't care at all.
I don't care about women's opinion on this. Nor men's. That is why I condemn how baldness is presented on CYE.
The objective reality is that there is nothing to do (or to be done) about baldness, it does not afflict you in any way other than appearance, it does look normal on men, especially older ones like Larry. So it is something not relevant, normal and common that, if anything, people that hate it should be put on the spot, like racists or other ignorants.
> That is why I condemn how baldness is presented on CYE.
It's a thing, and it would be unnatural if they did not use it for comedy. That scene where he meets Cheryl with her bald lawyer and breaks into his bald chat routine is hilarious.
There are things that people find attractive in other people, and those things vary, but they also statistically add up and some of them stand out and have to do with social and cultural conditioning.
I remember when I was a kid we lived in Texas, I never say black people. When I did see my first black people I thought they were unattractive, and maybe even scary. Over the years seeing black features more in the media, and meeting and knowing black people that is totally gone. It doesn't mean I still find all black people, or all of any kind of people appealing, but statistically - and what does that mean in terms of a majority of people can still be wrong, a lot of ethnic features of other people are not appreciated.
I remember hearing some Asians talking candidly about white people saying we were hairy and had huge noses, and smelled bad ... and they were negative about black people too. These issues of taste and aesthetics are visceral to human beings, but they really mean nothing, except in a politic context where a lot of people with power seek to marginalize others and use whatever they can to stigmatize them.
I am reminded of that beautiful Star Trek episode where the two aliens Lokai and Bele who humans did not even perceive their differences hated each other so much they end up in a perpetual fight. It is a characteristic of humans that really does not work well in the modern world, if it ever did.
You hit the nail on the head in your last paragraph. I've never seen that episode but it sounds genial.
Something of no value is turned into important or insulting, up to becoming so relevant that people will fight over it (like your skin color or your hair status).
Which is what I am arguing against too: baldness is portrayed here as something bad to be made fun of. Nobody would think in 2021 that being white, black, yellow, brown, red or blue would be EVER ok to be ridiculed or considered an insult (you "insert color" asshole!), but being bald is (Larry, you bald fuck).
I understand it's done for laughs, but it is also in a outloud way marginalizing and stigmatizing bald men.
I agree that being so superficial like in that ST episode is a characteristic of humans that really does not work well in the modern world, if it ever did.
Maybe they use it because it has so little power, and it is silly and funny.
I am not bald, but I have thing hair on the back of my head for a long time. A friend of mine who is not bald either, but has really thin hair all over his head, started wearing a toupee with huge big hair in it.
My attitude in like it just live with what they have - if you can. I told him that, but he said that I looked OK, and not that I think I look good, but any girl I'd be interested in is probably shorter than me, so when she would look at me, she would not see the thinning spot on the back of my head.
But, also, a remember a lot of women have bald dads, so maybe they at least not put off by baldness. Not every guy has to have Joe Scarborough or Conan O'Brien giant hair! ;-)
In any situation in life, even if you are running for Mr. World pageant, I learned that being bald, or hairy, or tall, or short, is quite irrelevant compared to how confident and self loving you are.
Focusing on women, they couldn't care less about your hair situation, as long as it's clean and expresses your self confidence.
If you are bald and you are fine with it women will find you appealing, if you are hairy and doubtful you become repulsive.
Kurt Russel has a nice head of hair.
shareI'm not sure about this. There are numerous episodes were he comes across other bald guys and sees it has a brotherhood. e.g. Didn't he want to employ some dude as the restaurant chef in one episode simply because he was also bald? Didn't he also want a bald guy to play George in Seinfeld?
Plus Larry's bald insulting is always pretty self-deprecating. Seems like he is in a bald subset that genuinely doesn't give a F. Having said that, of course you could argue he doth protest too much and must secretly be spending his life worrying about it but I don't really see it...
Otherwise this is an interesting thread to read. Society is pushing so hard against any means of offense now that of course things like baldness will get their chance to shine (... Literally 😜 Sorry...).
Well I'm not calling out for a cancelling or any censorship of any kind.
It just bugs me how nobody calls out how bald is only considered bad here and never good.
They should have a guest star like The Rock or Bruce Willis or Patrick Stewart or somebody else that is confident enough to point out how it's cool to be bald.
I dug out a clip of that bald chef scene I was talking about:-
https://youtu.be/uA0qhhIxrQY
I think that subset thing I said is spot on (judging from that clip anyway) - he hates bald guys who aren't accepting of their status!
Maybe you not per se but I'm pretty sure anti bald baiting comedy will eventually have it's day of reckoning... Although I'm pretty sure Curb will be cancelled for its fat shaming long before baldness came to the fore.
I mean literally every second line is Susie screaming "You fat F" at Jeff! I can see in the not too distant future defeated obese men on talk shows talking about how they found that demeaning / made them have suicidal feelings and before you know it the show will be pulled...
I love when Susie calls him a bald fuck.
shareI cannot stand that witch. Not just the bald hate, but the four eyed hate, the fat hate and the man hate in general get on my nerves. The fact that she has to yell like a harpy at every minor issue and use swear words all the time, really make me hate that character.
Seriously, she ruins the show for me. I wish Jeff got at last a hot looking wife, like Ed O'neill always gets, and replace this monster.
“But it bugs me how it's never called out as a shortcoming of anybody thinking baldness is bad.”
There is an episode where he refuses to give Halloween candy to some older kids, so they spray pain “bald asshole” on the side of his house. He even calls the police and says that it should be treated as a hate crime.
I remember that, HAHA!
shareOk, great gag.
But it is just that.
I want an episode where it is clearly stated that bald=beautiful.
This IS a 'bald hating show'.
Bald guy HATES a lot. That's the show.
I suppose you MIGHT have meant "Bald-hating show", with a HYPHEN, which changes the meaning DRASTICALLY.
But I don't want to assume, so I will just reply to what you said, so it's your responsibility to use correct grammar if you want your message to be understood the way you want it to be understood.
So did you mean 'Bald hating show' or 'Bald-hating show'?
I mean it is a show where baldness is seen as a flaw instead of a strength, or seen as normal at the very least.
share