"Chet's Shirt" is the third season premiere of the American television comedy seriesCurb Your Enthusiasm. The twenty-first episode overall, it was written by series creator Larry David, and directed by Robert B. Weide. It originally aired on HBO in the United States on September 15, 2002, to an audience of 5.53 million viewers.
The series stars Larry David as a fictionalized version of himself, following his life as a semi-retired television writer and producer in Los Angeles. In the episode, Larry stockpiles a shirt worn by a widow's late husband, invests in a restaurant so he can pick out waiter uniforms, and tries to avoid befriending his dentist. Larry sells Ted Danson on the same shirt, but this backfires and puts them at odds.
Several references to Seinfeld, a series David co-created, were purposefully placed into the episode, and an episode of the series even influenced how they approached the gifted shirt—the shirt was originally going to be stained with a red dot, but this was changed to a tear after realizing a shirt with a red dot stain was already the plot of a previous Seinfeld episode. The picture of Chet wearing the shirt is actually one of series producer Tim Gibbons.
"Chet's Shirt" received positive reviews from critics, with Larry being consistently labeled as a highlight, and the use of Chet's titular shirt has been praised by both critics and fashion magazines. Nathaniel Stein, who later went on to write for Curb Your Enthusiasm, called the episode his favorite. It has received analysis from critics and scholars since its broadcast.
Plot
Larry gets caught using a curbside trash can, whose owner threatens violence on the next offender he catches. Larry and Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) visit Barbara (Caroline Aaron), a picture framer in mourning for her late husband Chet. Larry fancies Chet's shirt in a photo. Despite Barbara's grief, Larry reminds her to finish Cheryl's framing, and badgers her to remember where she got the shirt.
On Jeff (Jeff Garlin)'s advice, Larry goes to an investor meeting for a new restaurant, Bobo's, alongside Ted Danson and Michael York. Larry wears the same shirt as Chet, impressing Ted. Ted recruits Larry and Jeff to entertain his daughter Jill's The Wizard of Oz-themed birthday party in costume, and Larry steals the Cowardly Lion role from Jeff. Larry decides to invest because he wants to veto serving kebabs, install bells to summon waiters, personally pick out waiter uniforms, and chat with random diners.
Larry picks a service dress shirt for a waiter uniform, calling back to his real-life military service as he imagines neatly dressed soldiers dining in an officers' mess.
Larry gets a surprise dinner invitation from Dr. Bloure, his dentist; wanting to keep his dentist relationship at arm's length, Larry pretends to be away and plans to change dentists. While shopping for waiter uniforms, Larry buys the last two of Chet's shirt for Ted and himself. He gets recognized by Burt, another of Bloure's patients, and tries to discourage Burt saying hello for him. Larry's proposed waiter uniforms, with tablecloth patterns or military epaulettes, get shot down, while Jeff's simple shirt-vest combo is applauded. Ted finds a hole in the shirt Larry bought him, and turns it down in a huff because Larry expects him to return it himself.
Larry wears his shirt to Jill's party despite this tension. Ted has Jeff be the Lion for "no reason", and Larry refuses any other role. Larry cusses Ted out in front of Jill by spelling, assuming she has not learned to spell. Larry gets his front teeth knocked out by Jill's bat swing at a piñata, bloodying his shirt. Dr. Bloure takes time out of his Sunday for Larry's emergency, and Larry feeds him an elaborate cover story about having gone to a relative's Bartlett pear farm. Larry gets oversized temporary teeth put in, and assumes Bloure took revenge after talking to Burt.
Ted apologizes and asks for the shirt back, and Larry fails to hide that he has one more to spare. Barbara delivers the framed picture as they watch The Wizard of Oz. She breaks down seeing both Chet's beloved movie and his shirt, weeping tears and makeup onto Larry's spare shirt. Ted and Larry wrestle for the last unsoiled shirt, ripping it in two. Throwing away his half, Ted gets caught using the same trash can as Larry.
Production
"Chet's Shirt" makes deliberate references to David's other series, Seinfeld.
The shirt worn by Chet is also worn by the character of Bobby on The Sopranos, another HBO series.[1] When discussing how the series—including "Chet's Shirt"—goes about choosing outfits, costume designer Leslie Schilling notes that, because of the series' improvised filming, there are only outlines for each scene, and so they are forced to be "on [their] toes" about how outfits will fit into the narrative.[2] Director Robert B. Weide was the inspiration for the scene where Ted and Larry argue over the shirt; Weide was admiring one of David's Tommy Bahama shirts, and he was given one by David for his birthday. However, it was stained, and he assumed David would return it for him, but he did not. They added this to the episode, but changed the red dot to a tear after realizing Seinfeld already had an episode about a stain on a sweater.[3]
The photo of Chet in the shirt is actually of series producer Tim Gibbons. The character of Burt Bondy was named after someone David knew in college. For inspiration for the restaurant storyline, David used his interest in how waiters' uniforms are chosen. He wanted to "be in on the decision-making" aspect of the uniforms, and so incorporated the plot into the season. The episode contains several references to Seinfeld. The name of the restaurant is Bobo's, a name David used for a restaurant in Seinfeld. Chris Barnes, who portrays Burt in the episode, played Richie Appel on the series.[3]
Analysis
Analyzing Larry's character in his book The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy, author David Kyle Johnson cites the episode in his case that Larry's personality is vastly different from a normal person's. Where someone with a basic understanding of grief would keep something as minimal as a shirt worn by a deceased person to themselves, Larry repeatedly brings it up to Chet's mourning wife, showing no real sympathy whatsoever.[4] Carina Chocano of Salon credited the show for finding comedy in the incongruous premise of real-life celebrities David, Danson, and York investing in a restaurant together.[5] The episode continues the theme of clothing, one which is often presented throughout the series; Leonard J. Greenspoon found this to be another similarity the episode had with Seinfeld, as episodes of that series would also address clothing trends rather commonly.[6] Debby Wolfinsohn and Kevin Jacobsen of Entertainment Weekly felt the episode's use of comedic props—such as the shirt—was symbolic of how Larry continually alienates his friends with every decision he makes, inappropriately concerning himself with a piece of clothing and not his friend's dead husband.[7] Critic Austin Smith likened the dentist storyline to an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry similarly gets into an argument with his orthodontist.[8]
Release and reception
"Chet's Shirt" first aired on September 15, 2002.[3] In the United States, the episode was watched by 5.53 million viewers during its original broadcast. It received a 3.5% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 3.5% of all households in that demographic.[9] It was first released on home video in the United States on January 18, 2005, in the Complete Third Season DVD box set.[10]
Since airing, the episode has been labeled as a "fan-favorite".[11] Debby Wolfinsohn and Kevin Jacobsen of Entertainment Weekly listed "Chet's Shirt" as one of the series' twenty-eight best episodes, finding the shirt to be a successful comedic prop, as well as enjoying the sub-plot revolving around Larry and his dentist.[7] Ann Hodges of The Houston Chronicle claimed the episode solidified Curb Your Enthusiasm as better than Seinfeld, in his opinion. Despite saying that "Chet's Shirt"—along with the following episode—were not the funniest of the series, Hodges still felt it was stronger than most programs on during the fall season.[12]
Nathaniel Stein, who went on to write for the series, wrote that it was his favorite episode, particularly for showcasing Larry's trait of lying.[13] Austin Smith of the New York Post praised the episode, finding it to be an accurate portrayal of the interactions people have with others in their day-to-day life, and finding its references to Seinfeld to be a highlight.[8]
The titular shirt has received notable attention since the episode's airing. FLOOD Magazine's Anya Jaremko-Greenwold found the shirt to be one of Larry's best outfits on Curb Your Enthusiasm, noting that Larry "had it coming" regarding his punishment for his behavior throughout the episode.[14] Daisy Jones of GQ placed it in the #1 spot on her list, noting that it "hangs nicely" in its design. Jones also claims that the shirt became a popular purchase following its airing, but was no longer being sold as of the article's publication.[1]MEL writer Miles Klee listed it as Larry's second best attire, likening it to a "business-casual" version of a tuxedo, and calling it perfect for a backyard party.[15]
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