Phillip Baker Hall

Watching Curb last night, I realized Phillip Baker Hall is the perfect Larry David foil. He is lightning quick, full of common-sense, pragmatic, unneurotic. In many respects, he is the Larry David antidote. The would-be cure to Larry's social problems. Even moreso than last night, his Bookman character from early Seinfeld might - in the long run - prove the most prescient. Perhaps he was the early warning signal, the first respondent on the scene, the first to call out Larry, to warn of his inevitable decent into nihilism by not taking the book returning seriously. Is this possible?

On class day prior to my college graduation, one professor, nominated by the students, would speak to the entire class. It happened to be one of my thesis advisers with whom I wrote my "Seinfeld" thesis about politics and irony. He argued, in contra to the Alanis Morissette lyric, take me to the shallow water, before I get too deep...than in fact, the great challenge to our generation was the exact opposite - that what we ought to fear, rather, is becoming too shallow.

That advice always stuck with me and the egoist in me always thought it was somewhat directed towards me personally because of the content of my thesis.

And this is precisely the role Phillips Baker Hall assumes in the Larry David world. And our instinct - at first - is to laugh at the Bookman character for taking things too seriously. But maybe, Bookman was right and to take the little things seriously is to take life seriously. Maybe he is giving us wisdom and we ignore it, like stupid immature children.