Art has been mirrored in real life in a humorous manner recently in Los Angeles, with a “Curb Your Enthusiasm” billboard getting graffitied into mirroring a similar scene from the show. This poster advertising the show’s 12th, and final, season became the target of a prank that matched exactly to an episode where Susie Greene’s (Susie Greene) advertisement for her business Catch as Caftan in ends up being vandalized.
The Pranked Billboard
The defaced billboard was depicted in a recent episode of “Curb your enthusiasm,” aptly titled “The Gettysburg Address.” Susie, a character in the series, embarks on a new business journey and purchases billboard space to advertise her venture. To the amusement of David, the billboard gets tarnished with graffiti – two sizeable phallic drawings.
Life Imitating Art
Interestingly enough, HBO has recently planned to set up an actual billboard, sans the graffiti, echoing the show. Jeff Schaffer, the show’s boss, expressed his expectations about this marketing strategy, stating it would be a sight to see if the real-life poster got similar graffiti treatment. He humorously added that if such an event did occur, he expected the sales would skyrocket.
Just as he had hoped, and quite ironically, the real-world “Curb Your Enthusiasm” billboard suffered the same fate as its on-screen counterpart, with two phallic images making their appearance. The activist art collective INDECLINE claimed full credits for this prank.
Statement from INDECLINE
Adding to the humor and surprise, INDECLINE left a statement proclaiming their admiration for Larry David’s comedic genius and expressing how it had influenced their collective. They added that as kids, they connected with their fathers not through sports but through watching Larry David and “Seinfeld.” They shared how it wasn’t their English teachers who introduced them to “A Streetcar Named Desire” but Elaine from the show and went on to make a few more humorous references.
The collective mentioned that they were ecstatic when they saw “billboard liberation,” one of their favorite hobbies, incorporated into an episode. Seeing posts about the existence of the billboard in Los Angeles and calls for it to be modified led them to give their “thank you” to Larry David by adding to the practice of art imitating life in their unique way.
HBO yet to Comment
HBO has yet to comment on the modified billboard. Meanwhile, the official Instagram account for “Curb Your Enthusiasm” shared a screenshot of a story about the graffitied billboard from “Los Angeles Magazine,” along with a funny quote from Susie. Furthermore, a photo of the pre-graffiti billboard was shared from the show’s social media account with the caption, “Life imitates art.”
Wrapping Up
This comical occurrence of a real-life billboard being vandalized to replicate a scene from a television series demonstrates how intertwined art and life can be. It also shows the lengths fans will go to participate and interact with their favorite shows. It will certainly be interesting to see how such events inspire future content. Dive deeper into the world of film and series at HitPlay.
