| Life imitated art this past week when the comedian Larry David attacked Elmo—yes, the Muppet—during a seemingly unplanned moment on the “Today” show. (Under duress from the hosts, David apologized, and Elmo accepted.) It was exactly the kind of stunt that David’s TV alter ego—also named Larry David—would pull on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the semi-improvised, Emmy-winning series that begins its twelfth, and allegedly final, season tonight on HBO. “I was not for everyone,” the comedian said of his early years, in a 2004 profile in The New Yorker. “I was for very few.” Indeed. For a long, floundering stretch of his career, David remained an acquired taste, with the flustered audiences and non-existent finances to prove it. His fellow-comedians grasped what he was doing, however, and it was David’s abrasive shtick, properly channelled, that helped early “Seinfeld” find its footing. “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which began as a one-off special almost a quarter century ago, has become one of the longest-running franchises on television—an achievement that would surely have shocked the network executives and “S.N.L.” staffers who doubted him early on, alongside David’s own mother. Some fans are skeptical that the new season of “Curb” will really be the last. But, whenever the show does conclude its run, its distinctive sensibility will likely continue to reflect the proudly sour, defiantly funny motto that David and a collaborator came up with years ago: “No hugging. No learning.” | 
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