Curb Your Enthusiasm owns a permanent spot in my top five favourite tv comedies everrrr (and I've watched a lot of tv comedy in my time).
Created by and starring Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld (and basis for George Costanza), it follows his day to day life (playing himself) as he says and does the things that most people only wish they could.
His character works so well because while he is ultimately a moral guy (always trying to do the right thing), he doesn't really care what people think of him and one way or another he manages to get into situations that end with some kind of misunderstanding that results in someone getting really pissed off at him. (In fairness, these are very rarely Larry's fault).
These generally come about when some element of life, strange policy or another just doesn't make sense to him and he just can't quite let go of it until it does.
Why can't you use the phone while waiting to see the doctor? Do you have to give candy to trick or treaters if they aren't kids and don't wear a costume? Is a stutter enough of a disability to allow someone to park in a handicapped space?
There are three things that make this show particularly good - it's story based but the scenes are largely improvised and it's shot in a documentary/reality style that both make it seem more real than any other sitcom.
It's also from cable network HBO (the network that has also brought us The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Sex and the city, Deadwood, Oz, Carnivale, Big Love and Extras) which means that the normal restrictions on content (language etc) don't apply and they are free to go nuts.
The book I picked up on the weekend has episode by episode breakdowns of story and interesting trivia, some in depth interviews with the cast, Larry David's history and more (I'm only about a third of the way through so far) and it's bringing back a swag of funny memories.
The best news of all is that after it looked as though the fifth season was definitely the last, there is apparently a sixth season coming up
