Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 12 Episode 8 Repeats A Memorable 31-Year-Old Seinfeld Storyline

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Curb Your Enthusiasm season 12, episode 8.

Curb Your Enthusiasm season 12 has made plenty of references to the Seinfeld finale – and seems to be building toward a tongue-in-cheek redo – but episode 8, “The Colostomy Bag,” repeats a different storyline from Larry David’s other show. The episode sees Richard Lewis recruiting Larry to help him buy a vintage Mercedes. Since Richard lost his sense of smell to long COVID, he needs Larry’s nose to detect an “old car smell.” In a Seinfeld callback, Larry detects a smell, but still gets guilt-tripped into buying the car after making the false assumption that the seller has a colostomy bag.

Curb Your Enthusiasm has been known to borrow bits from Seinfeld in the past. Larry’s befuddlement with Jeff’s lack of reading material on a plane in season 4, episode 10, “Opening Night,” is similar to a conversation between Elaine and David Puddy in Seinfeld. The “no matter what” gag in season 8, episode 3, “Palestinian Chicken,” is a nod to a George storyline on Seinfeld. The titular invention in season 8, episode 8, “Car Periscope,” was taken from dialogue in an episode of Seinfeld. “The Colostomy Bag” has another nod to a classic Seinfeld storyline.

Richard Lewis’ Issues With A Tobacco-Scented Mercedes Recall Seinfeld Season 4’s “The Smelly Car” Episode

The “old car smell” in Richard’s car is, according to Larry, the scent of tobacco. It seems to be the result of decades of chain-smoking while driving at the hands of a previous owner. The smell causes all kinds of problems for Richard in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 12, episode 8, since he fails to get a “smell discount” and the smell horrifies a woman who he thinks could be “the one.”

Richard’s Mercedes in Curb Your Enthusiasm isn’t the only smelly car in the Larry David oeuvre. This gag was previously featured in Seinfeld season 4, episode 21, “The Smelly Car,” in which Jerry collected his car from a valet and found a foul odor attached to it. Jerry spent the whole episode trying to get rid of the smell, and after no amount of scrubbing was able to remove it, he just gave the car away to an opportunistic carjacker.

Richard’s Long COVID Puts A Modern Spin On Seinfeld’s “Smelly Car” Storyline

The smelly car storyline in Curb Your Enthusiasm isn’t just a carbon copy of Seinfeld’s smelly car storyline. The fact that Richard has lost his sense of smell due to long COVID puts a modern spin on the gag. When the Seinfeld episode aired, COVID didn’t exist, so at least Jerry could detect the repugnant smell in his car. When Richard is driving around, he has no idea what smells are emanating from his car – there’s a rotting cheese he doesn’t know about, compounding the stench of the tobacco.