Larry David mocks RFK Jr. with 'Drop Dead, Bobby' on HBO
Larry David mocks RFK Jr. in Episode 4 of his HBO sketch series Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, now streaming on HBO Max. Playing Jonas Salk’s mother in drag, David tells a vaccine-skeptic neighbor named Bobby to “drop dead,” a thinly veiled jab at Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—while the Curb cast reunion notably excludes Cheryl Hines.
Key Takeaways
- In Episode 4, David plays Dora Salk and tells neighbor “Bobby”: “Drop dead, Bobby.”
- The Barack Obama–produced sketch comedy uses history to skewer today’s vaccine debates.
- Every main Curb cast member has appeared in Life, Larry—or at the premiere—except Cheryl Hines.
- Co-creator Jeff Schaffer said Hines wasn’t asked to cameo because “it just didn’t work out that way.”
- The series airs Fridays on HBO and streams on HBO Max.
How does the HBO sketch take aim at RFK Jr.?
In the latest episode of the Barack Obama–produced series, Larry dresses in drag as Dora Salk, mother of polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk. As Jonas works upstairs, Dora loudly kvetches to a neighbor about his breakthroughs.
Another neighbor—a tan-skinned, craggy-voiced man named Bobby—claims the vaccine will kill people and cause heart attacks. David, as Dora, fires back: “Drop dead, Bobby. You should die a dog’s death. You don’t know anything about science, you’re not a doctor.”
Bobby says that if he were in charge, no kids would take that vaccine—or measles shots. Dora replies that if some “idiot” or “moron” ever put him in charge, it would be “a dark day for humanity.”
The sketch ends with Bobby’s tirade about fluoride, the Spanish flu as a bioweapon, cutting a whale’s head off with a chainsaw, and a nod to the dead bear he once transported in his car—before two men in white suits haul him away, presumably to a psychiatric ward.
Why does the Curb reunion leave out Cheryl Hines?
Kennedy’s wife, Cheryl Hines, played David’s wife (and then ex) across 12 seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm. David, once close friends with Kennedy, introduced the couple. Despite political differences, they appeared to remain friends through Curb’s end, and Kennedy walked the red carpet for the 2024 finale premiere while running for president as an independent.
The relationship cooled after Kennedy endorsed Donald Trump and later joined his cabinet. David has long criticized Trump and mocked him in both Curb and Life, Larry. Hines said in an interview she hadn’t spoken to David after the series finale because “I think he’s mad [that] Bobby’s in the administration.”
That rift is clear on screen: every main Curb cast member has appeared in Life, Larry—or at least showed up to the premiere—except Hines. Asked whether Hines knew about the sketch mocking her husband, co-creator and director Jeff Schaffer told Variety, “No idea.” On why she wasn’t asked for a cameo, he quipped, “You know, it just didn’t work out that way.”
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Why frame the satire through Jonas Salk’s era?
Schaffer told Variety the show talks about “things that are happening right now, but through a historical lens.” “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it,” he said, pointing to “incredible ignorance about vaccinations going on right now.”
To David and Schaffer, that ignorance has been amplified by Kennedy, a leading figure in the anti-vaccine movement who has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. Variety reports that during his time in the administration, Kennedy has reduced the number of recommended childhood vaccines and overhauled the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, because he has falsely linked them to autism.
By calling back to Salk’s breakthrough, Schaffer said, “It seemed like a great way to comment on the stupidity that’s going on right now.” The digs against RFK Jr. were simply “too good to pass up.”
Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness airs Fridays on HBO, placing David in pivotal American moments—and it has already jabbed other political figures, including a Rob Reiner–as–George Washington sketch that skewered Trump.