Here’s the legendary clip from The Larry Sanders Show, Garry Shandling’s classic 1990s sit-com about a late-nite talk show host and all the backstage problems he deals with (or more often fails to deal with and instead delegates them to his Jeeves-like producer Artie, played by Rip Torn). In this scene, Larry (Garry) is ducking out of a confrontation between Artie and head writer Phil (Wallace Langham), whose office jokes at the expense of effeminate staffer Brian (Scott Thompson) have gotten the show sued for Sexual Harassment and creating a Hostile Work Environment:

The most famous exchange starts at 8:46. Language NSFW

Most of the people on screen in this episode have gotten in trouble in real life in one way or another: the late Garry Shandling was wiretapped by Anthony Pellicano at the behest of mogul Brad Grey when he sued Grey, his business partner; also, Garry was sued by Linda Doucett, who preceded Scott Thompson as Hank’s on-screen assistant, for palimony and for firing her when she broke up with Garry; Rip Torn drove into the lobby of a bank under the mistaken impression that it was his driveway; Jeffrey Tambor is currently being fired from starring in Transparent on charges of not being transphobic enough; Sarah Silverman’s patriotism is currently being called in question; Wallace Langham pled no contest to punching out a gay paparazzi “who had allegedly made accusations against Langham’s girlfriend’s tattoos” (I don’t know what that means); Langham replaced Jeremy Piven on the show, who is a rare figure in Weinsteingate in denying everything. I haven’t heard any good gossip about Mary Lynn Rajskub or the late Bruno Kirby, but I’m probably not looking hard enough.

In summary, professional-level funny people tend to get themselves into sticky situations now and then not unlike the ones their characters get into on-screen.

But, damn, were they funny together.

[Comment at Unz.com]