Larry David Mocks RFK Jr. in HBO Polio-Vaccine Sketch as Friendship Sours
Updated
Updated · Variety · Jul 18
Larry David Mocks RFK Jr. in HBO Polio-Vaccine Sketch as Friendship Sours
3 articles · Updated · Variety · Jul 18
Summary
Episode 4 of HBO’s “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness” has David, in drag as Dora Salk, blasting a “Bobby” character who says vaccines would kill children and should be blocked.
Jeff Schaffer said the 1950s polio setting was meant to attack today’s “incredible ignorance” about vaccines, with the sketch explicitly echoing Kennedy’s anti-vaccine activism and false autism claims.
The satire escalates into references to fluoride, a whale carcass and a dead bear before “Bobby” is hauled away by men in white suits, underscoring the show’s broad caricature of the health secretary.
The jab lands against a personal rupture: David once introduced Kennedy to Cheryl Hines, but their relationship cooled after Kennedy endorsed Donald Trump and joined his administration.