Entertainment
Don’t Tell Larry Was 2025’s Most Perfect Comedy, And Everyone Missed It
By Robert Scucci
| Published
White lies are a necessary evil when you have kids. Sometimes you have to lie about how delicious carrots are so they get enough vitamin A, or tell them the doctor isn’t about to give them a booster shot even though they’re hiding the needle behind their back, waiting for the right moment to jab. 2025’s Don’t Tell Larry, though, shows just how quickly a white lie can spiral out of control in the adult world, when the person you’re trying to deceive is a situationally aware but seemingly aloof coworker who’s about to steal your promotion out from under you.
What starts as a small fib snowballs when an ever-increasing body count latches onto a minor misunderstanding made in the name of professional self-preservation. Saving face at work is fine in theory, and something we’ve all done at some point in our careers. Don’t Tell Larry has an incredible amount of fun showing how catastrophically wrong things can go in a dog-eat-dog corporate setting, escalating to absurd levels once the authorities get involved.
Susan Just Wanted Her Promotion
Don’t Tell Larry wastes no time showing you exactly who Susan (Patty Guggenheim) is, and how her personality quickly backfires at the office. She’s earned Employee of the Year eight consecutive times, which makes her the obvious frontrunner for the soon-to-be vacated CEO role when her boss, Bruce Waters (Ed Begley Jr.), announces his retirement. Susan and Bruce have a solid professional relationship, and she’s patiently waiting for the corporate torch to be passed so she can finally take over.
Her life takes a sharp turn when Larry (Kiel Kennedy) is hired, changing her trajectory overnight. Larry is the quintessential weird office guy you feign friendliness with in the hope that if he ever snaps and goes on a rampage, he’ll spare you. When a surprise retirement party is thrown for Bruce, Susan makes the executive decision not to invite Larry. What she doesn’t realize is that Larry is actually Bruce’s son, and Bruce already plans to hand the company over to him as a way of making peace for abandoning him years ago.
Larry’s Ever-Present Menace
Rightfully peeved about being passed over, Susan throws a rock through Bruce’s office window, weakening the glass. Later, when Larry shoves Bruce during a confrontation, the already compromised window gives way, sending him to a fatal plunge. After Bruce falls to his death, Susan enlists her friend and coworker Patrick (Kenneth Mosley) to help cover up her involvement, but Larry is onto them.
To make matters worse, Detective Kim Hammer (Dot-Marie Jones) suspects foul play, though she can’t quite piece together what happened until she reviews the security footage, which has conveniently gone missing.
Meanwhile, more violent workplace incidents pile up, leading to additional deaths that Susan is convinced Larry is responsible for. Larry, never losing his odd charm, plays suspiciously unaware of the carnage that follows him, even as it becomes obvious to Susan and Patrick that he’s eliminating coworkers in increasingly gruesome fashion. Detective Kim, however, has every reason to believe Susan had something to do with the inciting incident that started this entire mess.
A Perfect Comedy Of Errors
The lesson in Don’t Tell Larry is simple: sometimes it’s better to tell the truth, even if the short-term consequences feel life-altering. Had Susan not lied about the party, Larry might not have seen her as an adversary and might not have retaliated after discovering the deception. Or maybe everything would have unfolded the same way. Bruce had already chosen Larry as his successor, and Susan’s jealousy was bound to surface eventually, likely leading to a similar disaster.
Half the fun in Don’t Tell Larry comes from watching forced pleasantries in a corporate white-collar setting peel back to reveal just how cynical everyone really is. Between the backstabbing, both literal and figurative, you discover who your true friends are. Watching Susan and Patrick scramble to talk their way out of being implicated in a string of murders is a twisted version of friendship, even if their loyalty only makes things worse.
As of this writing, you can stream Don’t Tell Larry for free on Tubi.