One of my favourite comedians of all time is Louis CK.
He manages to put things into words, that I can’t begin to describe. His shortcomings, his frustrations, his anger and shame, he puts it all out there on a stage and people connect with it. I have admired and been thankful for him, for a very long time.
But despite the fact he got up on stage last week, I’m still waiting for Louis CK to come back to comedy.
Countless times, I’ve used Louis CK bits to engage in discussions about sexism. Men who won’t listen to me about inequality will believe CK.
“Globally and historically, we’re the number one cause of injury and mayhem to women. We’re the worst thing that ever happens to them. That’s true! You know what our number one threat is? Heart disease.”
Less than a year ago, Louis CK was added to the pile of the worst things that happen to women. After years of denial, he admitted to it with a letter infused with sincerity, like many others he’s sent to anyone on his email list. He promised to go away and listen. Last week, he decided to get back up on a stage. It may have felt like longer, but his admission only came 10 months ago. I have leg hairs older than that.
During his 15-minute set at The Cellar, he didn’t mention what he’d done. I thought perhaps it was because he knew that 15 minutes is not enough time to unpack everything. But it turns out what he DID have time for, in those 15 minutes, was a joke about rape whistles.
Now, if it had been a joke about the fact that rape whistles are an indictment on a society that has never really learned to ask for consent and is so selfish that it needs to be taught, if it had ended not with a punchline but an earnest personal admission, then that would be something. That would have been a spoken word performance befitting the fans of a Louis CK who really did understand what George Carlin and Richard Pryor were doing.
Instead in those 15 minutes, he reverted back to the Louis that was afraid to really be someone worth listening to on stage.
As an audience, we have no right to demand that anyone on stage open their emotional veins so we can glut ourselves on their darkness. But as a performer, who has built his success on the dissection of his demons (including his complicated relationship with masturbation), his decision to get back up on stage and not address what he’s done is supbar.
Even if his joke had been cutting, if he’d nailed himself in that punchline….This isn’t about how clever he is. It’s about how selfish he is. If you’re going to be angry at anyone for a lack of Louis CK on stage and screen, then be angry at Louis.
“But HOW LONG does someone have to pay for what they’ve done?”
Ah yes, I know this song. It’s the follow up track to “but allegations of sexual assault/misconduct ruin men’s careers”. The question that must be asked immediately after confirmation of wrongdoing because if we don’t ask it, we might be making room for the uncomfortable task listening to the victims.
Even Noam Dworman, owner of The Cellar, bravely felt the need to remind us that “there can’t be a permanent life sentence on someone who does something wrong”.
It was 10 months, Noam. 10 months in a very nice apartment. That’s not a life sentence, that’s an extended holiday the rest of us working slobs only dream of.
Redemption is important, though, and should be obtainable.
Not because Louis CK is insightful and the world needs his wisdom, but because people are trash and we need incentives to change. We need to know there’s a way out of the mess we’ve created, so we don’t double down and keep creating more. There needs to be the possibility of coming back after doing terrible things. (As a side note, if you’re the type of person who doesn’t need incentive to evaluate harmful behaviour and then change based on your findings, well done, you’re a better human being than most. Have a doughnut to celebrate).
But I don’t know what Louis CK’s redemption looks like because we don’t generally ask people like him to redeem themselves. Instead, we require silence from victims so we can pretend it isn’t happening.
Of course there are many great suggestions as to what Louis CK should do to redeem himself.
The priority needs to sit with the women he hurt, before he starts looking after his fans.
Louis stole when he decided to masturbate in front of those women. He stole from them, the ability to perform and feel safe. He stole from us the potential to laugh at their jokes. Now he stepped onto a stage and through the cheapness of his act, we can see he’s nowhere close to where he needs to be.
“Credibility lasts about two cycles of bad material, and then you’ll probably never get it back. If you let people down, that’s really hard to come back from– harder than climbing from nothing to something, even.”
Well, Louis, you let us all down. Start climbing.