Louie (Louis C.K.'s show on FX)

i just watched 6 episodes in a row on the FX website. i couldn't stop laughing. truly amazing. i couldn't find a thread! i searched, i swear.

ah there is this old thread! sorry. that was kinda hard to find, to be honest. anyway, i will let others decide if the new show deserves its own thread. it really is so good.

Come anticipate Louis C.K.s HBO sitcom LUCKY LOUIE with me

i totally spelled the show wrong. i should go to bed...

this show is so awesome that it deserves 40 threads tbh

can you change the thread title to louie? i hate when i do things like that. this show waa made for me. lots of shows are. the t.v. knows what i like. he's such a good writer.

why yes i can!

Such a great show. Louis CK is the SHIT

heckler shutdown is like the best 5 minutes of uncomfortable television of all time imo

so is this gonna be the new louie thread now?

it's pretty amazing. i always think i'm beyond amazement cuz i'm so old and jaded but then something comes along and amazes me. i like that.

x-post

it doesn't have to be! i just needed to testify and i couldn't find the old one fast enough.

i think the shrink is an amazing recurring character

from wiki:

He was married to New York artist and painter Alix Bailey in 1995; they divorced in 2009. He has two daughters from the marriage[9] and shares joint custody of them with Bailey.[10]

I already went all over the moon about the poker scene on the first thread, but that was also amazing

I will be trying this in a few minutes. I don't know this guy!

i'm about to watch the new one. exciting!

he likes the helicopter idea:

http://www.youtube.com/louisck#p/u/30/AO1KsU1rG7s

the matthew broderick scene. oh man, i laughed and laughed. lots of stuff made me laugh. out loud. loudly. maria laughed a lot too. we laughed together.

first episode is kinda clunky, but the instasmile date thing is so fucking brilliant that it makes up for it

the couple that LOLs together...

just posted this on the other louie thread, but the coffee shop routine from last night was the cinematic equivalent of how I feel on ILM

And yeah, as disjointed/clunky/whatever this show is, I totally look forward to it every week. I love that Louie just says 'fuck it' to any real story lines or what have you.

If we're posting things in both threads: that ice cream scene was just brutally real for me.

Liked the first ep, was pretty good. I'm trying to get over my reservations about the production "style". It isn't exactly like CYE, although some of the acting pushes it in that direction.

i'm trying to think of another show about a guy who is basically sensible and lovable but hates himself. seinfeld: sensible, he loves himself. CYE: hates/loves himself, is in no way sensible.

the matthew broderick scene. oh man, i laughed and laughed.

seriously, i could watch him doing variations "your father is dead" for an entire episode

variations on*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNRNCk3YwqE

Scott, post this stuff in the actual Louie thread, for fucks sake

Come anticipate Louis C.K.s HBO sitcom LUCKY LOUIE with me

that's actually the thread for HBO's LUCKY LOUIE

and we've been talking about LOUIE in it for like three months now.

just becuz whiney wants people to post in th other thread i am posting in this thread..may they join in a golden tapestry.....i heard him talkin about this show and now watch it on th boot legz tube idea/.//its so good...it makes people run away from th room..then run back when they hear sumthin funny..search also th npr interview he did recently...hes in town alot bxing/training and playin guitar..i dont feel like bothering him..i dont want to become th "annoying fan upstate" character in hz routine...love himmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

there is a piece sumwhere where he talks about other male characters who basically love themselves versus those that hate themselves...th ep w th kid and th single mom was awesome

heckler shutdown is like the best 5 minutes of uncomfortable television of all time imo

really? it came off as flat for me

the bit he was doing in the beginning about feeling full was funny, but the whole heckler thing, including when he runs into the woman later on in the bar seemed pointless to me, and i guess confusing in tone, as well. like, at first i thought the whole thing hinged upon tension between him and his balding schlubby comic cronies and the heckler gal, and there would be some huge satisfying blowup, but the whole thing just sort of fizzled out. or was that the point?? i'm confused. what was i supposed to be laughing at or pondering over?

like larry david's cye character is pretty horrible, but somehow likeable. louis' character in that scene seemed completely devoid of even the tiniest shards of charisma or intersting-ness

David's character deals with social anxiety by trying to dominate it and the show climaxes when he fails.

Louis's character deals with social anxiety by being completely overwhelmed and bewildered by it and the show climaxes when he breaks the whole thing down in one very intense, cathartic conversation

lovable prick vs. lovable loser

i refuse to make that choice because i love all of ilx equally

great episode tonight - really kept wondering where this was all going. once again, loved the attitude of the ending

Wow, great ep. Wonder how he'll cap the season off...is the finale next week?

Finale is not until Sept. 7 I believe.

Sweet deal.

what a weird fuckin show

heh the kid's look at the end

switching channels from this to colbert is very jarring

watching the next episode of louie, he has an alcohol hangover from smoking marihuana. have neglected these thanks to dvr

he's kind of cute in a ginger divorcee kinda way when he has facial hair and looks like a giant child molester when he doesn't

i luv this show

This is def. shaping up to be one of the strongest first seasons of any show in recent memory - lots of memorable scenes and odd touches, but still feels like it has room to grow and change. The fact that this last ep was suspenseful and touching as well as being funny as hell is a testament to its unique malleability - people call it CK's Curb, but that show is so much more traditional.

I was thinking the exact same thing, Simon (about it being a really strong first season), tho I immediately thought that Community's first season is still stronger.

See I love Community, but I think it suffered from its insanely huge season length, which inevitable resulted in 6 or 7 "meh" episodes. I could see it hitting a pretty insane stride when it comes back, though, since the back half of the first season went from strength to strength. (I also hope Harmon has the balls to limit it to 3 or 4 seasons as he's hinted at in the past.)

This is clearly and completely the best show on television, bar none.

When that kid was threatening him in the diner, my heart started RACING

it was like FUCK i feel like this is happening to me

^
^
^
otm

Yeah, that shit felt very, very real to me.

it was real real but i couldnt get past why would you shush a pack of teenagers like that (borderline dickishly) and some sort of malicious harrassment (at the very least). is that done? seemed like even louie (actor louie) had trouble walking it back a far enough to make his sheepishness 100% believable.

http://db.tt/TUwASLH

play this please

and not expect

Yes it is very hard to believe that a New Yorker would be dickish to a pack of New Yorkers.

that could and would beat his ass? on a date? ny physics?

As for not expecting it ... I don't think he considered the repercussions of his actions much.

Which is not the first time on the show that he made an unwise decision.

when Louie cuts to commercial, the commercials seem that much more bullshit in comparison

also, NOT a dickish move as far as i'm concerned.

not the shushing necessarily but he put a fine point on it...like he was ready and willing to back it up? the rules of ny interaction could very well be fucking me up i'll give you that

well, I dunno; if you're gonna tell them to be quiet, you can't very well be like "um guys could you keep it down a bit"

Incidentally, that exchange really would be unlikely to happen; the guy behind the counter would've gotten involved. But man it felt real.

I've been in plenty of late night spots where the people behind the counter are completely useless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzbURUrgQao

lolled p.hard when the stoner threw the water bottle out the window onto the car

Wow that episode was something else.

The last one, I mean. Fuck.

I thought when you cum a ball shoots out. WAAAHAHAHA

i like this thread more

the conversation at the end was fucking mint

thing about that scene where he stalks his would-be attacker was that there were ample shit-just-got-real fight scene opportunities and that, the dad putting hands on his son notwithstanding, they resolved their problems with words (mean words initially, but words)

kinda wish the mom/dad of the bully had asked "why did you follow my son home, you creep?"

similarly, the heckler scene....it's like publicly he unleashes fury, but in their private conversation he's like "that really hurts my feelings when you talk during my set". i dunno, at the <3 of ck's shit, even at his worst...like the least otm moments, i always feel like there's a fundamental sense of decency 2 him.

this show is so awesome that it deserves 40 threads tbh

― gg eileen (jjjusten), Thursday, August 12, 2010 12:42 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

I find it hard to believe a jock would put louie down so eloquently IRL, but that's beside the point I suppose. I love how he seems to have made a catalog of life's most uncomfortable moments, they're almost so bad that I feel like I've repressed them and only remember them when I see them on the show. Like after the episode with his mother I wondered if I kind of hate my parents too.

Man that last episode. Wow.

Anybody have any idea how well this show is doing in terms of numbers? Critically it's a darling and obviously I want it to last a decade, but what's the word on renewal?

a few weeks ago fx announced there would be a second season, which as i understand it is way earlier than they necessarily needed to be making a decision like that, so that's a pretty good sign. don't know the numbers, but between this + archer i'm willing to believe atm that fx has some decent people running things over there

glad to hear it's renewed.
archer should get better next season, always sunny is in stride, rescue me is circling the toilet, justified was excellent and louis is (again) the best show on television right now.
I have unreasonable hopes for terriers; more likely to be another motorcycle crew show.

i was really creeped out by louie in this episode until he said he loves jewish girls. (nah, i'm still creeped out.)

between following that woman and following the guy back to staten island last week, i'm getting a "potential serial killer" vibe.

That was probably my least favorite episode so far. Kinda boring.

yeah, this is tied with the mother episode for pure duds this season. the last two weeks were much better.

I liked this one! Creepy surreal bits, child molesting gag, inadvertent racism, "that was an asshole thing to do..."

i was really creeped out by louie in this episode until he said he loves jewish girls. (nah, i'm still creeped out.)

it's like, the child molesting humor works because it's so over the top that any sane person could understand louie's not serious. but following a woman to her home after she's said repeatedly that she's not interested... it's too real. even if it's meant to be taking the piss, i don't like it. i wanted the scene outside the building to end with the woman telling louie "you're not gonna get what you want." i hated the punchline, that he did get what he wanted, from some other woman who fit the bill.

even without the racial overtones, it's weird. (*with* the racial overtones, it's weirder.)

saying the mother episode was a dud is crazy talk, shit was hilarious!

Yeah mother episode imo the high point so far. She was srsly hilarious.

I must have misunderstood the following the woman home thing. For some reason I thought he was still high from the gas at the dentist's, which would have explained some of it. But I guess not.

Also, him being molested by Stephen Root just made my skin crawl. I didn't really like this episode.

yeah, close to the worst one but still powers of ten better than any other sitcom on tv

i loathe this show

loathe!

he's such a great comic and such a mediocre star and storyteller. the Matthew Broderick thing pissed me off so much because it was like "I hate acting and I know I'm not good at it! isn't it refreshing that I admitted that right in the middle of hours of televised fiction where the camera is on me at all times!?"

its like the king and queen of wrongness had a baby and it was some dude!

I love that all of his payoffs are at his own expense. The speech that girl he followed home gave him was so worth the supreme creepiness of following her. And Stephen Root's dentist was <3

Yeah, I'm at a loss as to how anyone could "loathe" this.

he's such a great comic and such a mediocre star and storyteller.

His mediocrity as a star is part of what I like about the show. His inability to really act (or his pretended inability to act) gives so many of the interactions in the show a strange, blank, dreamlike quality that it seems like he just drifts through life with people and things bumping off him without much reaction, and then you see him being more natural with his friends or get (what seems like) genuinely angry with his mother and he seems more like a real person.

He's also building up a view of the world where almost every interaction with another person seems combative at worst or uncaring at best, so I suppose it's not surprising that he just drifts through it with a blank expression on his face most of the time.

Oh man, catholic school.
Oh how much I hated those assholes.

I swear I had that same exact conversation with my mother.

Tom Noonan!

I can't depend on much in life, but one thing I can depend on is that some asshole or another on ILX hates each and every thing I love.

If you loved the catholic school you went to, that's cool! Mine was an evil place where a bunch of sanctimonious sadists abused the living shit out of our young psyches.

The catholic school bit was horrendous, in every great way it could be. I loved that the nun was completely oblivious to what he was actually doing and just talked about it as vandalism!

I like that they have no impulse to be consistent or have continuity other than the fact he is a guy in his early 40s named Louie who is a comedian. The mother in this one was sympathetic, but the hilarious old mom from the other episode sure wasn't!

The mother episode was extra great for the moment when his mom's wife walks in and she's a younger woman who's hotter than any woman Louie or his brother would date. Their reaction was priceless.

yeah CK talks about the discrepancy in the AV Club comments on this episode

the mother in this one is the woman who he was dating a few episodes again! The kid who was louie was a totally different kid from the last time there was a kid louie!
I love the utter disdain for continuity. It's the old Donald Duck principle: each comic, Donald starts out fresh as a dogwalker or a garbageman or whatever and then he ends up fucking everything up and the whole town is on his ass chasing him... and then next issue, he's a world class butterfly hunter. Who gives a fuck about canon when the insight is so pointed? Leave that shit to Lost nerds.

though the donuts line was hysterical with the echoes through time schtick...

aaaaaaaand reading the onion comments now, i appear to have said exactly what Louis said. go figure.
Man, the AV club comments on that show are awesome!

here's the AV club comment so you don't have to search:
Louis CK

31 Aug. 2010 | 11:40 PM CDT

The "Mom" episode was a character idea. a parent that is completely narcisistic. My mother is the opposite. But this show is not entirely autobiographical. Often it's not that at all. I just wanted to try this mom character and it worked well with the brother character I had developed. I also don't have a brother. I threw a couple of scenes at Robert Kelly and there was something so endearingly pathetic about him that I brought him back. When I started screwing around with this idea of having this awful mother, Robert's character fit into it perfectly.
I had written the God script before we started shooting and I shelved it. I just didn't think I could pull it off in the best possible way and did not want to do a shitty version of it. So I wrote it and then put it away. Several weeks later I wrote and shot Mom. A few weeks after that, I revisited the GOD script. I had more confidence in how we were producing the show and photographing it and I wanted to take it on. So I dusted off the script. Gayle Keller, the casting director, told me her idea of Tom Noonan, who I love and that just made me have to do it. Amy Silver the designer, made a great Jesus. So we put it into the mill.
Before it was shelved, Gayle had put a few people on tape, auditioning for "God". Amy Landecker had read for the mom. I hadn't seen it. She subsequently got the part for Bully, which we shot pretty early in the season. (sorry I know the timeline is a mess here) Anyway I watched her audition for God and she just nailed it (sorry) . No one else came close. So I decided I don't care that she was in this other thing. This show doesn't really function as a series. I don't think of it that way. I use what I need to tell each story. Also this is a flashback. It's in the past so it's a rememberance. There is something about a flashback, it feels like it exists on a hazier plane of reality than a present day story. It felt right to me to do that. Also at the end of her audition she said "You wanna go get some donuts?" which had this weird chilly time-travelly feeling to it because our Bully scene was so donut-centric.
As far as the mom character... Yeah, the mom in GOD is really my mom. We're even in a Pinto just like hers. She was a working mom and always wore a trench coat. The Mom in MOM was a total crazy character having to do with nothing in my life. The kid playing me in God was vastly different in look and character than the kid who plays me in Divorce and Bully. Every episode is tacking a different thing. Some people will be confused. That's okay. I think it's worth it. If it irks you to watch it because of that, I understand. But I still want to make the show this way. And they're letting me.
By the way my daughter, Jane, is played by two different girls through the season. I don't think it matters. Thanks for watching.

I should add Amy Landecker to the ws thread

i had a good laugh when i realized that i had seen her before in A Serious Man

xp ha, that's great! i totally thought the casting was on purpose. didn't even catch the donut thing. also, Tom Noonan is always entertaining

yeah the donuts thing is brilliant!

this has kind of become one of my favorite shows of all time. i like that some episodes, like the last one, are like 80% dark, sad, uncomfortably real shit. the guy creates some amazingly gripping scenarios.

http://twitter.com/louisck

great twitter night for LCK

Anyone notice that his drunk tweets seem to coincide with flying? Wonder if he's ascared o' flying...

But I love him. I want to give him hugs.

@SarahPalinUSA kudos to your dirty hole, you fucking jackoff cunt-face jazzy wondergirl.
5:06 PM Sep 1st via web in reply to SarahPalinUSA

That "God" episode was note perfect in every way. Louis is on POINT. Wow.

Really like the Onion interview esp. this section:

AVC: On the show you play a divorced father named Louie C.K. On what level are you playing yourself?

LCK: Well I’m playing me, but I’m not depicting my real life. I’m not reenacting moments that I’ve lived, but I’m playing myself. I’m projecting myself into these situations that I write for the show. That’s the best way to describe it, I think. Also, I do let myself make mistakes on the show that are mistakes I wouldn’t make, because it’s just more interesting.

AVC: Like what?

LCK: There’s an episode I have with Nick DiPaolo where we have this political argument. He’s very conservative. I’m somewhat liberal. To make that a more interesting argument to have, I called him a Nazi. So he’s Himmler, and he hates minorities. I don’t believe anything I said. As a liberal, I think that flawed liberals are more funny, so that’s what I’m being on the show. On the other side of it, there’s a gay father on the show, a gay guy who has a kid in my class, and I shot a scene the other day where I’m trying to relate to him, and I’m not doing it well, because I’m uncomfortable. So I’m trying too hard to get along with this gay guy, and it’s not working because I’m trying too hard. I’m having trouble relating to a gay guy. That doesn’t exist at all in my life. There’s a lot of gay fathers at my kids’ school, and they’re friends of mine. I don’t think of gay people as a separate category of persons. I don’t go, “Oh my God, it’s a gay guy. What do I say?” But to me it’s a funny thought, a guy that would do that. And I could understand somebody feeling that way, so it’s an interesting thing to reveal. That awkwardness, even with the willingness to be one with everybody, that if people are new to you, it makes you feel awkward and makes you feel stupid when you try. Instead of just walking up to somebody and saying, “Hi” because they’re a person, thinking, “Oh it’s a gay guy, better say the right thing.” That’s a very stupid thing, and I wouldn’t do it, but I’m willing to do it as myself on television, because it’s a worthwhile thing to explore.
I think I do that a lot onstage during my stand-up too. I’ll take points of view and positions and stuff and stories about myself that aren’t true, but they’re worth revealing, and I’d rather reveal them as myself than criticize other people. I’d rather take on the stupid behavior to reveal it, even though it’s in other people I’ve seen it in. Because for one thing, you’re kind of infallible when you’re using yourself. You’re not attacking anybody. And also, it helps me relate to it better. Rather than depicting somebody like “There’s that character over there being a piece of shit.” These straw-dog moments like in West Wing, where they make conservatives just stand there and get pummeled. [Laughs.] It’s almost more interesting for me to play the guy I’m putting down—not putting down, but revealing, because I don’t think any of these behaviors come from a bad place. I think they just come from confusion. I think most homophobia and racism is just from fear and cultural pollution and lack of experience—and selfishness and stuff. A lot of the stuff I do onstage lately, I talk about what a piece of shit I am. I’m better than the guy I’m talking about, but I think it’s a valid way to reveal these things.

Amazing finale, loved the last bit of stand-up and the final shot.

And his conversation w/ Pamela Adlon, and the airport bathroom bit, and the Gervais appearance...

That was all just brilliant. I watched it w/my dad (a retired minister whose brother has just converted to Catholicism) and he was like "hoooo boy"

<3 the comparison of the Old Testament God to a shitty girlfriend

Gervais is really horrible on this show, but I have so little patience for him period.
Last two eps were good, lotta fun, but not high points.
We should maybe poll? But I'm pretty sure that the donut shop high school threat episode is as good as it got.

Yeah, no doubt - that was the most unique and consistently great episode. Even the shows with really good bits were usually middled with a crappy short or dud stand-up section.

Gervais really grated on me at first, but for some reason his second appearance being even more over the top kinda worked for me? I'm not sure why, maybe it was one of those "so bad, but it just wouldn't end so it turned the other way" kind of things.

i love gervais on this

I'm sick of Ricky Gervais in general, but I really like him on this because the show does kind of explore how wearing it would be to have someone like that as a friend.

Last two eps were good, lotta fun, but not high points.

I really loved the ending, because it's the first time I've seen him take advantage in this show of the fact that he isn't like a regular dad. He doesn't have to get up at a certain time of the day and commute to work, so if his kids really want to go and get pancakes at 5am and then (presumably) go back to bed and sleep all day, that's fine with him because it doesn't really throw his day out. It was also the first time that the lack of contact with other people in the city worked in his favour. Nobody cares that he has his kids out in their pyjamas at that hour of the day, so they can just have their breakfast in peace. I thought there was something really touching about that scene.

I just realized I'm a couple of eps behind, awesome

Xp. He was smiling, for once...

So so so great. I just love how he scratches right down to what's real, in a way that just seems effortless.

a fave moment is when he's happily singing a jingle in the bodega that goes "oh i'm shittin on hitler's face and pissin' in his mouth..."
also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-55wC5dEnc

am listening to a bootleg mp3 of his new standup set and... hahahahahaha omg. he actually gets a couple of kinison-level rants going in places, it's pretty impressive. the best thing is just his eye for tiny details though. tiny, tiny details that somehow spin out into, i dunno, the pros and cons of cow-fucking.

o man is the season over already?

;_;

enjoy your Mad Men, lolmerica

seeing him on sunday, can't wait

wish he was coming to Portland. I saw him about 2 years ago and it was great. He did material I've never heard him do before or since. I think he really tries out a ton of new material all the time, so every show is unique.

i just watched this whole show in one evening. :o so good. my fav comedy show since arrested development. wonderfully unique.

i'm actually going to watch it all again right away

im going to see him stand up in november, p psyched

am listening to a bootleg mp3 of his new standup set and... hahahahahaha omg. he actually gets a couple of kinison-level rants going in places, it's pretty impressive. the best thing is just his eye for tiny details though. tiny, tiny details that somehow spin out into, i dunno, the pros and cons of cow-fucking.

― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, September 15, 2010 2:16 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark

ysi/leo?

^^

wish he was coming to Portland.

He is in November. I have tickets even!

Sweet! Hope it's not sold out yet.

Was last time I checked (yesterday). The Seattle show had seats left.

Yep sold out unless you want to shell out $100+. Oh well, that's what I get for not paying attention to this stuff.

Don't forget about his special airing on Epix tonight! You can get a free invite to watch it at epixhd.com, in the US at least (not sure about other countries).

http://www.epixhd.com/louis-ck-hilarious/

Where do you go to get the invite?

nm, figured it out

I just came back from seeing him perform. He was funny and I'm sorry it had to end when it did. For some reason, he didn't do any material about cow fucking, even though he was in Wisconsin. He did say that he'd picked Milwaukee to film his last special in because he liked our attitude, which was cool and something I hadn't even known before. Thanks for the link, Jouster!

I have my invite, good to go!

For some reason, the link crapped out on me after an hour of play. Thankfully, there are other ways of getting the show online as of today...

he was so good last night

He did say that he'd picked Milwaukee to film his last special in because he liked our attitude, which was cool

ha, he was nothing but derisive towards madison ("i flew in an opener with my own money because you are a tertiary market with no funny people", "if it wasn't for work i would never, ever come here", etc.). his opener kind of sucked btw.

or sorry, it was something like "why would i come to madison in the middle of my life if it wasn't for money".

madison can't take a joke either, apparantly

i didn't say it wasn't funny! i was laughing along with the rest of the theater.

assumed it was general schtick though - apparently he differentiates between places in wisconsin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzyudfuUtk

dude's youtube channel has like a dozen short films i haven't seen!

yeah this one is classic for all time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTXYwBqXbcA

Louie: the new The Wire

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=lucky_louie

Haha, great title.

The notion that white people carry an inherent privilege is, of course, a lefty one.

Those damn lefties and their crazy, unfounded notions.

my eyebrow arched a bit at that sentence

saw him do some standup, damn this motherfucker funny

I was rewatching Louie the other day - some dodgy bits here and there, but there's nothing else remotely like it.

gf and i saw louie doin' the standup a couple weeks back. seriously amazing times, would/will see again.

He's a pro, no doubt. And jeez, what a workhorse. Blows my mind that he writes all new material for each new show he does.

score to this is pretty sweet

Saw Louis 2 Fridays ago at the Moore. He's the best (for lack of better phrase) dude comedian that talks raw but doesn't become this anti-woman monster. I really enjoyed his set.

does anybody remember that tweet he did about not watching his show online for ratings reasons? can u help me find it?

I remember it, something about how it doesn't count for his benefit if you watch on Hulu or download on iTunes, wasn't it?

Don't see it among his tweets now, but he's deleted a lot of them. (Mostly the drunk ones where he calls Sarah Palin a cunt.)

for the show's benefit re: renewal, I mean

i watched it on netflix on demand. i hope that's okay. also, it was great!

abbott said something in the other thread about how delightful his facial expressions are. it's true; they're my favorite thing!

Love when he hits a joke so good in his bit that even he has to break character and smile a little. Like, universal truths so universal and funny that even the teller is not immune.

I was rewatching Louie the other day - some dodgy bits here and there, but there's nothing else remotely like it.

― Simon H., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 12:04 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

i really don't understand when people say things like this. it's definitely kind of all over the place and several different kind of shows depending on what part of what episode you're watching, but imo pretty much all those kinds of shows have been done before individually.

It has a homemade feel, I'd say.

i can't argue with that, i just see it as more of a weakness than a strength

the rapid tone shifts feel pretty unique, esp as unlike most sitcoms which move from lolz/comedy to seriousheartfelt/awws, Louie moves from lolz/comedy to frightening/reality. it's like a combo between a very well-written entry into the overweight pathetic male sitcom canon and like the wire (hyperbole but srs social commentary)

any help re: that tweet would be appreeshed

hey slocki I trawled through his whole twitter timeline & there's nothing along those lines. He actually tells people its on Netflix, Itunes etc, a number of times...theres nothing about not watching it online. Il

Thanks I actually just found a mention of it somewhere...

He tweeted that more people watching the show when it aired would give it the best chance of renewal, but followed it up with "don't listen to me, watch it however you want."

hasn't it already been renewed?

this was some time ago

finally watched these on netflix, what a weird-ass show. thought the non-standup parts were about 50/50 in terms of what worked and what didn't, but i liked having no idea what to expect.

the actress who played his date/mom looks sooo much like a girl i used to hang out with.

I can't think of many (any) other shows that didn't follow a set structure episode by episode. This one either has opening credits or a cold open then credits; an A story and then a B story, or two intertwined, or just an A story. Maybe Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman did this.

(Didn't? "Don't," I mean.)

this show is hilarious

"im just saying if i knew we were gonna take a cab here i wouldve dressed differently"

this dude's stand up is next next level

anyway his new special is playing on comedy central right now

at least i think it's new

they were playing "chewed up" last night & holy shit is that the best

Sweet, been meaning to check out the new one. Chewed Up is killer

"chewed up" is unreal

i'm making it a point to remember the name of his specials because he wears the same shirt every single time

Lol I know right

he really is one of the best standups out -- that's really why i always consider his TV shows disappointing, i just think he's capable of better

This clip has one of my favorite lines, how his toddler daughter has "the density of a dying sun"...also the part about how she thinks you whisper secrets right into peoples mouths...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXYrThC3N3I&feature=youtube_gdata_player

the whole like... last 30 or 40 mins or w/e of "chewed up" where he talks about being a parent is the most killer

I love his parenting stuff...laugh til I cry every time

yeah he's great at just taking the darkest thoughts you can have about children and parenthood and putting them in terms that are really really funny but not pulling any punches

watching his stuff censored is totally pointless

honestly i think sometimes censored comedy can be funnier because it sort of emphasizes the vulgarity -- like katt williams w/ bleeps kills me

yeah but w/louis you'd have to censor whole bits because while they might not have the profanity of a katt william bit they're, like, conceptually offensive. i mean the whole thing w/his daughter spreading her vagina and being the happiest person in the world is hilarious but really might not play in peoria, you know?

nb i have not watched these youtubes, so i don't know how they're censored

just saw Hilarious on Comedy Central, some great stuff, some I've heard before, like the awesome stuff on Conan about cell phones and flying. Maybe didn't seem as "heavy" and life-changing as the last two but great. I already pre-ordered the DVD and look forward to the whole thing.

"esp as unlike most sitcoms which move from lolz/comedy to seriousheartfelt/awws, Louie moves from lolz/comedy to frightening/reality."

somebody has to back up some dude here -- only watched "bully" because somebody told me it was great -- the scene in the diner was indeed great but i don't know how to describe the rest of the episode except as a move to seriousheartfelt/awws in a pretty expected sitcommy way.

bit about the Dodge Dart full of bees had me in stitches last night

^yes. made me think if 'i was bees' thread

ive never been a huge fan and didnt get into the hbo show but he really is on the top of his game right now

i think he's sort of the default "funniest man in america" right now.

Cosign

totally

amazing standup. couldn't get into the show, because the standup parts always outshone the rest of it and basically just made me want to watch him do standup. I respect that he's trying to make the show and I want it to succeed but it's so uneven.

it's so funny!

in my opinion.

i'm just glad that they still let people make shows like this. the powers that be. my broadcasting overlords throw me a bone every once in a while.

I agree. I don't really understand the 'not digging' of Louie's show because to me it's just so great. On all levels.

actually that's not true. they are constantly throwing me bones. i love t.v.

i would totally overthrow the government, but there is too much i want to watch right now.

yeah louie is kinda everything i could ever want in a half hour show. it would be rude of me to ask for MORE. plenty of fun.

it is uneven. warts and all, though, don't think there's a comedy on TV that i like half as much.

oh, maybe Curb.

30 rock

The Marc Maron interview with him made me appreciate the show even more than I did, because I don't think I really got just how much of himself he puts into every aspect of it.

I mean, just to see his timing play out in scenese like the helicopter taking the girl away, or dropping the water bottle out the window, or that beat with his Mom in the car at the end of the church episode where she's like "You wanna donut?" ..it just makes me glad that someone like him is doing a show like this

I love 30 Rock but could not care less if you like it or not ... but if you don't like Louie I basically feel like you insulted my family.

i can see people not being into louie. i don't really think its a show for "everybody". you know? here on ilx, yeah, its definitely an ilx kinda thing. but we aren't real people.

I don't like real people!

Yeah screw em

Wait does that mean that we're fake?

The Marc Maron interview with him made me appreciate the show even more than I did, because I don't think I really got just how much of himself he puts into every aspect of it.

this interview is why i went back and watched 3-4 more episodes after deciding i wasn't that into it (and why i said i want it to succeed). just "not my thing" i guess.

i can see why you would say the standup stuff outshines the rest. i don't see it that way, but the standup stuff is like a more powerful drug - it's like bam, bam, bam. it's the pure stuff. he's been doing it for like what, 25 years? the rest of the show has to be taken in differently, but i like both aspects of it.

Saw him live back in November. Laughed till I was in tears. Love the TV show, too, but it is a totally different thing. The best thing about Louie is when for long stretches you just sit there going "Dude, that's not funny at all..."

Louie is the weirdest thing on tv and I love it.

I saw him for I think on the Shameless tour...though like Jordan says he wears the same clothes all the time so it all muddies together...he's so great live.

yeah the show is just strange in a great way -- i knew from the first ep w/ the school bus & the driver just being clueless & bailing that i would love this show

yeah i saw him on his most recent tour and laughed until it hurt. was a little out of it (late show, no dinner, beers w/friends), so can't remember the whole set. normally i would be disappointed by this but really it means i'm gonna see the special when it comes out and be like "this is all so new to me!"

"goodbye, ~jewwwws!!"

The show *is* uneven, but when it's good, it's fantastic.

So when it's bad, it's good?

its like the pizza he eats in the intro, yes

i know that pizza place, it's at the west 4th street stop and it is TERRIBLE pizza... perfect indicator of how little he respects himself and a great nod to a new york state of mind where you're like "fuck i gotta eat something... oh man, this is expensive... oh man this is terrible... oh i can't even finish this... fuck it, gotta go... when am i gonna figure out how to feed myself like a grown up instead of feeding myself shit... oh fuck, i'm so late" etc ad infinitum

^^

yeah I love the intro. I also loved Gervais' extended dick joke tbh (sorry)

the standup parts always outshone the rest of it and basically just made me want to watch him do standup
kinda agree with this (though i like the "show" parts of the show too). surprising though -- i'm not a huge standup fan in general, but he is obviously a pretty hilarious performer.

i think the reason he can appeal to ppl that don't like standup is because he never mugs, like ever. he always reminds me of, say, a good friend riffing on something while we sit around making each other laugh, he just happens to do it for over an hour straight and in front of a ton of people. but a lot of his bits wouldn't be out of place or feel forced if a pal was doing em at yr kitchen table. cf cartoonish over-actors and "am i right ladies???" stuff that grates in a lot of other standup

yeah otm

he does use his voice and face and body language to exaggerated effect sometimes, and there's nothing really wrong with that, those are tools every comedian has at their disposal

he does, for sure, but it's not as cartoonish as the vast majority of comedians (ignoring, too, those comedians whole 'thing' is that they have a flat affect). it's just amplified a little bit cuz you know he has to fill a room with it.

I like how he just smiles when he delivers bits as opposed most of his contemporaries.

YES

at yr kitchen table

why is this (alt: 'your living room') always the place people are saying staggeringly offensive shit?

staggering offensive example pls

yeah what are you talking about?

also j. are we to understand that you do not enjoy the comedic stylings of Louis CK?

no he is awesome—i was referring to classic phrases in offensive-free-speech apologetics like 'if i wanna talk that way in the comfort of my own home', '…living room', '…kitchen table', etc. you just reminded me of them, talking about people doing louis c.k. bits around the kitchen table.

ah ok

I mean it's not that weird I guess? cuz like the kitchen and the living room is where ppl hang with other ppl in private!

i know, i guess—but the kitchen table is where the family meets and says things like 'please, not at the dinner table, we're eating'.

would totally eat terrible pizza dinner with louis c.k.

Kitchen table and dinner table are two different things to me. Kitchen table is when it's really late at night, you've had a few beers and people just sit down around the table and just start talking. Or after the breakfast dishes have been cleared away and maybe a mother and daughter just sort of have it out. It's the place where you can be real. Dinner table is like, mealtime. No one reveals much of anything over dinner. It's the times in between, at that table, where shit gets real. At least to me.

'shit got real in the kitchen last night'

I dunno. Some of the most intense conversations I've had have been at a kitchen table.

YOU CALL THIS POT ROAST? *BANG*

lol

kitchen table also = serious conversations about terrible family debt situations

indeed (serious face)

kitchen often seems to be a hub during a lot of gatherings. beers in the fridge and/or the door outside to smoke is nearby. course this is me talking about like the 3 places i hang out.

what other rooms of the house do people even talk in? "that's not how my family talks together in the privacy of the laundry room"

Conservatory discussions are always very lively

"You always ask to talk to us in the basement. Why?"
"Oh, no reason."

"Not here, Charles. Not in the guest room."
"Well WHERE then, if NOT the guest room? Hmm?"

someone stop me from making a 'clue joke'

you can't stop comedy gold, Jordan. DO IT

"mom" at "the kitchen table" talking about "your uncle's alcohol problem"

lolol

'Tarese' is my favorite story.

i am quite pleased at the turn this thread has taken but a little disappointed that no one has tried to make it as filthy and pessimistic as it could be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlLvS1vH9Tk

shalalalaaaaaa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnDH-RXCptY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmban3Fio14

love love love the first scene of his old HBO show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh21R_6M7io

God, that scene is pure spun gold!

Man, that laugh track ...

it's not a laugh track! it was filmed in front of a live audience

so so great

and carrying over from the brief Louis conversation on the Patton Oswalt thread, Bag Of Dicks is my all time favorite CK bit.

Has he talked about the laughter? Wasn't that an issue? That sounded ... sweetened.

it was shot as a traditional old school sitcom w/ a live studio audience. it's possibly they sweetened it but it seems unlikely given the m.o. of the show.

Might as well have been a laugh track. When I heard the laughter, for some reason my brain coughed up this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8YSXSB8bOk

Josh I've lost track of the number of interviews where he's fumed that so many people thought the laughs weren't real on that show. He says he thinks it's because people just aren't used to hearing totally un-overdubbed laughter on TV shows any more.

I can believe it! Though in truth I'm not a laugh out loud guy, so it all sounds, well, funny to me.

I think it was the joke-laugh-joke-laugh rhythm, which seems artificial. Live and in his stand-up, Louis's joke escalate, and the response frequently does, too. Which may be why the unconventional rhythm (mechanical and tonal) of "Louis" works better for his brand of humor. He's just not a traditional sitcom type of guy, subversive or no.

Milo - I just watched the show with the two clips you posted and he is really good. Pretty sure I never ever want to have kids now though.

His ability to do all those jokes about his daughter without coming off as a horrible bastard is sort of amazing.

I think maybe he's mellowed out over the last few years, or at least softened the act a bit, because he'd do the same kind of jokes in some of his standup specials and came off much, much worse than he did in the show.

there's a very, very sweet dedication in the end credits to chewed-up, i think, to his daughters, that you read like ten minutes after hearing him exasperate about them for a half hour. it's real sweet. him and the kids eating at veselka at the end of louie was really sweet, too.

without getting too personal, there is something really satisfying about how real he seems to be getting on stage - i watched the last few stand up shows in quick succession and they all pretty brazenly accord with his marriage splitting up, like that thing about them having been married "for nine years, so we're almost done", and then the recent one with the thing about divorce.

anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95fNgx8aCS8

looking at these old hbo shows is illuminating; he's clearly been honing this material for a decade so it's easier to understand how he got it so sharp.

He's totally morphed into an extreme Bill Cosby, which is great. In fact, I'd suggest that no one has ever talked about the stresses and horrors of children as candidly as Louis C.K., especially knowing from interviews just how dedicated he is to his kids (I recall him admitting turning down a chance to audition for Alexander Payne's new film simply because he would have been away from his children for a month - in Hawaii, no less).

All his brilliant bits have begun to blur together for me, but I think it was in his stand-up set I saw last year that he described the discomfort of taking one of his daughters to a public bathroom and listening to the guy in the next stall over grunt with explosive diarrhea, just a foot or two away from his daughter's face, divided by a mere inch of metal. Man, I've been there ...

there's a very, very sweet dedication in the end credits to chewed-up, i think, to his daughters, that you read like ten minutes after hearing him exasperate about them for a half hour. it's real sweet.

I did notice this and yes, it was really sweet.

I'd suggest that no one has ever talked about the stresses and horrors of children as candidly as Louis C.K.

That's sort of what I meant upthread. It's great but man alive does he get real.

I think that's what I've grown to love about the guy, that he is out there making jokes but you can tell he is speaking from his own life and cares deeply about these things.

He's totally morphed into an extreme Bill Cosby, which is great.

Man, imagine how awesome Louis's Fatherhood would be...

I'd suggest that no one has ever talked about the stresses and horrors of children as candidly as Louis C.K.

Ha ha, yeah some of those bits scared the hell out of me during my wife's pregnancy.

Sometimes I think his stand up better prepared me for fatherhood then any of the "What to Expect" books.

One of my favorite is the bit where his daughter has a story to tell and she says "I want to tell Mommy, I don't want to tell YOU" and he's all "Yeah well I'm a fucking comedian so any story I tell is going to be better than your fucking story, asshole. What fucking story do you have other than I saw a dog today." (or something to that effect)

looking at these old hbo shows is illuminating; he's clearly been honing this material for a decade so it's easier to understand how he got it so sharp.

ehh, i don't know. i was listening to something the other day - maybe the extra that comes with shameless, if that's the title, a half hour set of bits that aren't in the main show. and he's so straight. there are other bootlegs from shows when he's building up material, just going out there and spitting and pausing and narrating the silence in between parts that are coming together - there's a great show that ends with a whole, basically punchline-free story about how he used to steal scales from the science department at school to exchange with dealers for pot - and they're so energetic, especially compared to how they were performed once kinda 'honed' and locked down. the shift for me seems to be towards embracing messy, worked-up improv over crafted jokes.

same difference to me; honed means improved in my eyes

some great stories about this dude in sarah silverman's book

xposts

Louis hasn't been honing the material for a decade, though; he throws it all out on a yearly basis. Listen to his first CD which came out in 2001 (if you can find it) or watch his old TV sets, and you will see a very, very different comedian.

(I recall him admitting turning down a chance to audition for Alexander Payne's new film simply because he would have been away from his children for a month - in Hawaii, no less).

In talking about Louie, he said something to the effect of, "If another take is needed at the end of the day to get a scene right, fuck it, I'd rather have a mediocre take and go home to my kids."

How can you not love this guy

or watch his old TV sets, and you will see a very, very different comedian.

Anybody see his "Comedy half hour" or whatever from 1996? Man was he indistinct back then.

On Marc Maron's podcast I think he said it was having kids that made him reappraise why he was doing standup and what he was doing with it.

i kind of don't love this guy as much when i'm watching one of those mediocre takes on Louie

listened to "Hilarious" yesterday, his extended rant about people complaining about stupid things made me think of ILX :/

It's true, we're inspirational.

yes -- this is so, so, so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZeymuOInys

"you're sitting in a chair in the sky"

I love his ability to do these bits on TV, minus the profanity but still hilarious. That's some self-control there.

referring back to to the Patton Oswalt thread again - I find that much more entertaining than Patton's current I HATE <everything> schtick.

I am pretty tired of comics doing airline humor but at least it's a fresh take.

That's not really airline humor. That's technology humor, set on an airplane.

i love the way he delivers that line thats like, "did you fly, through the sky, incredibly???"

yes, the delivery is the best

contrast with Patton Oswalt's airline bit from the last album, which is basically the exact bitching Louis CK is making fun of

(last part of that one, with the flight attendant giving the speech about 'peeing in God's face for five hours' is pretty funny, still)

i am totally on board with burgeoning newfound patton oswalt cynicism, but i think he is suffering kinda disproportionately itt; the parts where he shoots for some sort of underlying & redeeming humanity (like his commencement speech) are the bits that really fall flat, and his cynicism wasn't always culture snobbery. also the airplane part on the last record was good; having drinks with the driver; taking out a dinosaur on the wing; jumping off like a green beret, etc. a duality of honest and truthful louis ck versus patton oswalt's generic cynicism is kinda false imo. it isn't really airplane bitching?

the bit in the louis ck routine that kills me is talking about the wright brothers, pack it up orville, why even bother. and how it's the kind of story you'll stop drying the dishes to listen to.

Oswalt's incessant poke fun at the yokels thing (fat people in sweatpants on planes!) is what grates most. I actually really like his commencement speech and moments like that.

well, a large portion of "hilarious" is louis ck poking fun at fat white people (in sweatpants, presumably)

I'm only halfway through - the thing about the dumb thoughts in his head (oh that beautiful couple gave birth to the elderly Chinese woman, etc.) is one of the weakest bits I've heard from him.

and I see a difference - Louis constantly makes fun of himself and places himself in the groups he's making fun of (pathetic fat dudes eat Cinnabon), where Patton makes fat jokes but when he starts in on yokels and fat people on planes he doesn't even acknowledge that he's an obese dude on a plane himself.

yeah i feel you -- i haven't heard the patton set you're talking about, so

CK is prob more insightful and on-target w/r/t to real world anger, but oswalt still has those nerdy flights of weird fancy that CK doesn't really do

i'm judging this based on just youtubes and shit that i've watched over the years, i haven't seen many of these shows or (christ no) buy comedy albums

tho CK did have that "time machine to year 2" bit, but that was a small part of a racism gag

"hilarious" is the first comedy album that i've ever sought out myself (used to hear a bunch at an old job) cuz i saw the comedy central special & knew it was truncated

yeah Louis pretty squarely takes aim at himself, esp in his bits on racism etc.

still think the deftest thing he's done is his bit on cunt/faggot/nigger. obv its "provocative" and maybe just a white-guy excuse to say naughty things but I think he should get some credit for talking plainly about how we use those words both publically and internally ("god damn you you cunt faggot nigger deer!"), and what they ~do~ (saying the "n-word" on tv), even as he plainly sets himself up as the kind of asshole that persists in using those words casually even tho he knows its inappropriate (particularly wrt his use of "faggot").

I dunno. it was like the most reasoned response Ive seen to dudes that get all "well if ~they~ can say it why can't I?"...even as Louis just said "it" over and over again

I do have to thank Patton Oswald for introducing me to the KFC Famous Bowl, those are amazing hangover food.

Big difference (in a good way) between "these people are the shittiest generation" and, what he says, "we're the shittiest generation."

fwiw, baby boomers will be outed at the shittiest generation at some point

gen x is kind of ok, in its own way

this stopping washing the dishes line is great - lck has so many of these perfectly observed little moments that rush by in a blink, and aren't even real jokes, but set everything up just right

I watched "Hilarious" last night and I lolled fucking hard! Esp. the story about his girl getting bit by a pony.

I did think the above-discussed "shittiest generation" bit was pretty at odds with having a 20 minute complainathon about how people lack precision in language. Like, we're not sufficiently grateful about cell phone service but - at the same time - we can't call chicken wings "amazing"? We should only be in awe of things that are hard to comprehend, or otherwise we shouldn't give them big praise? I know this is nitpicky, and that his routine about the guy saying "hilarious" was funny. The inconsistency just bothered me.

love the bit about the dude's head "secreting words"

Also, I think Patton lost a few points w/me when he starting going after college students and fourth tier comedians for stealing his material. I mean yeah it sucks, but overall I think it reflected poorly on him to make such a big deal about it.

At the same time, there's no way I'd write off Oswalt - he's still funnier than 99% of other stand ups.

"it's got bees in it!"

gbx, the faggot bit is definitely the worst (and least funniest) thing he's ever done on stage; but I think the amazing 10-minute Louie episode two bit at the poker table where Rick Crom totally takes him to task about it is prolly his penance.

yeah i can see that

to be clear, I don't think it's his funniest, just that he managed it better than anyone else could have? if that makes sense

i think the real diff between Patton and Louie is that Patton sets himself up as the outsider—sci-fi, too-smart-for-suburbia, anti-monoculture, english major, living embodiment of the Onion A/V Club. His comedy presumes a self-righteous feeling of alienation in his audience--whether that comes from being a comic geek, or a film snob, or an indie type, or a hipster, or a message board poster. It's kind a cuddly Sub Pop version of Bill Hicks or late-90s David Cross. Which, as far as I'm concerned, is a totally great thing. But...

Louie shoots way higher, going for a general Homer Simpson everyman vibe. His bits are all about how thinks he's stupid, fat, awkward, frazzled, weirded out by people, uncomfortable around women. It's a stark humanity rendered with hyperbolic tools and gallows humor. And you don't have to have listened to Stooges records or read The Watchmen to relate to that shit.

i watched the tosh 2.0. guy's stand-up special on netflix. have you watched his thing? he does all the race stuff and making fun of fat americans thing. he's like the bastard child of somebody. he goes for the "edgy" thing.

he does all the race stuff and making fun of fat americans thing. he's like the bastard child of somebody dane cook and charles mencia

i'm gonna start a rolling standup thread because this is getting outta control

i like tosh.0 a lot as a show but he definitely crosses the line b/w making race jokes & using comedy as an excuse to be a racist

Rolling Stand-Up Comedy 2011

It's kind a cuddly Sub Pop version of Bill Hicks

this gets at everything that bothers me about patton and bill hicks at once

kudos

Patton was on the Bill Simmons podcast this week. Good chat mostly but gahhh he is so that guy that if you say your favorite movie character is X, he will say his favorite is the guy in the third scene that no-one remembers....or if your favorite movie is X he will tell you all about movie Y that influenced movie X in a way that now makes you look like a heel for not knowing about movie Y. Love the guy, in fact am married to a version of him and have those tendencies myself but lol it gets a little much

Oops I forgot this wasn't even the Patton thread, soz!

Ha, I flipped through Zombie Spaceship Wasteland or whatever it's called at Borders the other day and he had this whole bit about how people who dismiss sci-fi out of hand miss out on all these great sci-fi novels and people who similarly dismiss country music miss out on some great Dolly Parton and Waylon Jennings albums and the thing is, I *totally* sympathize with this POV like 100%, but in context it seemed like it was just an excuse to drop references to various left-of-mainstream stuff he likes to boost his cultural cred. (NB I'm not actually familiar with P-Dog's stand-up at all; I think the only bit I've seen him do is the one about how you can tell he's fat by the way he pronounces the letter B.)

He's not even that fat, is he?

Nah, I think the bit was about how he feels like he's almost getting to that point.

He'll never get there by rejecting things like the famous bowl!

http://video.feministing.com/2010/07/29/louis-c-k-s-unfunny-sketch-about-race/
http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/05/being-white.html

smdh

the comment to the first link gets it

there used to be a ton of comments to that feministing post, weird

oh, all the crazy comments are at http://feministing.com/2010/07/29/louis-c-k-s-unfunny-sketch-about-race/

the default comment bug is a mudflap silhouette babe flipping people off

amazing. most of the commenters seem to get it though.

I am starting to get really disappointed by posts on this blog that read pieces of culture with no analysis, sense of irony, or recognition or satire, let alone any context in which to place this particular piece of this comedians work.

ty and otm.

"how many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb"

Bruce Ratner can eat a bag of dicks.

― hstencil, Tuesday, March 16, 2004 5:39 PM (6 years ago)

donald rumsfeld, are you a lizard?
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/02/25/rumsfeld_lizard_person/index.html

megalols at that whole clip

pretty much the best thing about today

so great.

oh thank you so much for this

"look at his fucking face... that is an easy mask to slip on and off"

So delicious hearing Opie and Anthony slowly lose control of their program

"NOBODY does!!"

btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NhlvizRZoQ

also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjNgNDZzH5o

Woah she's super cute.

dying listening to that rumsfield clip

was this posted yet

http://i.imgur.com/ChdtI.jpg

lolll pootie tang is totally underrated

Ha, I misread that as "pootie tang is totally unedited." Then I thought, hm, that might fit.

holy shit!

One of the best shows on television...
Ricky Gervias's appearences as his doctor are funnier than shit...

new season in june! all the promos seem to be just footage from last season tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVoqZN4Is-8&NR=1

http://nymag.com/arts/tv/upfronts/2011/louis-ck-2011-5/

stoked for S2 - the bits described sound great. Hope he can keep it together, or maybe get some trustworthy help at some point, 'cause it seems like making 6 hours of actually-funny/compelling TV every year on your own is a bit much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXRViQ7rRk8

ha I just posted that independently on the Lucky Louie thread.

can't wait!

Deleted scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzbzQdeUfbs

that dude shouting in the background is LOLOLOL

also Shapiro!! hahah

the other comedians did not exactly help that clip

Disagree

^^^

that video redeemed my faith in humanity

this was great!
like not one of the funniest eps but, it's just so beautifully put together & the score's so great and his character is so compelling in its visible uncertainty. so glad it's back on.

Yeah. It was weird, it wasn't that funny, but the neighbor was amazing. The line about "don't let your sister die because you're awkward with strangers".

That makes it sound like I didn't like it. I did, I just think some episodes are hilarious and some are more...impressionistic or something.

I love the casting of this show. The woman who played his sister was like the least televisiony looking person on a sitcom ever.

yeah absolutely. it was the neighbour exchanges i was thinking of; not necessarily just because they're obviously stylistically different but just being so charged and evocative. i read an interview where he talked about the direction, about trying some new lenses this year, and there's something about him being tightly in focus and everyone else being slightly off that totally fits.

i loved that she had the CK voice of being able to say, 'but kind of carry on, right?'

Yeah the no-makeup, calling CK dude, the sister was cast perfectly.

That bit at the beginning about not letting his daughter drown was hilarious.

Weirdly, the bit about families divorcing so the kid can visit 2 happy homes made me teary. Hormonal I guess?

knew I recognized the neighbor from something else:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkp5wuuarOs

OK ep, but a little light on the lols for a season opener, esp. given how high the bar had been raised in the final stretch of S01.

OK ep, but a little light on the lols for a season opener, esp. given how high the bar had been raised in the final stretch of S01.

i think with the thing making this so good & distinct being its honesty, & what it's trying to capture, i'm okay with this

It was weird, it wasn't that funny

so mostly like last season? i mean that in a good way, of course. the extended detours into uncomfortable non-lol territory (sometimes for almost an entire episode) are what makes this show special to me. haven't seen this yet btw.

This show is pretty amazing, and I'm glad it does stuff that are a bit stranger and more conceptual than funny. I recently saw Louie's first show, the sitcom, and it was very bizarre. It felt like a joke version of a sitcom that this show might fade into for a second as a dream sequence or something. Prefer this to it x1000.

That episode was incredible.

holy shit! so good.

standup-level lol quotient is the wrong metric for this show imo

Best fart gag since Blazing Saddles?

well, since Deadwood at least.

god that was such a great setup for that fart gag too. Dude is ice-cold.

wait, it's on? did my tivo miss this?

10:30 Eastern on Thursdays. First episode was last week. I'm sure they'll rerun it this week at some point.

Did anyone else think of the fart gag in The Young Ones?
(at 5:50)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDq48FU4NZg&feature=related

loved loved loved the first scene of the new ep hahahahaha

I was almost crying by the end of the opening scene (it's been a rough year), and then Louie flips the bird and I cracked up. Perfect.

Ah my gf erased it cause she thought it was a rerun. We salvaged and watched. Perfect.

five minutes, many lols

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gTYC-lJZvY

'this job sucks' 'yes that's why we gave it to you' XD

jay leno is the most useless shit in the universe

god he is the worst

Every time I accidentally leave the TV on at 11:30 on a weeknight, I see the opening of his show and think, "Wait, this is still on?"

heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee
GOD JAY SHUT UP

and I love how Louis basically gives him an eyeroll with every fake-ass question "So, so how are your kids doing hehehe"..."UGGGGH. FUCK. They're FINE"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_L5mYlxlXE
^probably worth watching the whole show

seinfeld and gervais are kinda interestingly insufferable

that's great

seinfeld killed w/ the whistle thing tho

in pt. 3

yeah, i agree; that had me dying too.

i like how they seemed so much more on the same page when they were talking about jokes and bits and ideas, and then suddenly when they were talking about the psychological dimensions of performing and relating to the audience, their consensus vanished.

leno interview is fire

I hope whoever was insisting upthread that Louie was just a hodgepodge of other shows is paying attention to season two...tonight's was especially out-there.

hardest lol of the interview was "(louis) has made me CRY with shit jokes" g: "well, he's got a lot of shit jokes"

granted, i'm drunk.

the daily show interview v worth watching if you missed it

last night's episode was something else. this show is turning into something special.

yeah this show is great

the "daddy" bit was hilarious, but I already thought it hilarious that she'd be asking for nsa hook-up and then acting out like he's her husband anyway. When she came out in the nightgown putting on cream and talking about the PTA or whatever I was dying.

And vaginate or whatever...he really has a way of taking the oldest most cliche "funny because their true" jokes, like ye olde have to buy condoms/tampons/etc joke and making them fresh and real.

vagitine

that was a really classic episode. & different, even from the pretty broad territory of everything til now; the piano score made it into this observational comedy through the silent parts, like watching him wrestle with his shoes outside her apartment, like a clown (the score for this is always so great anyhow). & how morbid parts of it were, the daddy scene was kinda roy andersson.

so great!

great great great.

The homeless beheading/date segment was great too. And the incidental music that was playing while he was standing on the street as the homeless guy was running towards him seemed very, Double Indemnity-like. But just so cool that transition from her being bored/curious to pretty turned on by his honestly to OMG FREAKING OUT and running away.

And holy shit. Daddy/spanking and the vagitine and the night cream/sad nightgown...goddamn!! Just the look on his face while she's lying there crying her eyes out. Also loved the little detail of her sucking the extra cream off the top of the whipped cream cannister before she starts eating the blueberries, like there is NO MAGIC ever at all with her.

the homeless beheading scene may be an all-time classic for me. it takes a deft hand to make something so seemingly horrific so hilarious. I've been laughing every time I've visualized the scene.

it helped that the rolling head looked like a cabbage or something

haha yes!

was almost like a zombie beheading

i think i am in love with louis c.k. btw

Yup, the way the collision and rolling cabbage-looking head was filmed was just hilarious to me. then of course his reaction to it. As someone who lives/works in a city where there are tons of crazy people (san francisco), I knew exactly what was going on before they even showed the guy running toward him. Just that sharp shout on a city street, that so often leads to witnessing something that changes your day for the worse, triggered my "crazy person alert" response.

i suppose i should catch up on this huh

1st half wasn't as good as the 2nd but I think "gun guy" might be entering the personal lexicon

haha yeah that was adorable. also i liked when louis was like, "i could get thrown from a helicopter!" i was like...not likely...

<3 gun guy

so good

rewatching season 1 and i had forgotten about the 'blacks don't tip' thing. we should start a thread to investigate this stereotype.

so many little touches i love

"yknow janice you're gorgeous and i find you very attractive and you're very nice...you're...you're not even nice honestly"

louie saying the homeless guy was running 30 mph

the man has a real grasp on conversational nuance and the complexity of comic timing

also, good dick jokes

the man has real grasp on good dick jokes

He really loves the classic captial J Joke. And the way he sets them up, god I love him. Makes me want to hug my tv.

seinfeld killed w/ the whistle thing tho

Pretty sure that was Chris Rock, no?

no - def Seinfeld

Huh, I'm watching it again, and it sounds like Rock. Also, after the line, Seinfeld sort of pushes Rock away, Rock (even though he's laughing as much as anyone) shrugs, and Seinfeld sighs, "Ah, that's a good one."

Yeah, i think it's Rock

yo wtf why isn't season 1 streaming on netflix anymore

It's been released on DVD/Blu-Ray so they want you to buy it.

they haven't put the first episode of season two on the fx site yet. are they gonna? gosh i hope so.

Check Sidereel.com, use the megavideo links.

^Pretty much what I do for everything, rarely lets me down.

you could get shot by a gun guy

finally saw an episode of this. have seen some of his standup.

i find him to be so repulsive in so many ways. and not really very funny. to me there is also something infuriating about his whole "i'm just an average slobby guy" kind of schtick, too.

as far as his show, this kind of comedy of personal humiliation or self-abasement has been done a million times better in past by gary shandling, larry david, ricky gervais, woody allen, to name just a few people off the top of my head

nah he's a genius

he's a genius at failing to make me laugh, i'll give him that

Louis isn't really in line with most of the comics/dudes that you mention except Allen. it's not "humor of embarrassment" in the same way as Curb or The Office.

Louis "repulsive"...does not compute

Yeah I don't see many similarities with Shandling or David, and Gervais doesn't even belong in that sentence. Shandling, maybe style-wise at a distance, but dude is like the naricssistic opposite of CK. David's got maybe, I dunno, grouchiness in common? And Gervais has been doing standup for the comedian equivalent of a week.

Bums me out that you don't find him funny, but I get that humor is subjective & you're entitled to your own etc etc

think what separates CK from that list is shame/decency

it is just so fucking nice to have a comedian becoming known & successful whose take is kinda rooted in trying to not be a total asshole or being conscious of your assholism & not viewing it as a virtue

^^ ya this

del, do you object to his average guyness bc u think hes frontin about being average? like, u r a successful comedian u can't possibly cop to this earnestly? or is trying to appeal to averageness just repulsive in it's own way?

wow thanks for the sidereel tip that worked like a charm!

whoo yeah i just love this show. i lost it during the spanking thing in the 2nd ep that was just too funny.

for me it was the lotion on the legs. i have dated a couple of women like that. like, the whole "whoaaa no, you're not paying for my vagitin!" thing rung a lot of bells.

also i loved how they did his trip to the store, as a complete inversion of the expected "embarrassing items" bit. the guy's a dad, he has no problems asking for shit like that from a stranger in a store. that's what you need, it happens, the guy in the store is fine with it.

i mean sorry for the triple post here but i can't imagine another show that would have the willpower to just leave that interaction as-is, without milking just a little bit from it.

a la mr.mom. isn't that the first famous scene like that? the michael keaton tampon thing.

del, do you object to his average guyness bc u think hes frontin about being average? like, u r a successful comedian u can't possibly cop to this earnestly? or is trying to appeal to averageness just repulsive in it's own way?

i think a neat thing about him, from what you gather from interviews & hearing about him putting the show together, & the focus on him being a parent in the shows, is that he is average in that respect; it's largely about him navigating situations in which he's put upon and in which his fame isn't really that significant a factor, eg with his kids or while he's just trying to get a thing done (i guess the exception here would be episodes based around dating, but even that figured, in the ep in which smoeone's dating him because he might become a big thing). that it's a show he writes + shoots + edits + fusses over, full-time - maybe my knowledge of his biography is impinging here but it kinda lends credibility to the idea that he's just this wearied, beaten-down dad guy, rather than someone remembering that situation from their pre-fame days.

like maybe i am just straying into admiration here rather than show analysis, but i think it's a very appealing thing about what we know about him, like hearing him talking to seinfeld about throwing his act out every year - the constraints that he puts upon himself and his role, & the extent to which his actions are guided by his hopes + beliefs about how it should be done, actually end up being conducive to his work, informing it and creating a little ecosystem that generates more work, a busy life, etc.

apropos of nothing

And Gervais has been doing standup for the comedian equivalent of a week.

this was really driven home in that hbo thing where seinfeld/rock/ck/gervais were talking about the first "bits" they ever wrote, and gervais' was about wikipedia

i'm sure those guys are fans of the office or whatever. i mean the dude is good at what he does. he was there basically cuz he paid for the show or produced it or whatever. i could have done without his cackle but i lived. i liked that thing.

as far as his show, this kind of comedy of personal humiliation or self-abasement has been done a million times better in past by gary shandling, larry david, ricky gervais, woody allen, to name just a few people off the top of my head

― dell (del), Monday, July 4, 2011 7:19 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

Saw "The Bully" for the first time yesterday. I don't think any of these comedians are/were doing anything like it. There's lots of humanity, and he's totally cool with not going for the laugh.

there are a dozen comedians i would have rather seen there than gervais, but given that he put the thing together i guess i dont mind he has a spot

xp

The chasm between Gervais & the other guys was the most apparent to me when he talked about picking jokes based on what the audience finds funny...and CK in paritcular, but all three really, were telling him it has to be what makes YOU laugh.

but wait he was also talking about how he would stop doing something if thought it was getting an easy laugh and they said he was crazy and that there was no such thing as an easy laugh.

gervais seems to have some unusual insecurities about his career and how he's perceived in the uk that make him have these weird goals for his standup act

He sure likes talking about how he's doing things "ironically"

David Brent is only a slight exaggeration of who Gervais actually is.

Gervais looks like he was the only one interested in breaking down what distinguishes smart/good comedy from cheap/bad comedy. His goals are based on what he feels like recipe is for comedy that means something, and what it is worth to pay money to go see.

Keep in mind that Gervais had a pretty successful radio show and that podcast in addition to "The Office" (which is a masterpiece), and that his stand up specials (that I've seen) have been pretty good. Dude earns his pay. I mean, sure, Gervais' Hollywood excursions have been a bit dubious, but he's in good company there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK8I9106cfc

I'm always impressed by Seinfeld's brand of virtuosity. It's like he's so good you don't even think about how good he is. In a lot of ways he's more of a traditional stand-up than Rock or C.K., who are both angry guy in a room sorts (albeit brilliantly so). Seinfeld is more of a dancer than a fighter. Gervais in some ways may be the most self-aware and in a way confrontational of that bunch.

Personally, that Talking Funny conversation left me feeling like Ricky was so obsessed with the mechanics of comedy that he was overlooking the simplicity of it, which is what Louis, Seinfeld and Rock seemed to be driving home towards the end. They've been doing it for so long that it's a feeling, and Gervais's standup is still very green, where that "feeling" is like a foreign concept to him. Like a young jazz student vs an old jazz musician

Gervais in some ways may be the most self-aware and in a way confrontational of that bunch.

agree with a lot of what you wrote, but attaching confrontational to gervais seems way off; i feel like every move he's making when he's trying to connect like that is pretty cheap shit, like on a jimmy carr level, now. i don't think we're reexamining our attitudes through the lens of his un-PC outbursts; i just think it's him working around stuff that's going to get a rise.

this show is amazing

otm

like i srsly sorta think louis ck is an important ~thinker~ in america

I watched all the episodes of the show and three of his stand-up specials over the weekend. Yep, i'm a convert.

like i srsly sorta think louis ck is an important ~thinker~ in america

I agree with this. His comedy is engaged with /ideas/ both big and small in a way that gervais (who tends to grind axes via jokes) or whomever else doesn't even approach.

like i srsly sorta think louis ck is an important ~thinker~ in america

Isn't this what Gervais was getting at? That the best Chris Rock and Louis CK bits have the perceptive power to change the national discourse. Seinfeld, less so, but again, he's more of a unique creature (like Shandling or Albert Brooks or something).

you know how people say how television is used by the corporate and governmental overlords to keep people pacified and in check so that there is no rebellion against the state? oh man they have gotten REALLY really good at it and i for one am not even gonna think about insurrection in case they can read my thoughts cuz t.v. is just too good right now. if i'm really honest with myself i'm only concerned about changing/extreme weather patterns as far as how that weather might effect satellites and any other device that controls my t.v. reception.

^For sure. Who ever imagined it's be hard to get an interesting movie made, but that we'd be awash in a wealth of good television? I guess it helps to be cheap!

It'd be, obviously, not it's be.

I love Louis CK to the moon and back.

Seconded.

Yeah this. Love this show, love his standup, love his worldview, and you know, it's a relief to be an irony-free fanboy once in a while.

del, do you object to his average guyness bc u think hes frontin about being average? like, u r a successful comedian u can't possibly cop to this earnestly? or is trying to appeal to averageness just repulsive in it's own way?

i think the best comedians are situated outside of "average guyness". as a result they are afforded an outsider's perspective which readily translates into humorous observations and all that attendant crap which = funny

and yes, i do think he's being somewhat disingenuous about his avg schlubness/schlubitude. i don't believe that he is truly that much of a meat and potatoes boobs and sports illustrated budweiser and poker salt of the earth guy or whatever he is supposed to be

and yes i do find having pretensions to be avg. to be repulsive in its own way . but that's my own personal problem and i shouldn't let it prejudice my estimation of his merits as a comedian. but i do.

and i do find him to be kind of gross and creepy. not sure i can even put my finger on what it is about him. he just seems kind of... unwholesome. not in a "why can't he be more like the osmonds or the waltons?" kinda way, but just creepy. i don't know.

also it seems like he wants to have his cake and eat it too, like, in the episode i saw there is a scene where he is sitting around playing poker with his buddies, and a bunch of them are kind of ribbing the one dude who is gay, and then that dude explains the upsetting associations that he has with the word "faggot", and then we see louis waxing remorseful as he realizes the wider implications of his lighthearted past attempts at humor involving casual homophobic elements...but before the scene is over his one buddy continues to make all these lame jokes making fun of gay sex. so basically louis sets himself up to look like this guy who has learned this Important Lesson about being more empathetic and sensitive or whatever...but then meanwhile he still has managed to get all of the potentially offensive jokes in...i just think it's kind of weird and i don't know, narcissistic, (painfully oprah-esque, even) like, "look at me learning this important life lesson about how to treat people or be more aware of their feelings, watch me evolve, people". it just seems overcalculated and disingenuous somehow, which maybe is the aspect of him that i find kind of creepy. i feel like his entire schtick is phony. the average guyness, the "RAGE", the self-loathing sadsack "look at me as i just keep getting myself into these awkward life situations, gee what a loser i am", the token stabs at didacticism. it all plays as insincere to me. and much worse, NOT FUNNY!

w/e

anyway in general ppl who post here seem to be really smart and funny and so forth so i find it kind of SHOCKING that y'all are going ape for this guy's stuff!

also it seems like he wants to have his cake and eat it too, like, in the episode i saw there is a scene where he is sitting around playing poker with his buddies, and a bunch of them are kind of ribbing the one dude who is gay, and then that dude explains the upsetting associations that he has with the word "faggot", and then we see louis waxing remorseful as he realizes the wider implications of his lighthearted past attempts at humor involving casual homophobic elements...but before the scene is over his one buddy continues to make all these lame jokes making fun of gay sex. so basically louis sets himself up to look like this guy who has learned this Important Lesson about being more empathetic and sensitive or whatever...but then meanwhile he still has managed to get all of the potentially offensive jokes in.

if i understand correctly, Louis C.K. has used the word "faggot" in his stand-up before, so that scene was more of a mea culpa. i find him basically the opposite of creepy so i don't know what to say about the rest of that.

oh okay, i guess you included that.

since when did "being disingenuous" preclude comedy? but I mean if you don't find it funny then arguing about it won't help.

xposts yeah, i understand that he was putting himself in a bad light, but that's part of my point. it's this narcissistic thing of "oh look at me eating crow here" . he manages to put himself in a glorified light even as he's ostensibly showing himself to have been a thoughtless jerk or whatever. it's just kind of tacky imo

i don't believe that he is truly that much of a meat and potatoes boobs and sports illustrated budweiser and poker salt of the earth guy or whatever he is supposed to be

he doesn't pass himself of as any of these things. like, in any way!

since when did "being disingenuous" preclude comedy? but I mean if you don't find it funny then arguing about it won't help.

yeah in truth i guess i'm just allergic to him or something. oh well. there are other funny makers in the world

ok he plays poker in a scene, once.

i just get a jim belushi vibe from him is all i'm sayin

xposts yeah, i understand that he was putting himself in a bad light, but that's part of my point. it's this narcissistic thing of "oh look at me eating crow here" . he manages to put himself in a glorified light even as he's ostensibly showing himself to have been a thoughtless jerk or whatever. it's just kind of tacky imo

― dell (del), Wednesday, July 6, 2011 12:19 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

I don't think he's doing this at all. I don't think he's even condemning the use of "faggot" on stage. He's just having people sound off different points of view.

man my illusions have been shattered

next youll tell me garry shandling is not actually that much of a neurotic narcissist

del, sounds like you've made up your mind, but seeing one episode and some bits of standup is apparently not giving you a complete picture of this dude. jim belushi?

haha, i know. i'll try to look at some more of his stuff

he's kind of the anti jim belushi really
like if they touched the universe would implode

holy shit you guys I just noticed that one of the people walking in front of the camera in the opening credits gives the camera the finger while Louis is standing in the slice shop eating his pizza. It's super quick and blurry, but that's what it is. Wonder if that was an extra or a real NYer wandering by the shoot and deciding to be hilarious.

noticed that too for the first time this ep. i wonder if it's new?

nah, it's always been there.

On the commentary Louis says they filmed it after a night of filming at the Comedy Cellar when he realised they didn't have any opening credits.

just some random guy then, I guess

It's my favorite thing since I noticed it last season.

Also I will say apropo of nothing that I actually find Louis kind of attractive. And I promise that that is not deliberate challopism...just wanted to rep for an average dude with a nice smile.

The vibe I got from CK was that he was some bloated, farty everyman, and I hate everymen. After listening to that clip of him on one of those jackass "shock jock" shows where he heckled Rumsfeld ... that was too classic not to reevaluate him. Of course I haven't bothered doing that yet, so as far as I'm concerned he still sucks.

During the opening credits of the show, some guy flips off the camera. There was a young, NYU-looking kid -- spiky hair and just real contrary. He was walking with some real "yeah fuck everything" type guy. I was eating the pizza and I saw them, and I was already thought 'Jeeesus.' I think they saw a camera and they saw people making a sincere effort in something... So one of them went 'YEAHHHH' and he flipped off the camera. And I remember that moment very well because I was eating pizza and I watched him flip off the camera and I could tell by the angle that we caught it. And I thought -- when that happened, I knew we were gonna be on TV. Because that was when we were shooting the pilot, and it was a test. For some reason I remember seeing that and thinking, 'That's just meant to be. That's gonna be in the opening credits. It'll be fuzzy because I fucking know how the camera works. It's gonna be a little fuzzy because it's out of the depth of field and people are going to see it.' I just knew. That was just a sign to me. That we were going to get to be on TV.

From here: http://www.thecomicscomic.com/2010/11/in-paley-center-chat-louis-ck-reflects-on-the-guy-who-flips-him-the-bird-in-the-opening-credits-of-f.html

louis contains ~multitudes~ imo, he is everyman but he is no man

He just uses the everyman as a trojan horse. The guy has made more insightful comments about class, race, sex, parenting, blah blah blah then just about anybody I can think of in the strangest ways. Sometimes he's obvious and blunt, other times there's layers upon layers. This has all been discussed above so I don't think it needs to keep being mentioned, but if people think he's just Jim Belushi or a shock jock, I can't imagine you've seen enough.

I'm kidding, my last comment was a toss-off joke. He's not like that fat guy from King of Queens, he's sharp, insightful, and dare I say, sardonic.

Dell - I the feeling that your introduction to Louie was his FX show. If you care, check out any of his three stand ups and I think you'll get a better impression of what he's all about. The FX show is almost a completely separate beast - like an art project run amok.

ok, thanks. i've seen some brief clips of his standup act. i will investigate more

Also I will say apropo of nothing that I actually find Louis kind of attractive

me too.

i think the best comedians are situated outside of "average guyness". as a result they are afforded an outsider's perspective which readily translates into humorous observations and all that attendant crap which = funny

and yes, i do think he's being somewhat disingenuous about his avg schlubness/schlubitude. i don't believe that he is truly that much of a meat and potatoes boobs and sports illustrated budweiser and poker salt of the earth guy or whatever he is supposed to be

and yes i do find having pretensions to be avg. to be repulsive in its own way . but that's my own personal problem and i shouldn't let it prejudice my estimation of his merits as a comedian. but i do.

and i do find him to be kind of gross and creepy. not sure i can even put my finger on what it is about him. he just seems kind of... unwholesome. not in a "why can't he be more like the osmonds or the waltons?" kinda way, but just creepy. i don't know.

also it seems like he wants to have his cake and eat it too, like, in the episode i saw there is a scene where he is sitting around playing poker with his buddies, and a bunch of them are kind of ribbing the one dude who is gay, and then that dude explains the upsetting associations that he has with the word "faggot", and then we see louis waxing remorseful as he realizes the wider implications of his lighthearted past attempts at humor involving casual homophobic elements...but before the scene is over his one buddy continues to make all these lame jokes making fun of gay sex. so basically louis sets himself up to look like this guy who has learned this Important Lesson about being more empathetic and sensitive or whatever...but then meanwhile he still has managed to get all of the potentially offensive jokes in...i just think it's kind of weird and i don't know, narcissistic, (painfully oprah-esque, even) like, "look at me learning this important life lesson about how to treat people or be more aware of their feelings, watch me evolve, people". it just seems overcalculated and disingenuous somehow, which maybe is the aspect of him that i find kind of creepy. i feel like his entire schtick is phony. the average guyness, the "RAGE", the self-loathing sadsack "look at me as i just keep getting myself into these awkward life situations, gee what a loser i am", the token stabs at didacticism. it all plays as insincere to me. and much worse, NOT FUNNY!

― dell (del), Tuesday, July 5, 2011 8:05 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

this kinda characterizes how i felt about chris rock for a while. i did find him very funny long ago, and then hated him for a while, and i guess now i've made my peace with chris rock. he's very talented as a stand-up. but the energy of his presentation always used to chafe with what i saw as the safeness of the way he dealt with a lot of ~tough issuez~

(i think i was really into hicks around that time, who didn't really try to soft pedal anything. that's another guy i went through the love-hate-acceptance stages with. he was super talented too, but i think his die-hard fans make it hard to appreciate that nowadays.)

oh and louis ck owns. i havent seen the show yet but ive been meaning to, im sure i'd love it. its funny that someone just linked to a piece about him on a site called thecomicscomic, because thats what his rep was before he went next level - the comics' comic, the guy other stand-ups could always agree on.

i also think he's cute! i feel like we're signing a petition or something. one of my sisters does, too, for the record.

i am really excited to watch this new season of his show, but i don't have hbo or whatever and can't afford $32 on itunes so i guess i will wait

It's on FX, which is basic cable.

Oh god I find him pretty repulsive physically but I think that has to do more with the fact that he looks almost exactly like the person I dislike most in the world than with his actual looks.

xposts yeah, to my mind bill hicks was kind of a weird case. mostly brilliant delivery which transported some of his cornier material into realms where it possibly had no business being.

Also I will say apropo of nothing that I actually find Louis kind of attractive

me too. ― don't believe the HYP (get bent)

I...debated taking that position the one time I saw the show. Finally veered away due to facial hair but it was a near miss.

^^^^ yes

guys, the goatee, it's not good

http://www.google.com/search?q=louis+ck&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=827

i like his nonplussed and one-eyebrow-raised facial expressions.

He actually looks so much like this person I can't stand that I prefer to listen to his audio rather than actually watch stand-up shows because having to look at him sort of ruins it for me and I think he's really great otherwise.

having seen louis ck clean-shaven, i feel like the goatee was a good move for him

I'd prefer a full beard - I just really hate goatees.

if u ever watch Ricky Gervais passion project shitshow 'The Invention of Lying' you can see him without a goatee and it's just a bad choice. I think he's kind of cute with it too, but, like, if you were a mom

The Invention of Lying was so bad

what are you trying to say

xp

lol

He probably is cute! I think I'm just biased.

i think if i were a girl id have a crush on louis ck

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/TVNews/MSNBC%20TV/Maddow/Blog/2010/07/louisck.jpg

yeh, he looks hella better w/more of a full beard

he is esp. cute as the cop dating amy poehler in parks and rec imo

/mom

I was watching his show over at my parents' house last summer and tried to draw some of his facial expressions - he looks kind of like a friendly muppet - on the Gimp-type program I was goofing around with on my mom's iPad. I flashed it at my dad during a commercial break and he got a look on my face like he'd just caught me doodling MRS. TIM PAWLENTY in pink shimmer gel pen on a black notebook page

haha. he is so expressiony!

expressive, i guess, is the real word.

Del that picture - MUCH BETTER!

He should keep that up.

I flashed it at my dad during a commercial break and he got a look on my face like he'd just caught me doodling MRS. TIM PAWLENTY in pink shimmer gel pen on a black notebook page

― A B C, Wednesday, July 6, 2011 3:29 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol

otm about friendly muppet!

that photo has a very "ilx wdyll" vibe

kind of like if the belush was sad when Mary Hansen died

i think part of the attraction is cuz he reminds me a little of my other half, who has a goatee and is similarly "ehhh guys i dunno" about the state of the world.

said other half always cracks up when he sees louis in the opening credits, shuffling down the street and munching diffidently on a slice.

i always imagine that he looks a little sick and gassy after the slice but i think it's my imagination and uh life experience imposing that narrative

nah yr otm, he inhales it

He has the best wry grin. He's cutest when he's laughing.

worth repeating cuz I always think about this when I see the opening:

i know that pizza place, it's at the west 4th street stop and it is TERRIBLE pizza... perfect indicator of how little he respects himself and a great nod to a new york state of mind where you're like "fuck i gotta eat something... oh man, this is expensive... oh man this is terrible... oh i can't even finish this... fuck it, gotta go... when am i gonna figure out how to feed myself like a grown up instead of feeding myself shit... oh fuck, i'm so late" etc ad infinitum
― predeep natsvitika (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, January 11, 2011

ha, that ain't just a new york state of mind

yes, especially as a prelude to drinking

lol eating shitty food when yr hungry... ny state of mind

typical new yorkers, thinking they invented everything..even laziness

louis is ABOUT a nyc state of mind; it is SET in nyc and generally revolves around situations that can only take place in nyc; that's the show, not me being provincial

what does that even mean

"we do things a little different here"

new yorkers may not have invented late night pizza but i feel certain they invented the "free topping", i.e. creating a thick layer of cheap parmesan, chili flakes and oregano by shaking the jars for a good five minutes

this is a dumb argument but come on. yes it's a show about new york to some degree but shoving disgusting food in your face and hating yourself as you do it is a louis c.k. running theme and resonates universally.

forks dude i'm just bustin' yer balls. surely that's part of the nyc state of mind!

i thought it was a south carolina thing

cinnabons

truly one of his great bits

and perhaps the peak of loathing-over-food humor

of course it resonates universally, but the closer you are to its home base the more it's gonna click with you. I'm sure alaskans felt the DEEP VIBES of Northern Exposure in ways you and I will never understand.

and latebloomer I'M TRYIN TA POST OVAH HEAH GET YA FUCKIN HEAD OUT YA ASS

gummy bears are my cinnabuns. when i was like 17 i inadvertently ate a two pound bag during an episode of M*A*S*H, forgot that i'd eaten it, and went looking in the kitchen for more. i was very upset to learn i'd stolen them from myeslf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmQ0mqr69Vs

so many excellent facial expressions in that four-minute clip

new yorkers may not have invented late night pizza but i feel certain they invented the "free topping", i.e. creating a thick layer of cheap parmesan, chili flakes and oregano by shaking the jars for a good five minutes

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Thursday, July 7, 2011 10:28 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

i must be a secret new yorker then

seriously sometimes it's like listening to the hateful voice in my own head, but with way, way better jokes

i'm buying a cinnabon at the airport...that i arrived at

yeah he has really tapped into something with his self-loathing eating humor

The cinnabun thing is amazing. I FEEL YOU LOUIS I REALLY DO.

I lost it the first time I heard that bit.

"that i arrived at"

killed me

haha you can always tell when a comedian has changed the game in certain respects because they recast awful things you have done to yourself for years as "something comedian x would do a bit on"

Oh and I totally do Tracer's free topping thing with the parm, chilli and oreg and I am from NY.

haha i think followed by a real mad FRUIT AND SHIT
xxp

mmm i want to go to pinocchio's and get me a slice from the angry hockey dudes

I just found out about Pinocchio's like a month ago. It was pretty great at 2:00 am tbh.

they are never nice, and the pizza is never not amazingly good. did you try the sicilian? it is maybe my favorite pizza ever.

Yeah - it was the sicilian. I'd have to get it again to really make up my mind because I only had a couple bites but it did seem pretty good and I can be sort of picky about pizza.

ahahahahahaha

"Dude, I'm eatin that. That's what's gonna happen next. You decide if we're gonna be in the paper tomorrow but that shit's going in my face."

Also: "cinnabon jizz".

:D

i worked at a cinnabon for a summer (it was part of my food service rotation at a theme park) and to be fair we didn't get that many self-loathing "fat faggots." but that might not be a representative experience -- skinny people allow themselves to oink out at situations like theme parks.

i don't think there's any objective truth to his take on cinnabon i think it's a subjective expression of his self-loathing

cinnabon patrons, i mean

like i have eaten cinnabon and i'm p sure i was not a man while doing so

(and it *was* the skinny/average folx who were all "gimme extra frosting!")

but were you self-loathing, hs?

you know it! my subjective expression of that experience is, "i feel like i have instantly contracted diabetes"

(and it *was* the skinny/average folx who were all "gimme extra frosting!")

― don't believe the HYP (get bent), Thursday, July 7, 2011 1:04 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

sort of feel like we should let louis ck know; maybe it would make him feel better. probably not.

pizzas i monkey flip em with with the funky rhythm i be shakin pizza flakin free toppins i be makin

never had a cinnabon but have SEEN them and damn that is some hardcore shit
but i don't even eat at dunkin donuts or anything so i am not the target audience

he's not really a big guy anyway, but he commented on that on the daily show (e.g., what he said about bin laden when dude got found).

guyz u r not rhyming

u_u

no, we're not.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-28-2011/louis-c-k-

pizzas i monkey flip em with with the funky rhythm i be shakin pizza flakin free toppins i be makin

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, July 7, 2011 1:08 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

<3

I think I've only had Cinnabon like once in my life but I identify with the general sentiment and situation our man is talking about. Cinnabon can be a stand in for many many things. Was at Cheesecake factory recently and remarked on how much I hate myself every time I eat there. It's a thing.

i just ate a peanut butter sandwich and had the exact same feeling so i might not be the best control group for the universality of louis' statements

lol

i just ate a peanut butter sandwich and had the exact same feeling so i might not be the best control group for the universality of louis' statements

― death to ilx, long live the frogbs (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, July 7, 2011 1:19 PM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha just going off of ilx i kind of feel like y'all share a sensibility

"I feel like such a heifer. I had two bowls of Special K, 3 pieces of turkey bacon, a handful of popcorn, 5 peanut butter M&M's..."

there is a clueless quote for every life occasion

I NOT A MEXICAN

you're right!

my sister and i do the "that was a stop sign" "i totally paused" exchange whenever i drive her any where.

i do "i not a mexican" all the time too but it's mostly to confirm that i am in fact not a mexican

I just found out about Pinocchio's like a month ago. It was pretty great at 2:00 am tbh.

in retrospect i always got that cinnabon feeling eating at pinocchio's (all-time worst boston pizza place in this regard: little steve's on boylston pre-renovation)

kinda want a cinnabon now

man, really glad i went with the high-fiber cereal this morning instead of the leftover spaghetti.

"it's all about CHOICES" < /cf. adult swim's "totally for teens">