Do We Really Need a Louis C.K. Comeback Documentary?

For all the right-wing complaining and pundit hand-wringing over “cancel culture”, can we finally admit that the damn thing doesn’t exist? No one is ever truly cancelled, not really. Mel Gibson is starring in the John Wick prequel series. James Franco is playing Fidel Castro (yes really). Bill Cosby is a free man despite allegations from over 60 women. Even convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein’s case is up for appeal. And Louis C.K., who admitted to masturbating in front of multiple women, is doing just fine.

He’s doing great, even. Despite getting his movie and a TV series cancelled in the wake of the revelation, C.K. has continued touring the world doing stand-up comedy. He still appears at all his regular haunts. He even won a Grammy for his latest comedy special. And if you think it’s thanks to remorse and self-reflection, that’s hardly the case. C.K. has done nothing to reach out to his victims, to atone or even apologize for his behavior. And it’s clear he doesn’t need to, as his fan base is just as strong as ever.

And now, his comeback will be the subject of a new Showtime documentary. Paramount+’s chief content officer David Nevins discussed the upcoming film during a panel at the Edinburgh TV Festival in Scotland. He said, “Louis CK is a slightly different situation [to Harvey Weinstein] and a great, great comedian who has come back in his own way, … I don’t think the social change that #MetToo has brought about is resolved at all, … There’s a bit of backlash against #MeToo, who has to go away and who’s allowed to come back.”

Nevins added that the documentary will involves the New York Times reporters who broke the story, but he was mum on C.K.’s involvement with the project. Nevins added that the film is “a very interesting documentary, which I haven’t seen yet, but I am looking forward to … It is going to deal with all the ‘where are we now four, five years later after the Weinstein story broke.”

It’s unclear how much of the documentary will be a look at the evolution of the Me Too Movement and how much of it will examine C.K.’s return to the spotlight. The way Nevins describes it seems favorable to C.K., but we’ll have to wait and see how the documentary actually turns out.

(via Variety, image: Rich Fury/Getty Images)

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