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Louis C.K.’s Awful New Stand-up Certainly Seems Geared Towards His Terrible Defenders

Can comedy clubs please just stop this now?
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Every time Louis C.K. is trending on Twitter, a little bit of my soul fades away like the Avengers in Infinity War, but alas, here we are. Audio leaked from C.K.’s comeback tour set that a) no one asked for, and b) he forced upon guests of comedy venues by just showing up unannounced, and … it isn’t great.

In fact, it’s downright awful. Is his new tactic to target the same people who love Donald Trump and have no problem listening to a man who thinks men can just grope women without their consent? Oh wait, yeah that sounds exactly like the kind of crowd that C.K. would like, because they’d get him.

All that being said, he’s still doing comedy because men can get away with anything, but the actual content of his set just makes things worse. Not only did he tackle the Parkland shooting by poking fun at the kids who went through it, but he ALSO mocked non-binary individuals because .. .well, he’s the f***ing worst.

In the set, he makes one thing very clear: He’s mad at “20 somethings” for calling out things that are inappropriate. Whether that means the things he says or, you know, the whole masturbating in front of women thing, we may never know.

But I’m certainly tired of comedy venues around New York City giving him the space to do this. According to a TimeOut article, there is only one comedy venue that refuses to let C.K. perform. The rest of New York apparently just has open spots for him to come and do … whatever this nonsense is, whenever he damn well pleases:

“I used to love doing spots at certain places, but I’ve heard that all clubs—except Stand Up New York on the Upper West Side—have now agreed that Louis CK can drop in and do spots. That’s literally every club, and it reinforces what I always knew: They see us [female comedians] as guests.”

I have a simple solution to this problem: Stop letting Lous C.K. do stand-up. Just stop it. Please.

For a man who has complained about an entire generation of people being “spoiled idiots,” it’s a strange choice to replace any actual attempt at comedy with just a rant about how the world has been unfair to you, a famous old white man, because the kids today are too uptight or something: “What are you—going to take away my birthday? My life is over. I don’t give a shit.”

Is he just doing this to make headlines and draw attention? Yeah, probably, but judging by the amount of people already willing to defend him all over the internet, this kind of material likely already has an audience ready and waiting, whether we try to ignore him or not—just not an audience anyone should be proud to cultivate.

(image: Rich Fury/Getty Images)

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Rachel Leishman
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Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.