I’m not really sure anybody is arguing that, though. Are they?
I mean speaking just for myself, there is a reason I put “decent” in quotes. No good work cancels out or mitigates shitty behavior, it just is part of who they are.
I once got into a short and mild argument here with someone who said a particular person was talented enough to get away with being a dick, which is not an idea I can ever endorse. Mobster Anthony Spilotro being a great dad to his son( and apparently he was )didn’t make him any less of a murderous criminal. Louis C.K. being generous doesn’t make him less of a manipulative creeper.
But did he have any basic humanity as opposed to just putting on a show to preemptively shield himself from some future fallout? I kinda assume the former, though I suppose the latter is possible if he were truly a full-on sociopath. But I suspect he was more a pathetic creeper and manipulative asshole than a sociopath.
Right. Because donating a quarter of your revenue to charities suggested by your fans is fairly similar to “being nice to dogs”. And ordering the deaths of millions of innocents is fairly similar to whacking off in front of someone. Totally reasonable comparison. Because they both had victims. And moustaches.
[QUOTE=Tamerlane;21279424But did he have any basic humanity as opposed to just putting on a show to preemptively shield himself from some future fallout? I kinda assume the former, though I suppose the latter is possible if he were truly a full-on sociopath. But I suspect he was more a pathetic creeper and manipulative asshole than a sociopath.[/QUOTE]
Isn’t someone who is a manipulative asshole one of the defining characteristics of a sociopath? That said, Louis C.K.'s been in the comedy field for nearly 30 years. Were there any reports that he indulged in this type of behavior long before he was famous?
I don’t need comedians to provide me with moral guidance any more than I need people who flip my burger to do so. I also don’t need someone to debase themselves with apologies to irrelevant parties.
Compare and contrast this guy with John McCain. One apologizes for nonviolent offense to a few people and is loathed for providing an optional service. One doesn’t apologize for supporting mass violence against thousands and is loved for getting paid tax money from people who didn’t choose him.
Chuck Berry installed cameras in the women’s bathrooms of his restaurants, and the City of St. Louis built a statue of him.
Not to mention the Trumps and Kavanaughs of the world. Sorry if I don’t buy the “his life has been ruined” spiel when rich guys get some bad PR due to their heinous sex crimes going public. In hindsight, the public opprobrium rarely seems to be much more than a speed bump to their careers.
I’m sure Louie CK will be back on his feet in no time. Maybe not at his previous heights of fame and fortune, but I doubt he’ll be hurting for money or, in a few years, work.
One might even say he’ll soon be hard at work, getting his creative juices flowing, full to bursting with enthusiasm and busy coming up with many fresh blasts of his pearls of wisdom.
Better yet, don’t compare and contrast him with completely unrelated politicians. John McCain has nothing at all to do with Louis CK. The only connection I can see you making here is “Well, people are talking about stuff here, and my opinion of McCain is stuff, therefore it fits”. This is an official Warning for politicking in CS and hijacking.
To everyone else, making comparisons to political figures with sexual misdeeds, please leave that out of this thread, too. There are already enough threads for that.
If anyone can be a fucking jerk and pull off a comeback, it is a stand up comedian. He’s basically a clown, was never a role model, and playing with his wanger just makes him that much more clownish.
OTOH (no pun intended), ewwwww. I don’t think I want to be the guy who pats sex offenders on the back and tells them it is all OK. I thought this guy was one of the funniest comics ever, but some things are just too unfunny.
But then yet again, I am a Do The Crime, Do The Time kind of guy. Once people have paid the price, let them off the hook. I had no problem with Michael Vick, for instance, returning to football after prison because he Did The Time. Has Louis CK done that? I dunno. I am going to avoid him for now, and not judge anyone who still thinks he’s funny. He probably Is.
The problem is pinning down a “crime”. If he actually forced anyone to stay in the room, which I’ve only seen suggested rather than part of any official statement, that would certainly be a crime. But if he just asked “Mind if I masturbate i front of you”, he takes your befuddlement as consent, proceeds and you just don’t leave, then what crime has been committed?
I’m not getting all legalistic here. He has plead guilty of being a disgusting shit in the court of public opinion. The problem is there is no one to decide if he’s “done the time”. iiandyiiii thinks a lifetime of indentured labour is the required penalty. My personal feeling is that some decent amends to his victims and a reasonable belief he won’t do something remotely similar again would suffice. There’s a lot of space between these opinions and there’s no judge to say who’s right.
The part that bothers me about Louis CK is his inability to understand what he did and how it hurt people. He used people so often as interchangeable objects for his source of gratification that he forgot which acts he did to which people. But those people have those abuses indelibly etched in their memory.
Christine Blasey Ford explained in her testimony why abusive memories are etched in people’s memories while the abuser has long forgotten the incident.
Louis CK might have committed the misbehavior in 2005, but Ms. Corry was again abused in 2015 by this communication.
It has not even been a year since the NY Times article was published. Louis CK shows no indication that he understands why many women are outraged. He doesn’t even remember his bad acts. Many of his victims live with the painful memories, making them feel less safe, for a long time, sometimes for the rest of their lives.
I’m not a paying fan of his, so I’m sure he doesn’t care what I think. But I used to enjoy his interviews and stuff I saw on youtube. Now I hope that his ‘comeback’ is unsuccessful, hoping that he’ll learn to understand how he hurt these people.
Maybe if he has less power, he’ll be less abusive with it.
More from Rebecca Corry, a woman who spoke out about Louis CK. This was 6 months after the NY Times article. She was and probably still is receiving backlash, including death threats and more shame.
Not only did she have to suffer from his abuse when it happened, she’s also suffering from the position he put her in presently. The victims of abuse are too easily forgotten in these stories. To be thinking about Louis CK’s comeback while forgetting about the continuing damage to his victim’s lives is inequitable.
I often listen to comedy channels on Sirius XM, and LCK was one of the recorded segments today. He had not been on at all for a long time, although this is not the first time back. It was old material from when he was married.
All of his routines seem to eventually get to masturbation. And it is just weird to listen to now, because he is not an average normal guy just masturbating, and I wonder how he will handle his favorite topic in the future?
For me, there are enough comedians and channels that I do not have to listen to him, as I was never a great fan in the first place. I do not like it when male or female comedians get deeply personal about topics like masturbation. Life stories is another thing.