Been really liking Louie this year. Nice article on last weeks episode and the series as a whole (although I do think there have been several clunkers mixed in with brilliance).
Last week’s episode of Louie opened with a quasi simulation of his failed HBO show Lucky Louie, punctuated by Louis C.K. wearing a backward baseball cap and destroying the concept (and his hypothetical career) by questioning the realism of what they were doing. For maybe 90 seconds I found myself thinking, “Goddammit, here we go. This is it. This is going to be the first bad episode of Louie, because he’s going to obsess over something that’s essential only to him and not especially new and not even accurate (because the show he seemed to be satirizing wasn’t how Lucky Louie actually was).”
And then — of course — the episode changed. It didn’t just become unbad; it became incredible. The more I think about it, the more I suspect the interaction with Dane Cook might be the strongest seven-minute stretch I’ve ever seen on television: It’s realer than any reality show, more emotionally complicated than most 300-page memoirs, yet still awkward and severe and (somehow) easy to watch. I want to know everything about this scene — I want to know if this conversation truly happened, I want to know Cook’s views on his involvement, and I want to know C.K.’s deeper intent. And I can tell I’m not the only one who feels this way. What’s so distinctly compelling about this season of Louie is how everyone seems to collectively realize that what C.K. is doing is not only cool, but also authentically artful and unnaturally profound. There’s no debate over its value because there’s no contradictory position to take. It’s not polarizing in any important way: If you’re watching this show, you intuitively know it's fantastic (and substantially unlike the way fantastic TV typically is).
This fall marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind, so lots of folks are talking and writing about how life-changing the release of that record was. But in 1991, Nevermind was not unilaterally appreciated — people argued about its merits constantly, and a lot of people hated it. We generally agree it’s awesome now, but that agreement is retrospective. Louie is not like that. Right now, Louie is like the Beatles in ’66, or maybe Joe DiMaggio in ’41. These half-hour explorations are not just deftly written, but formally inventive — the episode in which his racist aunt dies is structured unlike any American situation comedy ever produced. The episode from two weeks ago (when Louie explains why he needs to tell the person he loves that he loves her, even though he knows she can’t reciprocate) offhandedly illuminated a paradox I’ve unsuccessfully thought about for more than 20 years. I don’t have kids, but — if I did — I feel like Louie would resonate so deeply I’d almost be afraid of it. The level of insight and weirdness C.K. is jamming into these shows is flat-out unimpeachable, and I somehow get the sense that his entire audience is having the same experience as me. It’s a shared recognition of perfection, happening in the present tense. And this is not a situation like 2003, when everyone just sort of temporarily agreed that "Hey Ya!" was a terrific single; this is different. This is someone working on the most radical edge of mainstream culture and succeeding brilliantly without ever doing the same thing twice. There is no antecedent.
Tonight’s episode of Louie (according to the druid who writes the capsules for the Time Warner on-screen programming guide) is as follows: “Louie explores a lifelong habit.” I have no idea what this means, and perhaps the episode will suck. Maybe that scene with Dane Cook was the apex, and — even though the rest of season will be totally watchable — nothing on Louie will blow my mind again. But I don’t think so. I really don’t. I’ve never had this much confidence in a TV show, ever. This is really happening.
[Readers note: Upon the publication of this post, it was pointed out to me that the show C.K. was satirizing in the open was probably not Lucky Louie, but actually C.K.'s failed 2004 CBS pilot Saint Louie. Which doesn't change the meaning of what I was arguing, but does make a lot more sense. The error is mine. —Klosterman]
Chuck Klosterman is the author of six books. His novel The Visible Man will be released in October.
I find Louie to be in the same comedic category as the office but 1000% better in every way possible. One profound point from the article you copied is that while there is a sense of discomfort trainwreck style comedy it is absolutely not uncomfortable to watch, but delightful.
To me the office (us version) was just terrible, i could never get into it. It was like a bad dogbert cartoon written for 8 year olds. The situations and writing was forced and generally uncomfortable in every way possible.
With Louie, there is so much depth to every episode. It really is groundbreaking stuff. Because, that is only part of it. There are different facets to the show, added every week. I think it is a more profound move forward in TV comedy because of its depth, variety, and complexity than anyone understands yet...
I recently read a pretty interesting article about Louis CK, discussing the philosophy behind his comedy. Really made me view his show and comedy in a different perspective. It took me a while to really appreciate his show, but I would agree it's better than the office and 95% of the shows on today.
People of Earth (minus the ones who don't give a shit about
this): it's been amazing to conduct this experiment with you. The
experiment was: if I put out a brand new standup special at a
drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to
buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone
just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money
can be made by an individual in this manner?
It's been 4 days. A lot of people are asking me how it's going.
I've been hesitant to share the actual figures, because there's
power in exclusive ownership of information. What I didn't expect
when I started this was that people would not only take part in
this experiment, they would be invested in it and it would be
important to them. It's been amazing to see people in large
numbers advocating this idea. So I think it's only fair that you
get to know the results. Also, it's just really cool and fun and
I'm dying to tell everybody. I told my Mom, I told three friends,
and that wasn't nearly enough. So here it is.
First of all, this was a premium video production, shot with six
cameras over two performances at the Beacon Theater, which is a
high-priced elite Manhattan venue. I directed this video myself
and the production of the video cost around $170,000. (This was
largely paid for by the tickets bought by the audiences at both
shows). The material in the video was developed over months on
the road and has never been seen on my show (LOUIE) or on any
other special. The risks were thus: every new generation of
material I create is my income, it's like a farmer's annual crop.
The time and effort on my part was far more than if I'd done it
with a big company. If I'd done it with a big company, I would
have a guarantee of a sizable fee, as opposed to this way, where
I'm actually investing my own money.
The development of the website, which needed to be a very robust,
reliable and carefully constructed website, was around $32,000.
We worked for a number of weeks poring over the site to make sure
every detail would give buyers a simple, optimal and humane
experience for buying the video. I edited the video around the
clock for the weeks between the show and the launch.
The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12
hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned
$250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As
of Today, we've sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over
$500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a
profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I
would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the
show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you
about $20 for the video. They would have given you an encrypted
and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would
have owned your private information for their own use. They would
have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way,
you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you
can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or
Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you).
You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from
us again.
I really hope people keep buying it a lot, so I can have
shitloads of money, but at this point I think we can safely say
that the experiment really worked. If anybody stole it, it wasn't
many of you. Pretty much everybody bought it. And so now we all
get to know that about people and stuff. I'm really glad I put
this out here this way and I'll certainly do it again. If the
trend continues with sales on this video, my goal is that i can
reach the point where when I sell anything, be it videos, CDs or
tickets to my tours, I'll do it here and I'll continue to follow
the model of keeping my price as far down as possible, not
overmarketing to you, keeping as few people between you and me as
possible in the transaction. (Of course i reserve the right to go
back on all of this and sign a massive deal with a company that
pays me fat coin and charges you straight up the ass.). (This is
you: yes Louie. And we'll all enjoy torrenting that content. You
fat sweaty dolt).
I probably sound kind of crazy right now. It's been a really fun
and intense few days. This video was paid for by people who
bought tickets, and then bought by people who wanted to see that
same show. I got to do exactly the show I wanted, and exactly the
show you wanted.
I also got an education. And everything i learned are things i
was happy to learn. I learned that people are interested in what
happens and shit (i didn't go to college)
I learned that money can be a lot of things. It can be something
that is hoarded, fought over, protected, stolen and withheld. Or
it can be like an energy, fueled by the desire, will, creative
interest, need to laugh, of large groups of people. And it can be
shuffled and pushed around and pooled together to fuel a common
interest, jokes about garbage, penises and parenthood.
I want to thank Blair Breard who produced this video and produces
my series LOUIE, and I want to thank Caspar and Giles at Version
Industries, who created the website.
I hope with all of my heart that I stay funny. Otherwise this all
goes to hell. Please have a safe and happy holiday, and thank you
again for all this crazy shit.
Thats so cool, I really like the way his mind works, and how in tune he seems to be with peoples motivations... Great experiment to show that the "piracy" problem (yar!!) is not as simple as people just stealing anything they can.. Great spot on O&A this week, glad he finally released the numbers..
Thats so cool, I really like the way his mind works, and how in tune he seems to be with peoples motivations... Great experiment to show that the "piracy" problem (yar!!) is not as simple as people just stealing anything they can.. Great spot on O&A this week, glad he finally released the numbers..
I agree, not only is the guy hilarious but he's really impressive with his awareness of shit.
The big takeaway I had from watching that HBO comics sitdown (Klauso is that posted here?) was that Seinfeld (yawn), Chris Rock (who said 2 relevant things the whole time), Gervais (who just laughed like a hyena and tried to be overly intelligent with his use of the word "ironic") and Louie, was how he had no qualms whatsoever about saying that he writes new material every single year because that's what people want to see, and it encourages people to come back and see him again and again. Seinfeld said he's been using the same shit for 10 years and acted so superior and arrogant that Rock and Gervais didn't balk at it at all but Louie unflinchingly contradicted Seinfeld because he so firmly believes that he's right, and knows exactly what people want to see.
Anyway, guy impresses the hell out of me...I gotta start watching more of his shit.
Louis CK was a guest on a 2-part podcast called The BS Report with Bill Simmons. Kind of interesting because the BS report is a podcast usually about sports in some fashion, but also about nonsense every once in a while. It's a really good podcast, I recommend listening to it. My personal favorite is every Monday they do a show where two guys play a game where they try to guess the lines for the following week's NFL games. They also discuss the games from the week before and other stuff. For anyone who ever listened to Mike & The Mad Dog, they do a spot on impression sometimes that is hilarious.
Though the comedian Louis C. K. may not seem like the kind of guy who derives much joy from the holiday season – let alone anything else – Santa Claus has brought him an early Christmas gift. In an interview on Wednesday’s broadcast of “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” Louis C. K. said he had grossed more than $1 million from his online comedy special, “Louis C. K.: Live at the Beacon Theater,” after 10 days on sale, and would be donating a portion of that money to charity.
Having told Mr. Fallon that he’d never had $1 million all at once in his life, and then dismissing his electronically earned largess as “a $5 impulse that 220,000 people had,” Louis C. K. explained that he would use $250,000 to pay for the special (as he has said previously), spend another $250,000 in bonuses to people who work for him and give $280,000 to five charity organizations: Fistula Foundation, which works with women injured in childbirth; Green Chimneys which gives outdoor and animal therapies to children; charity: water, which provides clean drinking water; the Pablove Foundation, which funds pediatric cancer research; and Kiva, which provides small loans to people around the world. The remaining $220,000, Louis C. K. said, would go to himself, providing a colorful pantomime suggestion of the physical improvement he planned to purchase with the money.
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