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

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

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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