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

it's odd to me to treat the afghanistan episode as if it were a lesson about how to think about the military or about war, if that's supposed to be more prominent a theme than upward mobility and home ownership, or conformity and independence in career success, etc., in the other episodes.

i thought that, like lots of other episodes, the interest was pretty consistently focalized through the louie character - it's just that in the afghanistan episode, he was put in a very different situation and a different dimension of his character was shown. i think someone upthread referred to an interview he did where he commented on doing uso shows and having no stage, just being right down in there? and that was something you could notice, a bit, in the second set he did for the smaller outpost of troops. in earlier episodes he is quite assertive about owning the stage, about having a privileged role connected with his job (which he sometimes thinks of, it seems like, in the dimension of fulfilling a duty / satisfying an important need of his own / making people happy / giving people something that he knows better than what they think they want - cf. the joan rivers episode). and he generally seems real down for whatever, where his comedy and performing are concerned. but there's a bit of hesitation before that second set as they get right into it and he's like, are we really gonna...? as if he was suddenly uncomfortable about not having some level of remove between himself and his audience.

i bet a pretty rich story could probably be told about the relationships, in this episode, between taking care of people and telling them the truth, since louie is kind of dragooned into taking the ducks by his kids' teacher, his daughter sticks the duck into his backpack as he's traveling around the world to do his work in a warzone, and then he's there to entertain (to take care of, emotionally, spiritually) the troops who at least notionally are living under actually shitty circumstances (compared to louie walking around n.y.c. pessimistically) in order to serve / protect / take care of their fellow countrymen. i have to listen more carefully to the sets he does, but he seems kind of chastened by having to perform his particular comedy to those particular audiences. the cheerleaders are an interesting opposition to that and the singer - like, for the entertainment of you, our troops, we give you: five minutes of a couple of women jumping around in scanty outfits. does that go completely without comment? along with louie's polite attitude toward the christian cheerleader? it seems like louie's comedy is usually premised on some idea that the shittiness of things needs to be acknowledged, maybe together with an idea that there's something therapeutic about doing so, even for an audience which could conceivably include people who find this offensive or uncomfortable (confrontational). but alongside that there's an idea that whatever people need to do to get by, to maintain some kind of satisfaction with life (in the face of manifold dissatisfaction), deserves no reproach. so the utter chintziness and corniness of cheerleaders dancing goes, because, i guess, it's taken for granted that the soldiers could really use it. but there's some question about how much they need to be told / need to acknowledge (in the way that civilians might) the shittiness of things.

in contrast, it seems like the singer was put in a position almost beyond reproach. the backstory he's given has something to do with that (veteran, country singer, doing u.s.o. work, not cowardly but not boastful about louie's unease about the danger), but i'm guessing it also has something to do about a relationship between comedian-as-performer and singer-as-performer. (and then, to listeners' attitudes toward music too: in the car-trip episode, which centers around how louie and other adults seem to children - something he's quite sensitive to - he totally gives himself over to looking like an enormous dork, something that for all the 'unflinching honesty' of the way he presents himself normally, has an extra dimension of vulnerability to it.)

i have only seen some of this show but i liked that post a lot

yeah that was a great post. i agree that the episode wasn't really framed as a comment on the military as such. i find the idea that louie sees it as his responsibility to "wake up sheeple" his ultraliberal following particularly farfetched. it would require him to make some substantial assumptions about his viewership and also to be kind of grandiose in a way this show is not.

"i can't even imagine what this alternative reality Louie military episode would look like."

it just occurred to me that the USO treatment in the new Captain America movie feels a lot like alt. universe cynical against military Louis CK. It wasn't bad, either!

Alright so about the niece..

My FX screwed up and didn't have a picture all night last night. I'm waiting for it to pop up On Demand.

I don't even know what to do with this episode. What do you even take away from it? There were no laughs. His stand-up piece at the beginning didn't relate to what followed. I guess it would be a reasonably good first part of a two part episode from a traditional drama. I hope the finale takes this episode and goes somewhere with it.

i think the through-line between the stand-up bit and the niece section was that he believed he had young'uns all figured out, and when he encountered one, he was clueless about how to communicate and make a connection.

but, obv, a 13-year-old is not a 20-year-old.

which is a common theme with him: "this thing i thought i knew, i didn't know at all."

yeah, I thought the scene with Godfrey connecting with the niece after the table of other comics proceeded to talk about teenagers as though she wasnt in this room was like...truth, man.

also was it just me or did that scene seem to project a kind of ps u also don't know how to talk to women for the same reasons kind of vibe? it had some parallels for me to s1 when Godfrey took Louis out to clubs and how easily outgoing he was compared to louis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R37zkizucPU

Finally caught up with "Niece" and I really liked it. Always awkward when you've seen him do the stand-up bit before (in this case on Leno, where it killed). I got some genuine laughs out of the girl (Pamela's irl daughter, I think?) being wholly unresponsive. Ending was so odd though that I can't imagine it wouldn't carry over, but then a continuing storyline like that would also seem strange. Either way the finale is tonight, and I'm ;_; that the season is over.

Had my mind slightly blown the other day when I discovered that Pamela did the voice of Bobby from King Of The Hill.

That's insane.

woah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hSVdNOrTFQ

<3

She's sixth-billed in Say Anything. Who is "Rebecca" in that movie?

She's at the party, sitting next to Lili Taylor when she's singing her "Joe Lies When He Cries" song. I think she's the one that tells her that she saw Joe at the party, but I can't be sure.

Pamela did the voice of Bobby from King Of The Hill.

Oh and she's also sixth-billed in Grease 2.

holy fuck this is like seeing the young woman in the old woman illusion
i can never unsee it

this has changed my world right here

thought that was hella old news tbh!!!

yeah I found that out way back in the Luckie Louie days

shit does that make me a hipster?

are you a hipster?

funny you should ask, guk, as we have been discussing that very topic

I kind of love that probably one of the best seasons of anything on TV this year ended with, "I just shat four perfect doughnuts."

I like to imagine that F. Murray Abraham was just playing himself.

Aw. <3

I kind of love that probably one of the best seasons of anything on TV this year ended with, "I just shat four perfect doughnuts."

― Gukbe, Friday, September 9, 2011 12:09 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

uh, did i miss something? that wasn't on the show i saw...

his stand-up routine during the end credits.

Grr, my download must have cut that part off.

Mine did too! I had to tape another showing hahaha

oh that was one of the best standup bits all season, i gotta say

great finale.

any DL/stream where it doesn't cut out?

theres no part of you i can make out of doughnuts!

Louis CK on season two of Louie: http://www.avclub.com/articles/louis-ck-walks-us-through-louies-second-season-par,61888/

lol @

To me, it was really important that his head come clean off. For really a logistical reason, which is just that if the guy’s lying there, I’m staying. Even if he looks dead, I’m gonna stick around in case there’s anything I can do, you know what I mean? But if his head comes off, he just becomes a piece of garbage. [Laughs.] If a stranger’s head came right off his body, all that’s gonna happen is his body’s gonna be disposed of. I have no role there.

oh man, so psyched to read this - already really interesting knowing how fluid the filming was, & how the season was conceived in reaction to other parts of it. massive lol at him saying the daughter actress 'has no soul'

Love this:

“Well, Pete Townshend wants to know exactly how it’s being used, and he wants to see the show. He wants to see some episodes.” So I wrote him a synopsis of how it would be. I described it very carefully, and we sent him the DVD of five episodes from last season. And then, I don’t know, three or four months later, it felt like, he came back to us and said, “Can you send me 7,500 bucks?” [Laughs.] Yeah! And so the whole thing cost $15,000, which is fucking nothing!

On "Halloween/Ellie":

To me, the best thing I can say about that episode is: The Halloween stuff is pretty funny with the kids and the guys, and there’s some parent who’ll connect with trying to protect your kids without making things worse, so that was worth watching. And then the conference-room scene was worth watching. The last scene, hopefully, a lot of the people are asleep. Also, this season was kind of pacing along so well in the way that it aired that it felt like a letdown to me. I really held my breath during that scene. I think it aired at 11 o’clock after two Wilfreds. I put it there on purpose.

he's right! it's by far the weakest episode!

i should've posted here while i was reading those articles, because there was so much good stuff throughout that it would have been fun to talk about, but i loved this, & it's one of the bits i remember:

I would definitely love to make movies someday. Unfortunately, I need to meet the level I’m at of control with this show. I’m gonna do this show until they won’t let me anymore, but if I ever get to make a movie, the only pitch I have—and occasionally I get calls from people saying, “Hey, I got some financing, would you like to make a movie?” And I told them, “Yes. Give me $8 million and I’m not telling you what the movie’s about. You’ll be able to see it when it’s finished.” And nobody, thus far, has taken me up on the deal. But I don’t care. I don’t need the movie. I believe someday I’ll get that deal. I believe it will happen.

guy is playing the bell house in bk on fri, btw:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/The-Bell-House-tickets-Brooklyn/venue/341009

fuck yes
tix on sale same day though, so kinda tough to schedule

omg watching season one eps on hulu

the lesbian mom one

"A man's asshole, what a perfect place to put a dick. You just walk up behind someone, "I'm gay!".

omg