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

i am quite pleased at the turn this thread has taken but a little disappointed that no one has tried to make it as filthy and pessimistic as it could be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlLvS1vH9Tk

shalalalaaaaaa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnDH-RXCptY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmban3Fio14

love love love the first scene of his old HBO show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh21R_6M7io

God, that scene is pure spun gold!

Man, that laugh track ...

it's not a laugh track! it was filmed in front of a live audience

so so great

and carrying over from the brief Louis conversation on the Patton Oswalt thread, Bag Of Dicks is my all time favorite CK bit.

Has he talked about the laughter? Wasn't that an issue? That sounded ... sweetened.

it was shot as a traditional old school sitcom w/ a live studio audience. it's possibly they sweetened it but it seems unlikely given the m.o. of the show.

Might as well have been a laugh track. When I heard the laughter, for some reason my brain coughed up this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8YSXSB8bOk

Josh I've lost track of the number of interviews where he's fumed that so many people thought the laughs weren't real on that show. He says he thinks it's because people just aren't used to hearing totally un-overdubbed laughter on TV shows any more.

I can believe it! Though in truth I'm not a laugh out loud guy, so it all sounds, well, funny to me.

I think it was the joke-laugh-joke-laugh rhythm, which seems artificial. Live and in his stand-up, Louis's joke escalate, and the response frequently does, too. Which may be why the unconventional rhythm (mechanical and tonal) of "Louis" works better for his brand of humor. He's just not a traditional sitcom type of guy, subversive or no.

Milo - I just watched the show with the two clips you posted and he is really good. Pretty sure I never ever want to have kids now though.

His ability to do all those jokes about his daughter without coming off as a horrible bastard is sort of amazing.

I think maybe he's mellowed out over the last few years, or at least softened the act a bit, because he'd do the same kind of jokes in some of his standup specials and came off much, much worse than he did in the show.

there's a very, very sweet dedication in the end credits to chewed-up, i think, to his daughters, that you read like ten minutes after hearing him exasperate about them for a half hour. it's real sweet. him and the kids eating at veselka at the end of louie was really sweet, too.

without getting too personal, there is something really satisfying about how real he seems to be getting on stage - i watched the last few stand up shows in quick succession and they all pretty brazenly accord with his marriage splitting up, like that thing about them having been married "for nine years, so we're almost done", and then the recent one with the thing about divorce.

anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95fNgx8aCS8

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.

He's totally morphed into an extreme Bill Cosby, which is great. In fact, I'd suggest that no one has ever talked about the stresses and horrors of children as candidly as Louis C.K., especially knowing from interviews just how dedicated he is to his kids (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).

All his brilliant bits have begun to blur together for me, but I think it was in his stand-up set I saw last year that he described the discomfort of taking one of his daughters to a public bathroom and listening to the guy in the next stall over grunt with explosive diarrhea, just a foot or two away from his daughter's face, divided by a mere inch of metal. Man, I've been there ...

there's a very, very sweet dedication in the end credits to chewed-up, i think, to his daughters, that you read like ten minutes after hearing him exasperate about them for a half hour. it's real sweet.

I did notice this and yes, it was really sweet.

I'd suggest that no one has ever talked about the stresses and horrors of children as candidly as Louis C.K.

That's sort of what I meant upthread. It's great but man alive does he get real.

I think that's what I've grown to love about the guy, that he is out there making jokes but you can tell he is speaking from his own life and cares deeply about these things.

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

xposts

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