Comedian Louis CK admits to sexual harassment of several women (2 Viewers)

[wikkidpissah]

Louie Louie Louie LouiEEE

Louie rubbed it right in their eye

Louie Louie Louie LouiEEE

Louie's career just up & died

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I feel the same way. I'm glad I got to see him live once, and he was hilarious. Also really enjoyed Louie and Horace & Pete. Not sure where his career goes now but I won't be able to support anything he does.

It'll be interesting to see how far folks take this.

For instance - judging by stories that have been out there forever -  just about every Hollywood mogul or male star in the Golden Age was a sexual harasser/predator/abuser and it wasn't even hidden. Do we stop watching Wizard Of Oz or Adventures Of Robin Hood?

Or how about music? Give up enjoying James Brown or The Beatles?

I'm not making a judgement, but I find it fascinating where people draw their lines in the sand and how hypocritical we all can be.

 

[McGarnicle]

It'll be interesting to see how far folks take this.

For instance - judging by stories that have been out there forever -  just about every Hollywood mogul or male star in the Golden Age was a sexual harasser/predator/abuser and it wasn't even hidden. Do we stop watching Wizard Of Oz or Adventures Of Robin Hood?

Or how about music? Give up enjoying James Brown or The Beatles?

I'm not making a judgement, but I find it fascinating where people draw their lines in the sand and how hypocritical we all can be.

Yeah, I'm guessing it's impossible to watch any movie without supporting a rapist or a harasser. Sucks that's the world we live in. 

I totally get why people roll their eyes if someone says they engage in boycotts over stuff like this. It's a personal integrity thing that lots of people feel no obligation to participate in and that's fine. With CK though I don't think it will be too difficult to avoid him. It may be a moot point as he may not be have much of a career left, and I can't imagine watching him and laughing along like before anyway.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I'm not rolling my eyes at anything - people can boycott whoever they want for whatever reason they want to use. It doesn't have to make sense to me.

I do find your "it's a personal integrity thing" and "I don't think it will be too difficult to avoid him" phrases interesting, though. And I think that's where most all of us fall - "I'll make my moral stand as long as it doesn't inconvenience me too much". 

Personally, I take the more overt coward's way out and claim I separate the artist from the art. As I said, we are all hypocrites.

 

[Max Power]

I was looking forward to I Love You, Daddy.  It had a decent cast.  I wonder what the plan is now.  Straight to video? 

 

[GregR]

It'll be interesting to see how far folks take this.

For instance - judging by stories that have been out there forever -  just about every Hollywood mogul or male star in the Golden Age was a sexual harasser/predator/abuser and it wasn't even hidden. Do we stop watching Wizard Of Oz or Adventures Of Robin Hood?

Or how about music? Give up enjoying James Brown or The Beatles?

I'm not making a judgement, but I find it fascinating where people draw their lines in the sand and how hypocritical we all can be.

I think there are obvious differences when we have a new context for a person, but we're talking about judging potentially new works of theirs, versus talking about something we already have strongly formed our opinions about.

It doesn't take a lot to change one's mind on which new movie to see on a given trip to the theater. But it takes a lot to overcome feelings about a work that we have considered a classic for our entire life.  There is also a definite feeling of supporting someone in seeing their new works that is lacking when we talk about a classic.  That is more lacking when it is someone dead or long out of the public eye.

Just sort of feels like you set up a strawman there.

(Get it? Strawman? Wizard of Oz?)  

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I think there are obvious differences when we have a new context for a person, but we're talking about judging potentially new works of theirs, versus talking about something we already have strongly formed our opinions about.

It doesn't take a lot to change one's mind on which new movie to see on a given trip to the theater. But it takes a lot to overcome feelings about a work that we have considered a classic for our entire life.  There is also a definite feeling of supporting someone in seeing their new works that is lacking when we talk about a classic.  That is more lacking when it is someone dead or long out of the public eye.

Just sort of feels like you set up a strawman there.

(Get it? Strawman? Wizard of Oz?)  

I see what you're saying, but I wasn't trying to set up a strawman argument to make a point. In fact, one could argue that enjoying entertainment that has been around for decades by known predators is worse than being shocked by whatever newcomer happens to turn out to be a scumbag. So, we accept it because it's been around so long?

Michael Jackson may be the best example of the "middle" between your examples and mine.

 

[McGarnicle]

He's now released a statement confirming the allegations are true.

 

[Ignoramus]

Louis one of my top 5.  That said, if he goes down for the count?  So be it.

I am interested in how he handles it...

I'm sure those details will be revealed in the coming weeks.

 

[McGarnicle]

I'm not rolling my eyes at anything - people can boycott whoever they want for whatever reason they want to use. It doesn't have to make sense to me.

I do find your "it's a personal integrity thing" and "I don't think it will be too difficult to avoid him" phrases interesting, though. And I think that's where most all of us fall - "I'll make my moral stand as long as it doesn't inconvenience me too much". 

Personally, I take the more overt coward's way out and claim I separate the artist from the art. As I said, we are all hypocrites.

I'd avoid him even if it was difficult too though. Just being honest, I'm doing it and I also don't anticipate there will be much to avoid.

ETA: On second thought, if I Love You Daddy ever sees the light of day, I would be tempted to watch it. So there's  that. 

 

[shadyridr]

Pretty good apology IMO

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

I want to address the stories told to The New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not.

These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was O.K. because I never showed a woman my #### without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your #### isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly. I have been remorseful of my actions. And I’ve tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men who would never have put them in that position. I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it. There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for. And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with. I wish I had reacted to their admiration of me by being a good example to them as a man and given them some guidance as a comedian, including because I admired their work.

The hardest regret to live with is what you’ve done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them. I’d be remiss to exclude the hurt that I’ve brought on people who I work with and have worked with who’s professional and personal lives have been impacted by all of this, including projects currently in production: the cast and crew of Better Things, Baskets, The Cops, One Mississippi, and I Love You, Daddy. I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused. I’ve brought anguish and hardship to the people at FX who have given me so much The Orchard who took a chance on my movie. and every other entity that has bet on me through the years. I’ve brought pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother.

I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen. Thank you for reading.

 

[eoMMan]

I definitely don't condone what he is accused of doing but in general, it's kind of messed up how much work and jobs people can lose simply from allegations.

I mean if I was accused of some of these things, got fired, and then was proven innocent.....not cool, right? 

 

[Spartans Rule]

I'm not rolling my eyes at anything - people can boycott whoever they want for whatever reason they want to use. It doesn't have to make sense to me.

I do find your "it's a personal integrity thing" and "I don't think it will be too difficult to avoid him" phrases interesting, though. And I think that's where most all of us fall - "I'll make my moral stand as long as it doesn't inconvenience me too much". 

Personally, I take the more overt coward's way out and claim I separate the artist from the art. As I said, we are all hypocrites.

I'm with you on that last part. I don't care about boycotting anything or claiming any moral high ground.

But even though I've been a Louis CK fan since way before he was big (one of the few things in life I'm hipstery about), I think it would be hard to watch him as a comedian now. So much of standup comedy is about your persona, and he had this very relatable, honest image that allowed him to say all sorts of crazy things without making people feel (too) uncomfortable. That's gone now. He just won't ever have that same kind of captive audience or free reign to joke about anything again.

 

[cockroach]

Good apology. 

Will be tough to bounce back from this one as a result of the unattainable height he's dropping from.  Kinda like Tiger.  

But given enough time he might be able to come back and make us laugh again.  

Funny how often he talked about how his run of success will eventually come to a halt.  

 

[Tom Servo]

Until someone comes forward, it's pointless rumor mongering. To mention him in the same breath as Weinstein is absurd.

This post didn't age well.

 

[wikkidpissah]

I want to address the stories told to The New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not.

These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was O.K. because I never showed a woman my #### without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your #### isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly. I have been remorseful of my actions. And I’ve tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men who would never have put them in that position. I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it. There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for. And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with. I wish I had reacted to their admiration of me by being a good example to them as a man and given them some guidance as a comedian, including because I admired their work.

The hardest regret to live with is what you’ve done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them. I’d be remiss to exclude the hurt that I’ve brought on people who I work with and have worked with who’s professional and personal lives have been impacted by all of this, including projects currently in production: the cast and crew of Better Things, Baskets, The Cops, One Mississippi, and I Love You, Daddy. I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused. I’ve brought anguish and hardship to the people at FX who have given me so much The Orchard who took a chance on my movie. and every other entity that has bet on me through the years. I’ve brought pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother.

I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen. Thank you for reading.

For society's sake, we could probably not ask for a better perpetrator for, if anyone can find the words & codes by which men & women can better understand modern sexual angst & politics, it's Louis CK

 

[Judge Smails]

From a pure PR perspective his reply was textbook.  The exact opposite of Kevin Spacey.  I think it gives him a chance to come back after a several year time out.

 

[Koya]

I thought Louis statement had been, by FAR, the most earnest and appropriate in light of the allegations.

I wish the women who he put into such situations the best first and foremost, but also hope that something positive can come of this beyond their lives specifically and, as noted above, that perhaps in this case the perpetrator can be an agent of positive change in his own life and others. 

 

[shuke]

I read most & saw a couple accounts of an apology, but what I read did not have him saying "Sorry for beating off in front of you" Did I miss it?

Also, the 2 women that just stayed there while he jerked off...c'mon. You are adults, leave if you don't wanna be there.

Who is this clown?

Try, try, try to understand.

 

[Kal El]

He admitted he ####ed up, and now he's dealing with the consequences. He does seem genuinely contrite about what he did, and that can help him after some time.

 

[General Malaise]

Try, try, try to understand.

 

Damnit, Shuke....

 

[Epic Problem]

Try, try, try to understand.

 

[EYLive]

What's baffling to me is that these adults knowingly engaged in these acts. Everybody's different I guess.
And I think they're more sorry about being reported than sorry for their actions. They'd just keep doing it if they hadn't been busted.

 

[Ignoramus]

I definitely don't condone what he is accused of doing but in general, it's kind of messed up how much work and jobs people can lose simply from allegations.

I mean if I was accused of some of these things, got fired, and then was proven innocent.....not cool, right? 

He's a millionaire many, many times over. He'll be fine, financially. Plus he's not one of the victims in all this.

 

[Slapdash]

From a pure PR perspective his reply was textbook.  The exact opposite of Kevin Spacey.  I think it gives him a chance to come back after a several year time out.

Yeah.  Hard to do better.  Seems genuine and remorseful

 

[EYLive]

He admitted he ####ed up, and now he's dealing with the consequences. He does seem genuinely contrite about what he did, and that can help him after some time.

F'ing up... 5 times doing the same thing? He seems genuinely contrite because he's a wordsmith. He's just sad for being publicly humiliated.

It's not like any of these sickos are voluntarily coming forward with apologies without victims outing them first.

 

[Max Power]

F'ing up... 5 times doing the same thing? He seems genuinely contrite because he's a wordsmith. He's just sad for being publicly humiliated.

It's not like any of these sickos are voluntarily coming forward with apologies without victims outing them first.

He denied it until someone put their name to it

 

[Kal El]

F'ing up... 5 times doing the same thing? He seems genuinely contrite because he's a wordsmith. He's just sad for being publicly humiliated.

It's not like any of these sickos are voluntarily coming forward with apologies without victims outing them first.

True enough, however, if he does change his ways, the better for him.

 

[EYLive]

One of the most successful comedians in the industry pens an apology and everyone's biting hook, line and sinker. It's so easy to get over on people, no wonder he's crazy rich.  

 

[General Malaise]

Was he just skeeting all over the place or did he have the common decency to use a Kleenex?  What a weird fetish.  I can't even spank it if there's a mirror in the room. 

 

[shadyridr]

Was he just skeeting all over the place or did he have the common decency to use a Kleenex?  What a weird fetish.  I can't even spank it if there's a mirror in the room. 

If there's a mirror in the room, that would mean you would be looking at yourself

 

[bosoxs45]

Was he just skeeting all over the place or did he have the common decency to use a Kleenex?  What a weird fetish.  I can't even spank it if there's a mirror in the room. 

Why not just pay for a webcam girl? 

 

[General Malaise]

If there's a mirror in the room, that would mean you would be looking at yourself

Right, I don't need that sort of judgement from myself.

 

[General Malaise]

Why not just pay for a webcam girl? 

Why not just beat off in a sock like the rest of us?  I don't know....

 

[Epic Problem]

Was he just skeeting all over the place or did he have the common decency to use a Kleenex?  What a weird fetish.  I can't even spank it if there's a mirror in the room. 

Never thought about it, but I’d have to think that seeing a ghost would ruin the moment for me too. 

 

[TheFanatic]

Was he just skeeting all over the place or did he have the common decency to use a Kleenex?  What a weird fetish.  I can't even spank it if there's a mirror in the room. 

Why have I been wondering this since this story broke?

 

[EYLive]

Why not just pay for a webcam girl? 

Is Chatroulette still a thing? What better way to ruin a complete stranger's day than to blast 2oz. at your webcam.

 

[General Malaise]

Maybe there was a potted plant nearby

Reading all of these stories - strange and vile as they are - makes me feel just a little better about myself.  I may be all sorts of messed up, but I've never jizzled on a ficus.

 

[TheFanatic]

Reading all of these stories - strange and vile as they are - makes me feel just a little better about myself.  I may be all sorts of messed up, but I've never jizzled on a ficus.

Yet

 

[General Malaise]

Yet

I suppose there is time, yes.  But what if I, you know......like it. 

 

[McGarnicle]

This post didn't age well.

Yeah, it's almost as if the facts changed in the interim.

 

[Wrigley]

Try, try, try to understand.

10/10

 

[Shrugs]

Until someone comes forward, it's pointless rumor mongering. To mention him in the same breath as Weinstein is absurd.

This post didn't age well.

I think it did age well, at least the second half. From what has come out, and the NYT reporting was pretty thorough, more than a decade ago Louis liked to ask women if he could masturbate in front of them, and then do so. These were women in comedy circles, where he was a success, but he wasn't anywhere close to the influential person he became. And who knew that comedy was a field that guys get into because of the perversions in their head? He wasn't physically intimidating these women. He wasn't holding their employment or possible stardom over their heads. They were welcome to leave, with the only repercussions being in their head. He didn't lord it over them, physically intimidate them or touch them inappropriately. As he said, the influence he held over them to stay is that they admired him. How many guys here haven't gotten a woman to do more than look at their **** because the woman admired him? The result of his actions was that they had to live with the memory of seeing a hideous ****, their admiration for a man was undone, and they embarrassed him by talking about it in comedy circles for years and now publicly. To mention him in the same breath as Weinstein is absurd, and it's unfair to him.

 

[Max Power]

Where are the lawyers?  Is what Louie admitted to doing illegal?  Does the asking make it not criminal in the legal sense?

 

[bosoxs45]

Where are the lawyers?  Is what Louie admitted to doing illegal?  Does the asking make it not criminal in the legal sense?

Depends if the victims bring it to court and the DA wants to bring charges. 

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Yeah.  Hard to do better.  Seems genuine and remorseful

I don't agree with this.  He engaged in this behavior for years, and lied about it until the NYT put the hammer down. Screw his remorse.

 

[bosoxs45]

I don't agree with this.  He engaged in this behavior for years, and lied about it until the NYT put the hammer down. Screw his remorse.

It's not like he has a mental disorder that impairs his social skills either.

 

[McGarnicle]

I think it did age well, at least the second half. From what has come out, and the NYT reporting was pretty thorough, more than a decade ago Louis liked to ask women if he could masturbate in front of them, and then do so. These were women in comedy circles, where he was a success, but he wasn't anywhere close to the influential person he became. And who knew that comedy was a field that guys get into because of the perversions in their head? He wasn't physically intimidating these women. He wasn't holding their employment or possible stardom over their heads. They were welcome to leave, with the only repercussions being in their head. He didn't lord it over them, physically intimidate them or touch them inappropriately. As he said, the influence he held over them to stay is that they admired him. How many guys here haven't gotten a woman to do more than look at their **** because the woman admired him? The result of his actions was that they had to live with the memory of seeing a hideous ****, their admiration for a man was undone, and they embarrassed him by talking about it in comedy circles for years and now publicly. To mention him in the same breath as Weinstein is absurd, and it's unfair to him.

And it's a huge deal that CK has taken accountability. Weinstein's victims, on top of everything they had to endure, get called liars. And maybe some people believe his denials. Maybe one or two women made up allegations out of spite for not getting a movie role, and the rest are piling on so they can get a nice settlement. It's completely absurd but we know there are so many idiots out there who will believe anything. The CK accusers won't have to go through the torture of getting smeared or doxxed by his crazed fans on social media. 

 

[rockaction]

Has anyone discussed his nihilism and what role it plays in this?