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Before we even get started, let me just say one thing real quick to the Internet at large: RELAX. I know that this clip is a couple months old. On top of that, it’s just some clip from a late night talk show. I’m sure that if the Internet had a jail, I would be sent there for eBreaking all the iLaws. (And I’m sure if the Internet had a jail, Mauru would be the warden and Dramatic Chipmunk would be raping everybody constantly.) Save your breath, Internet. But the thing is: some of us made a promise, and some of us intend to keep that promise (and some of us have found almost nothing interesting going on today). Besides, the thing about this clip is that it is great! It’s just George Lopez interviewing Louis C.K. for six minutes, except that instead of interviewing him, he basically just lets him sit there and tell jokes, and none of the jokes are jokes that I’ve heard before, and I’ve heard A LOT of Louis C.K.’s jokes before. And so here we are. You know, the world used to be a place where a man (blog) was actually RESPECTED for keeping his (its) promises.
Set your DVRs to record Louie on FX! I have a feeling that show is going to be one of the best shows on television and almost universally beloved by viewers and a runaway success.
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My question to you, Gabe, is what you were doing in the Lopez Tonight archives in the first place. HMMMMM?
Gabe this afternoon, upon discovering that Lopez Tonight has its own YouTube channel:
There really should be no results for that Bing search.
“Lopez Tonight OR Jokes” Nailed it, Bing.
But the results show a Family Guy video, which is weird, because I don’t remember George Lopez being on Family Guy.
Subtle but hilarious. Upvote!
June of ’10? Ha! Remember those heady days? The world was mourning the loss of Rue McClanahan. The teens were bopping along to the sound of Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” and America was introduced to the lyrical buzzing of something called the Vuvuzela. Ah, memories.
So what is the general consensus on Louie? I noticed that The Louis CK Promise was pretty quiet while it was on it’s run. Mixed feelings from me. Not that good.
You have the incorrect opinion!!!
Louie is fucking transcendent.
Amy Poehler would have had Parks and Rec there to help him in no time should that incident have occurred in an Indiana Park.
I loved that joke when he said he thinks Lopez is “one of the greats of all time”. Very comedy. Very reversal.
This will be a wildly unpopular opinion, yes, but George Lopez was actually a pretty great standup. I think his ABC sitcom and now his talk show have erased the public memory, but he was good.
He also has a habit of booking some great comedians on Lopez Tonight, although that’s the only real good part of the show.
I dunno, I want to buy what you’re selling, but having watched that horrid “Tall, Dark, & Chicano” standup, I can only presume that he’s long past his prime, even ignoring the talk show and the sitcoms…?
I think you’ll have to go pre-2002 to find some respectable output, before his shitcom. Look at his ’90′s output. He’s kind of like a Latino Bill Cosby, though I don’t expect to be held accountable to that statement years from now.
Please see: Louis C.K.: Hilarious. His joke about Ray Charles doing unspeakable things is worth the price of admission alone.
I’m gonna be honest here. I have found Louie, the show, difficult to watch. It’s weird because I genuinely like Louis CK. He’s very funny! No, more than that, he’s The Best.
It’s not like I haven’t given it a chance–I’ve watched ever episode of this last season. I think my discomfort with the show is based on three things:
1) It’s disjointed. I realize this is the style of the show, but I get whiplash from all the disparate elements strung together. There’s no real narrative, although there’s usually a clearly decipherable theme (eg, Childhood, Sex, Religion). The lack of narrative is a bold break from the traditional sit-com format, but it seems to me to serve to dissipate the strength of the series, not to magnify it. It has neither that brisk speed of a sketch show, where we’re moved along quickly from one joke to the next, nor the coherence of a narrative show. It somehow lacks the strength of either format for me.
2) It’s dyspeptic. Some of this stems from Louie’s real-life divorce, I understand, but the show is relentlessly dark and morose. Louie’s sad sack life seems more pitiable than hilarious. I found myself shifting uncomfortably more than I ever found myself laughing. And it’s not “dark” in the sense of good drama–it’s often “dark” in the sense of a man wallowing in his neuroses and self-pity.
3) It’s shockingly raw. The extreme language makes me uncomfortable. And the show is so chockfull of it that it’s hard for me to take. There’s a scene where Louie attacks a stupid woman who’s been talking over his show and it made me reel with its viciousness. It was numbing.
I have loved individual moments. The Travel episode was really enjoyable. The stand-up bits are usually great. The stand-out moment of the season for me is a scene where Louie is getting bullied by a kid, thus humiliated in front of his date, and then he follows the bully home and has a mostly futile discussion with the bully’s parents. It wasn’t really funny, but I’ve thought of that scene many times since I’ve seen it. It was great and thought-provoking in a way few items in our pop culture ever are.
Now, what I’m NOT trying to say here is that this show legitimately sucks and everybody who likes the show is a poser. Or whatever. I genuinely think the problem is with me because I can’t seem to like this show that so many people I respect find absolutely brilliant and hilarious.
I am sorry. I feel like I have legitimately failed here as a fan of Good Things. I will go back to my Everybody Loves Raymond reruns.
Everybody Loves Raymond is too good for you. I hereby sentence you to the prison island of Two and a Half Men.
I agree with everything you just said. I’d also like to add that I got the distinct impression that Louis’ ex-wife is a C U N Toledo .
You’re entitled to your opinion.
I have to mostly agree, wert. I want so desperately to love this show, and it at times is genius, but most of the other times, I have difficulty getting through an episode. I don’t want to speak for everyone who loves it, but I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway and say that those who profess to love it are doing so because of the “edginess,” not because they legitimately get entertainment from it. Because if you don’t love a show that says “pussy” on basic cable, you’re automatically not cool.
everything you’ve pointed out as a reason why you have trouble liking it, i would cite as one of its incredible strength.
i understand that sensibility is not for everyone, and my gf [one of the few women i know who isn't made uncomfortable by louis CK] would more or less agree with you.
but, he intelligently and insighfully explores some of the more difficult and yes, darker situations/ideas/feelings in life that could easily come off as racist, mysoginistic, or sociopathic but rather come off as honest and human in equal parts universal and personal in the way he examines/portays/handles them.
also, i think the discomfort we feel in watching it is intentional. he’s pushing us to think about and deal with things we otherwise would rather not. that is what makes it provocative, more so than the crude humor.
I’d just note that some of your criticisms are valid but perhaps off point. If there’s an overarching idea to the show, I think it’s that Louis C.K.’s convictions and neuroses often get the better of him, but that this aspect of his character produces mixed results. It’s the reason why he’s one of the best comics (the best, really) around, but also why his “real” life is often so antisocial and alienated, but then again it also accounts for why he feels himself to be such a good father to his daughters. The scene with the woman talking over his set illustrates the point well. He demolishes her on stage, as any self-respecting comic would try to do, but then outside the club, when he has the chance to be gracious and less castigating, he can’t switch off, because the stuff on stage both was and wasn’t an act. Todd Barry makes a funny remark about how Louis could have taken her to bed if he hadn’t said that one last thing, and Louis says something like, “You think so?” That’s why I think it’s wrong to think he’s just wallowing in self-pity, when it would be more accurate to say he’s attempting to account for his whole character, the things he’s figured out how to do well and the things he’ll probably never be any good at.
Real, genuinely funny comics most often have a downtrodden and dyspeptic worldview. And I think that creeps into some aspect of the show. I think Mr. Pocket above me kind of nails it – it’s him trying to overcome everything that is natural to him.
What can also be said is that he is an extraordinarily good writer. The things that happen on his show make me uncomfortable too, because I am a human with emotions, but the bully scene especially made me uncomfortable, because I related to it. I think there’s a lot of universal shitty situations in some of those sketches, and I think the way he examines them in his standup and how he handles them in “real life” is a kind of brilliant yin yang.
I don’t always laugh and I’m sometimes grossed out or uncomfortable, but I’m always glad I watched it.
I think you gave a very honest breakdown of the show “Louie” and your feelings about it, I wouldn’t argue any of the points you made. With that said, I think it’s one of the absolute best shows on television.
It’s the opposite of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is overreaction to small things. With “Louie”, it’s usually under-reaction to big things. Sort of a grown-up divorced Charlie Brown. (Hey, I think I’m onto something here!)
There were 2 episodes that really didn’t work for me (very disjointed/awkward), one which was full drama and nowhere near a comedy (when the high school kid threatens to beat him up and he stalks him home), and yes, it’s dark… Very dark.
It’s also awesome. The episode where his mother comes out as a lesbian… The episode where he gets high with his neighbor, just fantastic. And the way it’s filmed, they feel like mini-movies. Yes, they’re completely disjointed, and there’s often no wrap-up at all. And it’s awesome.
If you watched the final episode of the season and didn’t like it (where his babysitter’s crying, insisting that he go out and try to get laid), then the show’s definitely not for you. The final scene in the restaurant with the sun coming up? Sweet. And amazing.
Final note: I’m aware he has two girls and is divorced, so the show really does mirror his life in probably many ways, but I don’t know more details than that to have it affect the way I enjoy the show. If I knew him personally and I knew the personal painful experience he poured into specific episodes, it would affect how I watched it, I’m sure. But he’s putting it out for entertainment, and I’m taking it in as entertainment.
I can’t wait to see where it goes next season.
Edit: When I said: “There were 2 episodes that really didn’t work for me (very disjointed/awkward), one which was full drama and nowhere near a comedy (when the high school kid threatens to beat him up and he stalks him home)”
… I meant that there were 2 episodes that didn’t work for me, and IN ADDITION, there was one which was full of drama where a kid threatens to beat him up and was a full drama, not funny really at all. Important distinction, because I thought that “threat” episode was great, it just wasn’t a comedy. Carry on…
Yeah, I gotta say, each point you brought up is one of the reasons why I love and recommend the show constantly. You never know what you’re gonna get from week to week. Could be super hilarious, could be incredibly tense and dark, could be psychedelic, could be sweet and charming, or it could be all of the above. Its incredibly insightful and completely fearless. Louis CK has turned a weekly television series into a forum for short filmmaking. I love this show, and I wish everyone else did too. Sorry it doesn’t grab you like it does me.
I disliked the Lord of the Rings films so much that I’m posting my opinion in here just in case it got upvoted by accident.
George Lopez must have vocal nodules the size of cats.
you would too if you were just yelling all the time.
This is very important! Always Be Watching Louis C.K.
I watch Louie and feel like I’m watching the start of something really special. I’m 22 now, and my entire life I’ve been an extremely avid Simpsons fan, and I sort of got the feeling this season that I was watching something that could be just as enlightening and subversively awesome to our nation mind-brains as that special cartoon family (Seasons 2-8 only). The show is raw, but I have not sat down with a group of civil minded friends and watched a more captivating, thought provoking HILARIOUS COMEDY like this ever. (Except of course the time we all watched Grandma’s Boy. (Parenthesis inside the parenthesis to make the joke obvious))
Also I don’t mean to double post BUT THE MATTHEW BRODERICK EPISODE! COME ON!
Agreed. That wasn’t comedy gold. That was comedy PLATINUM, baby!
Spoiler Alert: …….. Ya fathas dead.
Oh man.. NY and LA are so *different*!
Only in the way that two cities on opposite sides of a 3,000 mile wide country can be…