We’ve chattered about this in passing comments in a few places, and I know some folks have been watching. I wanted to give a particular shout to an episode from a couple weeks ago, which I just saw on demand — called “Bully.” As usual, there is some very funny stand-up and some wry, off-center, also-funny stuff about his dad’s “sex talk” and about a blind date. But part way through Louis is challenged by a late-adolescent bully, and it prompts him to follow the guy home, and to confront the parents. This is pretty fucking stunning stuff: there’s a creepy and uncomfortable vibe–an anxiety as Louis follows the guy through mass transit, and the ultimate confrontation is handled with precision, a lack of big punchlines, an amazingly subtle and oblique engagement with visions of masculinity, family dynamics, class, and violence. Seeing this, I want to see LCK given a big budget and room to make longer films, to explore in longer form–’cause this isn’t just great stand-up turned into situations, it’s really strong filmmaking.
That really is a great episode, and far beyond comedy. I have only watched a couple of random episodes but this makes me want to go back and watch them systematically.
I really enjoyed this episode (the first one I’ve seen). I felt less anxiety as Louis follows the kid home than I did during the diner scene (and the wonderful dialogue between Louis and his date following his momentary emasculation). The stuff at the kid’s house with his dad was a bit too sitcomy, though I did enjoy the writing of the scene between Louis and the dad sitting on the front porch smoking a cigarette. Stand-up stuff was really funny.
When did Kris let you get On Demand?
It is beyond sit-com, no doubt. Some favorite moments of mine so far:
-the entire episode with his mother – who is just a horrible human being,
-the episode set in the south, which was surreal,
-The insane rant against a female heckler at the comedy club
-and though it was broad, Ricky Gervais as his doctor telling him he got cancer from buggering little blind children. Well, all of Ricky Gervais’ cancer jokes were pretty great.
I don’t know if he needs more than a half-hour though. These are excellently paced, edited (he seems to do the editing himself on most episodes, which is pretty wild), shot and scripted shows. He knows exactly what he’s doing, and is making some great tv. Hope HBO lets him keep doing it for as long as he can come up with material this strong.
BTW, currently every episode is available on Hulu:
http://www.hulu.com/louie
The highlight for me so far was the seven minute poker scene in episode discussing the use of the word “faggot.” Stunning. Brilliant.
louie airs on fx. i agree that hbo should let louis c.k do his thing on fx, considering they cancelled his earlier show after only 6 episodes whereas fx has already picked up a second season.
A wholly-unrelated film, but Terry Zwigoff’s excellent and entertaining short doc Louie Bluie, about the mandolin/violin virtuoso Howard Armstrong, is a delight to listen to (even if Zwigoff’s eye, never particularly good, is particularly inept in this film). You get: seven or eight great performances, a couple on stage but most on the fly — Armstrong shooting the shit in his tiny apartment with Ted Bogan and Yank Rachell, or throwing down with Banjo Ikey Robinson. Even better, you get Armstrong’s endless stream of great anecdotes, risque jokes, occasional philosophizing. As one of a wave of “Negro string bands” out of Tennessee, his approach to the blues is nearly bluegrass, and his humor is always very blue. (Also a visual artist, Armstrong late in the film pulls out his masterwork, kept in a locked suitcase — an ABC of Pornography, an elaborately lettered and drawn compendium of dirty photos and sketches and stories…) I loved this.
A little example of their playing, lousy footage (not from this doc).
i also like king louie in the jungle book. and lou grant.
I like Louie Vega.
My middle name is also Louis.
Thanks for posting on this, by the way. And thanks for the Hulu link, Mark. I’m watching an episode about every other day. Just great. I wonder if you’d agree that these shows begin with rather predictable set-ups, and even develop in somewhat familiar ways, then suddenly veer in a completely unexpected direction, into very uncomfortable territory. It’s a bit like “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in terms of structure. It’s obviously nastier than the former. But it’s nastier even than the latter in some ways. Larry David has an almost playful hostility, certainly harmless. But Louis C.K. is wound up in a way that’s really scary–yet at the same time, he’s the likable innocent. Take for instance the opening credits. I can’t quite make out what that look in his eyes means, as he ascends the subway stairs and walks the streets of NYC. A bundle of nerves, but also well in control. A glint of paranoia in those eyes, but also awkwardness and shame. And I love that someone gives the camera the finger as he stuffs a pizza slice into his mouth. That’s exactly what the show is like, in a way.
Brilliant stuff.
Gotta say, last two episodes I’ve seen of Louie haven’t done much for me: the “dentist” one and the religious school flashback. I liked seeing Tom Noonan of course. Even the “bully” episode… well, I wasn’t as enamored by it as Reynolds.
All three of these are less funny–their intended aim on the audience is less clear. I loved that in “Bully” and appreciated it in the others. I did also love the long lecture by Noonan, playing a zealously religious doctor brought in by a nun to give a classroom of young Catholics a horrifyingly-precise account of Jesus’ suffering on the cross, but the rest was … well, it is so intently, oddly focused. It’s kind of like seeing an alternate-universe approach to what drives Louie’s comedy — it can produce this intense interrogative unflinching comedy, or it can as well produce these little visual essays of shame and confusion and the desire to try and make sense.
Louie talks about shooting and editing his show himself.
HBO let Ricky Gervais set up a pet project–Talking Funny puts Gervais in a room with Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Louis C.K., and they ramble/roam around what makes standup comedy (and occasionally also standup comics) tick. I kind of wish Gervais didn’t stomp over the discussion so often, and maybe wish they’d followed an idea longer… but I think what I really wish is that it was a few hours longer. It’s fascinating stuff, and as you’d expect often quite funny.
This is as good a place as any to mention that there is an awful lot of “What makes comedians tick” talk going on right now, and a lot of it is quite fascinating.
Specifically I mean the podcasts of Marc Maron and Chris Hardwick. Maron’s is called WTF? and has gotten a lot of exposure of late in the NYTimes and elsewhere. Hardwick’s is called the Nerdist, and despite its name they talk about the craft of comedy much more often than they do Star Wars.
The form of these podcasts – usually hour long uninterrupted discussions – really allows the subjects and the quite knowledgeable hosts to really delve into their professions
and still be fun to listen to.
Recently I’ve heard Maron interview Jonathan Winters and Gary Shandling. Both are well worth the time invested. Also Andy Dick, Conan, Michael Showalter, Joe Rogan (weird) and a terrifying interview with David Foley.
On the Nerdist, there’s frequently no guest, but as Hardwick is a decent comedian as is his co-host, there’s always a lot of talk about the business. Recently they had a too short interview with Patton Oswalt (whose new book is great), Adam Carolla (I have a soft spot for him and Kimmel b/c they were so damned funny on KROQ 10+ years ago, Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn and others.
Also Adam Carolla interviewed Albert Brooks recently on his podcast.
None of them are perfect. They are have quirks as hosts I’m not crazy about, but I love these long interviews that seemingly start at a random point and just go off on uninterrupted tangents. Especially for work commutes I’m finding them very entertaining.
New episodes of Louie are not showing up on Hulu. I was a little annoyed by that until I saw a small clip of Wilfred.
Watched the first epiesode with an excellently befuddled Elijah Wood. Very funny. Dark. This is the much better version of what (probably) Mel Gibson’s The Beaver should have been.
Just realized Wilfred is based on the original Australian version of the show. Mel Gibson is also Australian. Hallucinating/believing animals can talk is apparently a common thing there.