By Kate Feldman
New York Daily News
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) As columnist Kate Feldman points out, there were plenty of signs that Louis C.K.’s behavior was disturbing.
New York Daily News
Louis C.K. appears to have been saying the quiet part out loud for years.
The comedian, who was accused of masturbating in front of five women in a New York Times article Thursday, has long been lauded as an advocate of women’s rights, the one comic who understood the opposite sex.
His jokes, which initially seemed as a takedown of men, look different in light of the new allegations.
NO. 1 THREAT
In a 2013 comedy special praised as brave and self-aware, C.K. joked about the danger men pose to women simply by existing.
“A woman saying yes to a date with a man is literally insane and ill-advised, and the whole species’ existence counts on them doing it. I don’t know how women still go out with guys when you consider the fact that there’s no greater threat to women than men,” he said in “Oh My God.”
“We’re the No. 1 threat to women! Globally and historically, we’re the No. 1 cause of injury and mayhem to women.
We’re the worst thing that ever happens to them. You know what our No. 1 threat is? Heart disease. That’s it. Just our own heart going, ‘Dude, I can’t keep doing this. I told you three strokes ago that this is not smart.’
“But women still go out with men! ‘Yeah, I’ll go out with you, alone, at night.’ What are you, nuts? ‘Hi, where are we going?’ To your death, statistically. If you’re a guy, try to imagine that you could only date a half-bear, half-lion. Like, ‘ugh, I hope this one’s nice.”
DANIEL TOSH AND RAPE JOKES
A year earlier, he tweeted at Daniel Tosh to tell him that his “show makes me laugh every time I watch it.” At the same time, Tosh was facing backlash for making rape jokes during a stand-up show at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her,” Tosh said during the show.
C.K. said the timing of his compliment was completely coincidental, but also that feminists can’t take a joke and comedians can’t take criticism.
“So to one side you say, ‘If you don’t like the jokes stay out of the comedy clubs,’ and to the other side you say, ‘If you don’t like the person, stop googling yourself every ten seconds. ‘Cause nobody’s making you read it,'” he told Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show.”
“I’ve read some blogs during this whole thing that have made me enlightened to things I didn’t know. This woman said how rape is something that polices women’s lives. They have a narrow corridor. They can’t go out late, they can’t go to certain neighborhoods, they can’t get a certain way, because they might get … that’s part of me now that wasn’t before. And I can still enjoy a good rape joke.”
CONSENT
The motivation of the 2014 “Louie” episode entitled “Pamela Part 1” appeared to be, once again, the dangers of men.
In an attempt to get over another woman, Louie tries to kiss his friend (co-producer Pamela Adlon), who attempts to escape his advances.
Louie proceeds to chase her around the apartment as she tries to get away.
“This would be rape if you weren’t so stupid,” Pamela says. “God, you can’t even rape well.”
In the 2008 comedy special “Chewed Up,” C.K. tells the story of a hook-up-gone-wrong, during which the woman kept pushing him away when he tried to reach up her shirt or down her pants.
The next day, she asked him why they didn’t have sex.
“I wanted you to just go for it. I’m kind of weird. I get turned on when a guy gets frustrated and just holds me down and f _ ks me. That’s a big turn on for me,” C.K. said the woman told him.
His response: “Well, you should have told me. I would’ve happily done that for you.”
The rest of the joke revolves around C.K. asking whether he’s supposed to rape women and hope they’re “into that s _ t.”
