The Year of Living Shamelessly

I wasn’t a big fan of Louis CK back when he was adored for his sensitivity toward fat women. I’m no more a fan of his today. If someone gave me free tickets to a Louis CK show, I would thank them for their generosity but decline. He’s not my flavor of comedy, but for an entirely different reason than Matthew Dessem.

Comedian Louis C.K., who admitted to repeatedly exposing himself and masturbating in front of unwilling women in Nov. of 2017, said at the time he was going to “step back and take a long time to listen.” Less than a year later, he returned to the stage at the Comedy Cellar to perform an unannounced set. Although the way he came back didn’t inspire much confidence that he’d learned anything during his time in the wilderness, it was still possible, if you leaned way back and squinted, to speculate that his decision to return without any fanfare was a mistake.

When a video appeared of a December 16th set, however, there was no longer a question in the minds of the Overseers of Shame.

It is not possible to believe that anymore. Bootleg audio from one of his shows . . . has been uploaded to YouTube, giving those of us who weren’t lucky enough to be in the audience for a surprise Louis C.K. appearance a chance to hear what he’s been up to. And what he’s been up to, judging from the material, is bemoaning the money he lost, fuming over young people and political correctness, and writing some really killer jokes about the respective penis sizes of various ethnic groups. It’s not just that it’s not funny: it’s positively sickening.

I haven’t watched the video, and don’t link to it here. You can do so if you please, but it’s no more interesting to me now than it would have been otherwise. But the fact that Louis CK, regardless of his masturbatory inclinations at the expense of female comedians in need of his juice, decided to come out of hiding and to step back on stage was a rejection of the pontifications of the woke: that he was awful, should spend his time reflecting on his awfulness and, once suitably repentant, confess his shame and make amends. Not that it would suffice for him to be again worthy of public acclaim, but he would then be allowed to spend the rest of his life in a monastery somewhere unmolested by the arrows of outrage.

Instead, Louis CK decided to live shamelessly. And it was “positively sickening.”

Dessem says it wasn’t funny. How would he know what’s funny to me, or you, or anyone other than him? Who cares what he finds funny? Is he your “funny guru”? For that matter, who cares what he finds “sickening”? If you care enough to listen to Louis CK, you can decide for yourself whether you find it funny or sickening. Why would anyone care a whit what this guy feels?

To prove his righteousness, Dessem recounts one of Louis CK’s bits, in which he offends because of his rampant use of the word “retarded.”

But we started to feel shitty about it, so we changed it to “intellectually challenged.” What the fuck, it’s—don’t name the kid a thing he can’t say out loud. An intellectual challenge is can you translate Shakespeare into Latin and make it rhyme. These kids are not intellectually challenged, they’re intellectually fuckin’ done. They are! It’s not their sport! But we decided we didn’t want to call them retarded because we call each other that, so we went back to Nelson and we said, “Listen, Nelson, I have something to tell you. You’re not retarded anymore.”

“You mean I’m cured?”

“No, not at all. We just don’t call you that, ’cause it’s a terrible thing to call somebody.”

“But you called me that with—”

“Yes, but not anymore, because we shouldn’t.”

As it happens, I don’t care for the word “retarded” outside of clinical use as it’s mean spirited toward people who did nothing to deserve ridicule. But I also don’t care for the phrase “intellectually challenged,” as it’s not a substitute for retarded and is uninformative. It tells me there’s a problem without telling me what the problem might be.

Did I find the routine funny? No. But it’s an apt metaphor for 2018. Dessem’s conclusion?

Louis C.K. is clearly unwilling to reckon with what he’s done, but unfortunately, he seems to know exactly what he’s doing: There are a lot of people out there just waiting for permission from an authority figure to become more bestial and brutish.

He’s completely wrong, of course. Louis CK reckoned with what he’s done and refuses to spend the rest of his life in a saffron robe contemplating the failures of his existence. He’s unwilling to live the way Dessem believes he should, and so Dessem shames him. Louis CK refuses to be shamed.

Last year was the Year of the Smushed Rat. If you want “bestial and brutish,” Huffington Post editor Emily McCombs feeling empowered to twit about sending her ex-boyfriend a picture of a “smushed dead rat” pretty much takes the cake. Yet, the woke didn’t shame her, and she felt no shame in coming out publicly as a lunatic, even though anyone less “oppressed” would have been excoriated for such a twit. With damn good reason.

Fear of shame has been a driving force for many, and entitlement to shame has empowered scolds to dictate what you’re allowed to say and think, at least outside of a small circle of friends. Louis CK may not be any funnier now than he was before, and no one can force you to listen to him or laugh at his bits. But he won’t hide. He won’t repent his sins. He won’t be silent, as the scolds demand. Louis CK refuses to be banished from society.

Thomas Hobbes, speaking of life outside of society, wrote “the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” If Louis CK’s act sickens you, don’t watch it. If you find the word “retarded” sickening, don’t say it, and if someone says it to you, tell them why you hate the word. Then move on.

But don’t let your choices, your voice, be dictated by fear of shame by people of no consequence in your life. They’re going to hate you for it, but the alternative is to hate yourself for not living your own life. We’ve had enough of the scolds shaming people into submission. If something makes you feel shameful, don’t do it. But if you fear doing something, saying something, because someone else might shame you for it, then you’ve been defeated. Live your own life. Live shamelessly.

Happy New Year.

The Year of Living Shamelessly curated from Simple Justice