I am an unabashed Louis CK fan, but I honestly have to say, if you are not watching this season of Louie on FX, you are missing probably one of the best seasons of television ever. Every fucking show is visceral and painful and brilliant all at the same time.
Open Thread
by John Cole| 65 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
eemom
What splendiforous timing, Cole. I was just stopping by to ask why there hasn’t been a thread to congratulate your BFF Glennzie on his movin-on-up.
Lojasmo
Yeah, we’ll, i cried tonight. Commented to cursed thing (mrs lojasmo) as to how I was invested in Louis’s tv life.
Ck is amazing.
Anya
I agree. Louis CK rules, except when he’s a defender of a guy who makes disgusting rape jokes.
In another news, Robin Roberts sucks. What the fuck was that interview with Ann Romney. WTF was all that “heartless democrats are mocking this courageous woman who’s bravely dealing with MS while helping others,” crap? Or, “independent fact check organizations said, Obama is a lying liar. Mrs Romney what do you think?” Of course I am paraphrasing.
I hate the liberal media, even the gay black liberal media is horrible.
Anya
@eemom: that ruins the Guardian for me.
Mike E
Anyone know when the repeat of this episode will be aired?
Dave
Even before the defense of rape jokes and the story about him forcing women to watch him jerk off, I thought Louis CK was uninteresting, certainly not funny, and vastly overrated.
The fact that John Cole likes him so much assures me I’m right!
Steeplejack
@Anya:
On Colbert the other night Louis said he was at an undisclosed location off the grid, didn’t know anything about the Tosh rape-joke controversy and just happened to tweet that he liked Tosh’s show, right into the middle of the storm. Felled by coincidence, allegedly.
satanicpanic
@Anya: But it means I can enjoy Salon more.
trollhattan
Louis seems to have hit his stride this season. And by “stride” I mean he can send me into the space between the sofa cushions I normally reserve for Larry David’s more cringe-worthy moments. It’s a process.
Local nominee for asshole of the century is this guy. I know it’s young, the century, but still….
http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2012/07/suspect-arrested-in-carmichael-hit-and-run.html
burnspbesq
@Anya:
No kidding. Greenwald at the Guardian, and Sullivan at the Times. That pretty much leaves only the Telegraph (too Tory even for me) and the Independent.
Time for a remedial French class so I can switch to Le Monde.
Mike E
Louis CK’s defense of his Tosh.0 tweet on TDS was pretty funny. Let’s now go after the Jews!
RK
Why is Cole’s white cat so heavy? Isn’t that unhealthy?
One job of the Left is to thwart Republican greed masquerading as freedom.
Steeplejack
@Mike E:
It’s on again at 11:30 p.m. EDT Saturday.
burnspbesq
@trollhattan:
Six felony counts, and all those priors. He may spend the rest of his miserable existence in the slam.
John Cole
The comments on this thread reminds me of the Sorkin takedown by Pareene today:
BTW- Louis CK wasn’t defending Tosh, because he had no idea there was a controversy. Not that that fucking matters.
Anya
@Steeplejack: Yeah right! I guess Romney is not releasing his taxes out of principle. Also, too.
@satanicpanic: except for my boyfriend Alex Pareene what else is there to enjoy. I used to like Steve Kornacki, but the fact that he tolerates SE Copp makes me question his character.
Steeplejack
@Mike E:
Oops, yes, it was The Daily Show, not Colbert. My bad.
NotMax
Remember “self-deport?”
Romney wants to crack down on p-o-r-n.
Suppose he preferably wants people to self-stimulate.
Hill Dweller
@Anya: The only thing anyone will remember from the Robert’s interview is Ann Romney’s absurd defense of Willard’s decision to keep his taxes hidden and the ‘you people’ line. She didn’t help the campaign, despite Roberts’ best efforts to give her softballs.
I know it is superficial and petty, but both Willard and his wife need to stop trying to look 25. The bronzer, dyed hair and, in Ann’s case, tight clothes is a really bad look for people in their 60’s. They both look plastic; and once they open their mouths it affirms the phoniness.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I got back from my mother’s this afternoon. I was there or two days with my dogs, and now they both have fleas. Shit. I bought my mother a flea bomb before I left and told her to set it off tomorrow. Presumably she’ll real the box and find out she has to leave with the dog for two hours after setting it off. I’m going to call in the morning to be on the safe side, though; I don’t want to have to head back this weekend to deal with funerals for her and her dog.
burnspbesq
@Anya:
Roberts is a breast cancer survivor who is slated for a bone-marrow transplant to deal with myelodysplastic syndrome. Any surprise that she sympathizes with Ms. Romney?
muddy
@Steeplejack: It’s also on at 1:30 this morning.
Anya
@John Cole: I love your innocence. The dude realized what a fucked up position he put himsef in so he came up with that lousy excuse. Ar least he was too smart not to die on that hill.
trollhattan
@Hill Dweller:
But, but, bot…Ann’s just doing what the good citizens of Stepford expect.
Anya
@burnspbesq: I would sympathize if Ann Romney showed that she cared about people who had the same condition but without money and healthcare. So far she’s never shown any indication that she has any empathy.
Steeplejack
@muddy:
That’s a different episode, “Miami.” “Daddy’s Girlfriend” is the one that premiered earlier tonight.
All this according to my Cox on-screen guide.
Anya
@Hill Dweller: I really don’t hate people for their party affiliation, but Ann Romney pushes all my buttons. She comes of nasty and really out of touch. I never got that vibe from Cindy McCain or Laura Bush.
trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
Can’t remotely conceive of his actions. The very next night–after nearly killing two and killing their four dogs–he goes out in the same car, gets hammered and then pulled over for DUI. Unpossible to overstate how relieved I am he’s off the streets.
“Uh, I did what?”
A friend lives on that road and says ridiculous speeding is SOP on weekends. We have very few fulltime traffic cops in the metroplex. It shows.
NotMax
(puts on goalie mask)
Have tried Louie multiple times at the urging of others.
‘taint funny, McGee.
Any humor or wit or empathy or pathos there might be claimed just eludes me.
YMMV, it should go without saying.
slag
Been burned one too many times. Your teevee quality meter is not to be trusted.
We’re all Aaron Sorkin now!
Hill Dweller
@Anya: Everything about Ann Romney screams entitlement.
Ann was reportedly a liability during both of Willard’s Massachusetts campaigns. I don’t remember hearing much about her during the ’08 campaign, but she is obviously playing a larger role in this campaign. Time will tell if Ann’s higher profile actually helps.
slag
@Anya: I’d say the bigger problem with CK’s defense is here:
So…if you don’t like rape jokes, don’t go to comedy clubs? Really? That’s the standard we’re pushing now?
Personally, I prefer the “If you don’t like the criticism of the rape jokes, don’t tell the rape jokes” standard. Oh wait…is that impinging on your “art”? How insensitive of me…I’m so sorry. Fucking humorless comedians.
Mike E
My 92 y.o. landlady was recently moved into an assisted living facility due to age onset dementia, probably prudent since our recent string of 100 degree days and the fact that there are 17 concrete steps up to her house.
But her niece, who is in charge of her affairs, decided to put down her 14 y.o. Callico without asking any number of her good friends if adoption was possible. Just killed it instead.
I went to visit her in the facility and all she would ask about was her cat, and of course I and everyone else who knows her can do is lie and say the cat is being cared for. Her very best friend in the world was that cat. No one wants to break her heart, something that seemed to not occur to her niece
Steeplejack
@Mike E:
God, that’s awful.
I have to wonder about the vet who apparently went along with that.
slag
@Steeplejack: Seconded. That is awful. I can’t believe a decent vet would do such a thing. Or (and maybe especially) a decent niece.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: @slag: The vet may not have been told the total history of the cat. Or was lied to since the niece has already shown a propensity for prevarication.
dead existentialist
@NotMax: But isn’t that what p0rn is for?
NotMax
@dead existentialist
Ah, but that is outside (outsourced?) stimulation.
Romney may want such stimulation as Mammon intended.
For that matter, why is Romney attacking businesses in this case?
Anne Laurie
@slag:
It’s not easy to re-home a 14-year-old cat. If the niece said she couldn’t take the cat and there were no other relatives, a vet (especially one who didn’t know the cat’s history) might regretfully decide that a swift death would be preferable to the trauma of a shelter where she’d be put down anyways.
Doesn’t excuse the niece for doing it, mind you.
RadioOne
@John Cole: with all that said, couldn’t Alex Pareene be portrayed as just another liberal, cynical, know-it-all, who mistakes his opinion as common sense? I’m not really a fan of Aaron Sorkin, but I also don’t think he’s really trying to influence the political debate. He’s a writer and producer who is trying to write popular TV dramas, either for ratings or, for the Newsroom, to get more people subscribed to HBO.
amk
@Anya: Meal ticket. They got to keep their meal tickets. They can do that only bashing the dems. If they don’t, they will be thrown out by their rw corporate media bosses.
Kane
Louis CK and Wilfred. Must see teevee.
Geoduck
@slag:
Plus his trotting out that old standby Feminists Can’t Take A Joke.
Brachiator
Is there any room for comedy in there?
Don’t really know his work that well, but I will put him on my “give it a try” list.
NotMax
@Kane
Check out the original Wilfred — Aussie TV series — some time.
Kane
@NotMax: Do you think Ryan is crazy, dead, or is Wilfred just a dream?
slag
@Anne Laurie: I guess location matters too. In my neck of the woods, pretty much all of our shelters are no-kill (or at least claim to be such) with exceptions of deadly disease, untreatable injury, or potential danger to humans or other animals.
NotMax
@Kane
Yes. All of the above.
If my back was pressed to the wall, I’d theorize that it is all a dog’s dream and that the humans aren’t real.
James E. Powell
[Sorkin] might be more responsible than anyone else for the anti-democratic “everyone would agree with us if they weren’t all so stupid” attitude of the contemporary progressive movement.
Sorkin and his writing are not responsible for the attitude, but merely a reflection of it.
And while I don’t know that everyone would agree with the contemporary progressive movement if only they weren’t so stupid, I am certain that stupidity is a problem and is widespread among the electorate. The inability to think critically, the refusal to learn anything new, the reflexive rejection of any argument that might make one uncomfortable. This is what keeps Republicans competitive.
Or maybe there is some other reason that so many Americans of limited means are ardent supporters of policies that will make sure they stay that way.
Spaghetti Lee
It just occurred to me-Obama had Fred Willard arrested to make people mistrust Willard Romney! Quick, someone tell Rush Limbaugh!
NotMax
@Spaghetti Lee
Inquiring minds want to know: What was the movie being shown?
Speculate away, B-Jers.
danielx
Inch and a half of rain today, after .09 inches in the last 48 days.
Joy.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Spaghetti Lee: So, how long until someone demands that Willard be fired from that new PBS show he’s on?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Oh, he already has been dropped from “Market Warriors”.
Brachiator
@James E. Powell:
People are complex, and even their supposed stupidity can be complicated.
And ya know, you can think critically, learn new shit, accept arguments that make you uncomfortable, and still be a jackass who makes wrong decisions.
And sometimes you can be so certain that everybody else is stupid that you fail to see the flaws in your own thinking. Or the assumptions that seemed reasonable at the time which are totally demolished by new facts and circumstances.
Life is funny that way.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
The Jerk.
dead existentialist
@James E. Powell:
Slave mentality. It’s in the Constitution, amirite?
Seriously, the authoritarian model works on the grand scale because everyday life requires a fair amount of industriousness for the individual, and at the end of the day most people want to outsource the really important responsibilities to their “betters,” so they can get their drink on. I know I do.*
*Get my drink on, that is. I’m pretty irresponsible generally speaking and expect my betters to deal with the hard realities of running the country if only the rest of the electorate would elect them.
dead existentialist
@Brachiator: Your best comment ever.
slag
@Geoduck: To be fair, he did call it a “stereotype”. Personally, I find it odd that White Dudes Can’t Take Criticism has failed to become an equally weighty stereotype. But then again, White Man’s Burden probably can’t take any more weight. Poor souls.
NotMax
@brachiator
Bullseye.
Linda
@dead existentialist:
It’s true that thinking at the end of a tough day is more than most people (myself included) want. And yet, lots of people put hard work into refusing to think a new thought. Consider the comments to this story on energy price manipulation in California. People put a lot of hard, angry argument into the belief that 1) Democrats were somehow responsible, dammit and 2) Morgan Stanley didn’t do anything wrong. Being wrongheaded can be hard work, but if it’s work you are used to doing, you can muster the energy for it. Creating new assumptions and shorthands for thinking is something conservatives have invested a few decades into. Thinking that this will change overnight is light thinking you can turn a battleship on a dime.
If you can’t see the link, it’s this:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20120718,0,4749635,full.column#tugs_story_display
catclub
@Anya: “I would sympathize if Ann Romney showed that she cared about people who had the same condition but without money and healthcare. So far she’s never shown any indication that she has any empathy.”
If she had any empathy there would be large donations to non-mormon MS foundations in their tax forms. I did not see them.
Gus
@slag: Agree, but I do like Louie. It’s that cringe humor, where you’re mostly embarrassed for the character. I find myself going to the kitchen to grab a beer in a middle of a painful scene, but I still laugh.
WaterGirl
@burnspbesq: What do you mean Sullivan is at the Times? I thought he was at the Daily Beast. Is he moving, too?
WaterGirl
@Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): Cap Star is great for that kind of situation. It’s a little pill and it starts killing fleas within 30 minutes. It’s great for situations when your guys are going to be around dogs that have fleas.
I get mine from amazon or my vet.