Segues and Louis C.K.

Oh yeah remember your blog? Shit.

The plan was a segue. Lucky Louie to Louis C.K. but then I sorta got distracted and 12 days later yay new post. But apologies.

So, Louis C.K..

My first Louis C.K. experience was the sudden discovery of what I'll look like when I'm middle-aged. Once I got past his dashing good looks I realized that C.K. was also a pretty funny comedian. What makes C.K. at first so appealing (i.e. hilarious) is his natural presentation. If, for example, you found yourself at shrimp-fest with Louis his routine might seem like a pleasant (i.e. hilarious) conversation. In fact, only after becoming more familiar with his routines did I realize a lot of the funny things he said during interviews were just jokes he uses on stage.

This natural delivery not only keeps C.K.'s comedy from seeming contrived but also compliments nicely the matter he discusses. C.K. talks frankly (seriously frankly) about his marriage and his family. He says things about his daughters that I've never heard from a father before, but things which immediately seemed like that which a parent thinks but never says. "My daughter is an asshole." Anyone that's ever spent time with a child knows that this is too often true, but who has ever heard someone on TV say it? I cringe to use the cliché that it's funny because it's true but, seriously, kids are assholes. I was.

I heard or read an interview with C.K. in which he said his earlier comedy was clever but that it didn't really matter at all. And he's not being cocky, his jokes are moving past the tired comedy clichés about the family into a discussion about family (that at least to me) seems pretty honest. I laugh because C.K.'s jokes are new and shocking, but further I think about the topics a little differently after. I grow!?

Aaron posted a link in a comment to my last post that's a great sample of C.K.'s comedy (as usual: beware of content). Also he has a new HBO special you could probably acquire through bittorrent.

Lucky You

Another sitcom? I'm hoping you are not yet completely exhausted by my current TV comedy fixation because I've got one more sitcom to talk about (promise.). My motives today however are not to review a new sitcom though, it's to finalize (ha!) my discussion on sitcoms in some way. So why don't we start talking about Lucky Louie?

Lucky Louie isn't a new show this season, in fact the show's actually been cancelled for a while now, but I want to mention it as a contrast to all the sitcoms strewn across your television channels. Lucky Louie actually aired on HBO, making it the first sitcom to be produced by the channel, and upon watching any episode of the show you'll understand why its HBO and not CBS, Eric. In brief: Louie and wife deal with the problems of their marriage and 4yr old daughter. Sounds like a generic sitcom but... well watch this clip. This little scene sums up the show for me. It starts out deceptively like any sitcom with the set and pan in, then even sort of a familiar joke, but then as the conversation continues we start to go further than a regular sitcom would normally go. His daughter's incessant questions almost lead to a monologue of self contemplation for Louie. This is the very first scene of the pilot, brilliantly introducing the show.

The show gets a lot filthier as well. Lucky Louie takes on issues that sitcoms skirt around because they aren't wide viewership friendly and discuss them blatantly with copious amounts of cussing. I can remember conversations about Louie's eating problems, masturbation, and a lengthy scene between the couple regarding anal sex (seriously beware of content). A large driving force for the show is the problems with Louie and Kim's marriage and provides moments of honest realism and yet still moments of great comedy.

I discussed the racy nature of the show but I think I need to stress this point further. This show is absolutely filthy. If things aren't getting dirty at home, the moment his friend Rich walks on screen you're guaranteed to hear some things that will make you uncomfortable to be watching it with your mom. (Seriously this is how I started watching the show, with my mom. My mom and dad actually became fans of the show--an unexpected outcome and one that has required near limitless numbers of mental blockings.) Sometimes this perversity is a strong point for the show. In an argument about having another child Louie explains "my dick is too aware that your pussy is a chamber of financial ruin." This line was the reason I started watching the show: honest, crude, and funny. However!, sometimes the perversity just goes on without a point. Just a long conversation about masturbating with his friend which isn't particularly funny and, what?, shows us that men talk about masturbating? I saw that on The Drew Carey Show.

The show is very interesting in how it takes the sitcom genre and exploits it to be sometimes movingly honest, yet still manages to be consistently funny. The writing however really kills Lucky Louie. The writers (mainly Louis C.K.) didn't know the strong points of the show and so for every scene of hilarious reality inside the most unrealistic television show form, we had long uncomfortably dirty and unfunny scenes. HBO didn't renew the show and it's a shame because a second season can often drastically improve a show (remember the first season of Seinfeld?). I would have been interested in seeing the show Lucky Louie could have been. But alas.

Check it out if you aren't too bashful and if your mom's out of room.