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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLouis C.K.'s 'SNL' Monologue About Child Molestation Leads to Uproar
One Twitter user called it the "unfunniest, most offensive 'SNL' monologue" ever.
Louis C.K.'s Saturday Night Live monologue has stirred up controversy.
The Louie star hosted the NBC sketch series' season-40 finale this weekend, where he delivered a stand-up routine featuring jokes about child molesters, racism and the tension in the Middle East.
C.K. said that there was a child molester who lived in his neighborhood when he was growing up in the 1970s. "He didn't like me I felt a little bad," he said.
The comedian tried to imagine why child molesters would still commit the crime. "From their point of view, it must be amazing, for them to risk so much," he said. He then acknowledged the controversial nature of the material, adding, "It's my last show probably."
Indeed, a number of Twitter users were not pleased with what they heard. One person called it the "unfunniest, most offensive SNL monologue" ever, while someone else tweeted that her "heart aches for humanity" because of the monologue.
more...
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/louis-cks-snl-monologue-child-796233
zappaman
(20,606 posts)Omigod!
Is that what one twitter user said?
Land sakes, I need to fetch me my fainting couch posthaste!
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Initech
(100,129 posts)Or to quote Mitch Hedburg: "You can't please everyone all the time, and last night all those people were at my show."
CrawlingChaos
(1,893 posts)Don't know how I can I believe in a loving God in a world where Mitch Hedberg is dead and Dane Cook lives. *sigh*
randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]Aspire to inspire.[/center][/font][hr]
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)I thought it was sad.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Oneironaut
(5,538 posts)Also, someone is complaining about SNL being unfunny? Are they a first time watcher?
trumad
(41,692 posts)That was an awesome bit.
former9thward
(32,121 posts)Including last night.
Exilednight
(9,359 posts)Army, then college, it was can't miss. Now, I ask the kids at work and my nieces and nephews if they've seen it and not a single one of them have bothered.
Now, Colbert and Stewart were widely watched.
virgogal
(10,178 posts)Gary Gilmore and Harvey Milk.
I kid you not.
deutsey
(20,166 posts)coming out on stage, live, and calling for the violent overthrow of the US government.
It was a joke, but it was also very much of the times. It barely received a blip of attention back then. I can just imagine what would happen today.
At another time, Franken and Davis also came out dressed in Nazi SS uniforms.
At still another time, Dan Ackroyd defied NBC censors and showed his butt crack on live TV during the infamous Nerd/Plumber skit.
bvf
(6,604 posts)involving Franken having brain cancer and being unable to complete a joke without Davis throwing a bucket of cold water on his face.
deutsey
(20,166 posts)How could I forget Buck Henry's Uncle Roy, the child molesting babysitter?
https://screen.yahoo.com/uncle-roy-050000940.html
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia already covered this:
<snip>
""Charlie Got Molested" is the seventh episode of the first season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
When news of a former gym teacher getting arrested for molesting his students hits Charlie suddenly gets nervous, causing Dee and Dennis to conclude that he may have been a victim and stage an intervention. Mac becomes jealous that he wasn't the one who got molested."
http://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/Charlie_Got_Molested
bvf
(6,604 posts)That's all this is.
Response to bvf (Reply #10)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
bvf
(6,604 posts)Last edited Tue May 19, 2015, 12:35 AM - Edit history (1)
was the National Lampoon cover featuring the then-iconic image of a Biafran child holding an empty rice bowl, rendered in chocolate, with a bite taken out of its head.
Response to bvf (Reply #13)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
Initech
(100,129 posts)I'd post it but I think even mentioning the subject might get my post hidden.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)I was more offended by the shoemaker and his elves. Ugh.
The 1970s were a different time. There were so many new "shocking" social issues to deal with all at once that I don't think people got as outraged about each one. Plus, the war and Watergate were the overriding issues of the time. At least that is what I remember through the haze of time.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)He's one very funny dude.
Sid
Dr. Strange
(25,928 posts)Bonobo
(29,257 posts)No one would defend it.
trumad
(41,692 posts)on edit:
Oh shit---I see you already did.
Dude really?
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)trumad
(41,692 posts)It's a fucking comedian. Dude--- do you really feel so aggrieved over a comedian making a joke that you have to go to the Men's Group to complain.
Really weird.
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)So predictable...and yes, afraid to answer the question.
If a comedian joked about how a pedophile like fucking little girls cause it felt so good, would you be okay with that?
trumad
(41,692 posts)This is what you go around worrying about all day?
Dude...check yourself.
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)Of course you'd have to completely change the comedian to someone like Sarah Silverman for the setup to make sense. Someone below pointed out a similar joke from her.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)It's fun to pretend we know what would or would not happen-- as our prophecies often seem to validate our own biases...
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)"I was raped by my doctor, which is kind of bittersweet for a Jewish girl."
Codeine
(25,586 posts)One of the few comedians who can make me laugh so hard it hurts.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)and neither is Louis CK. Trying so hard to get a laugh makes something less funny to me.
Logical
(22,457 posts)LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Try again. SNL is a comedy relic.
trumad
(41,692 posts)Not Louis.
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)HA. Now THATS funny.
Logical
(22,457 posts)MindPilot
(12,693 posts)I laughed so hard I fell out of my hoverchair and got my Depends wet.
wordpix
(18,652 posts)wordpix
(18,652 posts)I came back to SNL in the Will Farrell days and since then, it's mostly very funny. Sure there are stupid bits but not every comedian and comic writer can hit a home run every time. This particular bit was not that funny, IMO. But it actually had some truth to it---mainly that molesters are people who will risk everything to molest with no thought to consequences to their own lives, much less the lives of the children they molest. I wasn't offended---in fact, LCK was putting molesters down, implying they're so addicted to/stupid in their behavior they'll totally blow up their jobs, families, and their own lives.
GoneOffShore
(17,342 posts)And brought up in the Church of Perpetual Outrage.
I thought the routine was hilarious. Painful, but hilarious.
And I'm 67.
I'm changing my sig line to: You do not have a right to not be offended.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)The upright and uptight are unlikely to appreciate his humor, I suppose.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Nah
Codeine
(25,586 posts)CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)Surely everyone remembers Buck Henry's Uncle Roy child molester sketches.
Comedy isn't always pretty.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)I've seen his show a few times ... I don't know, I don't think I'll ever be a big fan.
Response to Purveyor (Original post)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
RiffRandell
(5,909 posts)fucking disturbing all the way around.
Although in WTTD the Jr. High kid tells Dawn to show up after school because he's going to rape her...and she does.
I believe it was more to shed light on the character Dawn as she was starved for attention, but screwed up nonetheless.
All of his films got great reviews, too.
wheniwasincongress
(1,307 posts)was the unfunniest, most offensive part of the show. To hear the audience laugh at it withered my heart.
Hillary and mugshot sketches were great though
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)SNL seems to be relying more and more on "shock" humor rather than clever, intelligent writing/acting. It's kind of sad to see.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)"Canteen Boy" sketches?
We can laugh at just about any subject - and they can change the channel.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=snl+canteen+boy+and+the+scoutmaster&qpvt=snl+canteen+boy+and+the+scoutmaster&FORM=VDRE
Orrex
(63,261 posts)Even including the Tina Fey years, if we took the absolute best bits from the entire run of the show, you might come close to almost producing one high-quality season.
However, Louis CK is a love-him-or-hate-him comic, and he absolutely doesn't shy away from controversy. I hope that Twitter can somehow survive its outrage.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)No regrets.
MindPilot
(12,693 posts)It sad that it takes a comic to address the most serious issues. But he is right, exactly how is it that someone would risk literally everything to satisfy an urge that to most of us--if we have it all--is nothing more than a passing thought, dismissed with a "I can't believe I even thought of that..."
Until we get past our natural revulsion and actually examine the problem, along with allowing pedophiles a place to go for help BEFORE they molest a child, we simply continue to allow our children to be molested.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Prison.
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)Prison is the fail state, not the solution. Can't throw someone in prison for something they haven't done, so when prison comes into the picture someone has probably already been hurt.
trumad
(41,692 posts)boston bean
(36,224 posts)In fact, it makes me sick.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)I'd like to know who wrote that filth.
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,352 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Its obvious product placement, likely paid for. People don't watch ads anymore and in these desperate times advertisers have moved to in show product placements that cannot be avoided or DVRed. Trust me the mention was not an accident or spontaneous and certainly not Ad libitum.
melman
(7,681 posts)There is no chance they paid for that mention. None.
Goblinmonger
(22,340 posts)Do you think Louis was advocating pedophilia? Or do you think he was making a bigger point against it?
still_one
(92,492 posts)why most believe it over the top because of the dispicible crime, but why listen to it if you are offended would be my question. I personally don't watch SNL anymore. I don't find it particular humorous or entertaining
I don't like hate rare like Limbaugh or hannity, so I don't listen them
unblock
(52,440 posts)we saw him "in concert" a few days after mrs. unblock was first diagnosed with breast cancer, and sure enough, he had to throw in a joke about cancer and dying. the audience laughed, but it was hardly his best joke of the evening. still, we weren't ready to do anything but get pissed off that he would do that. we can laugh about it now, though.
then he also had a lame joke about kids with peanut allergies, basically why not just round them up and kill them all. also not one of his best jokes judging from the audience reaction but definitely not something we found funny either.
i'll confess to noticing a pattern. it can be easier to laugh about it when the wound is not raw.
timing is everything in comedy.
vankuria
(904 posts)was watching until he started his joke about pedophiles and I had to change the channel. Some subjects are off limits and that's one of them...just my opinion.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)I love journalism.
olddots
(10,237 posts)every once in a while they throw in some controversy to get veiwers .
Rolling Stone and SNL are tired old status quo dreck .
B2G
(9,766 posts)to Israel & Palestine what a hoot.
The pedophilia bit...not so much.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)When I was somewhere from 5-7, there was a house in another row of homes behind ours. All us kids were told "don't go by Christmas' house or he might grab you." Never went there but Lewis CK's story reminded me of it. He made it sound funny, but his experiences must have been common a long time ago.
Stuff like this was tolerated by people when they thought somebody was "crazy" and they let them alone as long as "they" let "us" alone. We moved, and I don't know if Christmas was an abuser or not...this was in the early forties.
There was another house we played at nearby, and a grandfather of one of our playmates, did certain things that we were afraid to mention to our parents...and there must have been 5 or 6 little girls involved. Someone in charge of him must have sensed something because usually a head would appear at the window, and the old man would act real innocent....this is the first time I have ever mentioned it anywhere to anyone. I do recall that several of us were preparing for First Holy Communion and the nuns had told us to not let anyone touch you. To a 5-year old, that made little sense.
We stopped going there without being told, and didn't talk about it to each other, didn't tell anybody and it wasn't funny and we really didn't understand what was going on. No "real" damage was done except for a 70-year old memory..
There wasn't the fuss about child abuse, male or female, because unless a person ran around with a hammer or hatchet killing people, there was no place for sexual deviates to be kept and families who knew must have been ashamed.
It wasn't till maybe the 70-80's that this stuff started to be made public by victims who were abused by those in authority, and not by the neighborhood Christmas.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)Holy shit, I really need to change my opinion now, I guess.
Random assholes on the internet seem to be the most humorless fucks on Earth.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory or Richard Pryor, then.
Outrage is an essential tool in comedy, especially when it has a social message.
One of the first books by a comedian I ever read was Bruce's "How to Talk Dirty and Influence People."
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)AndreaCG
(2,331 posts)But I didn't laugh either. I think Louis CK is overrated.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)those who hadn't.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)was disturbing, really.
eissa
(4,238 posts)And, yes, I found his whole set hilarious (and I say this as a victim of a pedophile.) Then again, it takes a whole lot to offend me.
IVoteDFL
(417 posts)I spent many years as a victim of molestation as a child from an older relative, who is now deceased. I've been free from my baggage since the day he died. No joke can ever hurt me... it's just a joke, and honestly a pretty funny one. I'm familiar with Louie CK though, so I'm not like shocked that he would use touchy subjects for material.
sendero
(28,552 posts)... is that he goes right over the head of most people.
Any time you push the envelope on anything you risk having something that offends or that people don't understand. This won't be hist last show, you can count on that - he's one of the top five doing stand up right now.