美国国家公共电台 NPR Opinion: Louis C.K. Can Say What He Wants, But At Least Be Funny

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

I don't think Louis C.K. is funny. That's the worst that can be said about a comedian¹, not that they're offensive or outrageous³. Great comics can offend and outrage² people. But a comic who dares to be offensive but isn't funny is just a lout⁴. Louis C.K., who's been on NPR many times and often extolled⁵ as edgy⁶ and unafraid, apologized in late 2017 for sexual misconduct with women. There's nothing about this that I forgive myself for, he said then. I will now step back and take a long time to listen.

But he's back performing occasional sets. And this week, audio from a comedy club on Long Island leaked out. Louis C.K. made graphic⁷, disparaging⁸ remarks about Asians, ridiculed⁹ young people who consider themselves neutral in gender¹⁰ and made a sexually explicit¹¹ joke about 9-year-old girls. And he was just warming up. What got most attention was when Louis C.K. talked about the students who lived through last year's high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and have become political activists¹². They testify in front of Congress these kids, he says in the audio. You're young. You should be crazy. You should be unhinged, not in a suit. You're not interesting. You didn't get shot. You pushed some fat kid in the way. And now I got to listen to you talking? I don't know why this would make anyone laugh. But you hear laughter on the audio recording¹³. The club's owner says Louis C.K. sold out all six of his shows to standing¹⁴ ovations¹⁵.

I don't believe Louis C.K. should be censored¹⁶ or publicly shamed into perpetual unemployment. People can choose to see him or not. But in these times when comedy can be idealized as edgy, audacious and truth-telling, we can forget it begins with a calling - to be funny. Otherwise, a comic is no more interesting than any other muttering blowhard¹⁷ who craves¹⁸ attention.

Louis C.K. might have noted¹⁹ that Parkland's students had become activists by saying something more like this. They testify in front of Congress, these kids? They're young. They should be doing crazy things, like swallowing Tide Pods. Instead, some 19-year-old with a troubled history gets hold of an AR-15 as easily as he'd buy a stick of beef jerky, killed 17 people. And these kids can no longer just be kids. They've seen their friends and teachers shot right in front of them. They're just kids. But now they have to tell grownups, get off of Facebook and do something.

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