{"id":747,"date":"2026-07-03T17:44:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=747"},"modified":"2026-07-03T17:44:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:44:54","slug":"it-looks-like-the-redemption-of-louis-c-k-is-complete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=747","title":{"rendered":"It looks like the \u201credemption\u201d of Louis C.K. is complete"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Imagine that you\u2019re relaxing at a casual family gathering. Conversation is flowing, the food is hitting just right and everybody is enjoying each other\u2019s company. Suddenly, your good time is interrupted by an elder pulling you aside and pushing you toward a paunchy, bespectacled sack lurking in a corner. \u201cYour poor uncle is by himself at that table,\u201d they say. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you sit with him for a bit?\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more How private equity destroyed an American pastime<\/a><\/p>\n

You politely but firmly decline, but your relative insists. \u201cGo on, now,\u201d they say. \u201cHe\u2019s been so lonely since his career died.\u201d<\/p>\n

At various points while watching \u201cLouis C.K.: Ridiculous,\u201d my mind wandered back to the many times such kamikaze socializing missions were thrust upon me when I was a kid. The situations differ in fundamental ways, I\u2019ll grant you, the top one being that none of the people I was pawned off on were sex pests. Neither were most of them hurting for attention, which is probably why my brain connected those long-ago irritants with this present one.<\/p>\n

Replace that meddling figure with an industry that couldn\u2019t wait for everybody to get over the fact that in 2017, C.K. admitted to masturbating in front of multiple women without their consent, and that captures the sentiment paving the path to C.K.\u2019s Netflix return.<\/p>\n

Yes, yes, we know \u2013 you\u2019re tired of hearing about your favorite comedy genius\u2019 past misconduct. Sure, one of the women whose trust he violated noticed that \u201cthe exciting part for him was the fear on our faces,\u201d and her comedy career took a vicious hit after she came forward. Yes, there has been at least one documentary made about his sexual misconduct and what the comedy world\u2019s insistent support of C.K. says about the ineffectuality of the #MeToo reckoning.<\/p>\n

The public saw all that and could only wonder: Hasn\u2019t C.K.\u2019s time-out lasted long enough?<\/p>\n

The world does not need \u201cRidiculous,\u201d and neither does C.K. Since his supposed cancellation, he\u2019s self-produced several stand-up specials, including 2020\u2019s \u201cSincerely Louis C.K.,\u201d which won a Grammy for best comedy album. He\u2019s sold out venues across the country, including Madison Square Garden, appeared on the biggest comedy podcasts and was showered with Saudi Arabian gold for performing in Riyadh. He may have lost some mainstream acceptance and his FX series, but has since lined his bank account and burnished his career quite handsomely. He never went away, but isn\u2019t it terrific to see him on TV again?<\/p>\n

The late-June Hollywood Reporter headline that reads, \u201cLouis C.K., Stephen A. Smith to Honor Bill Maher at Kennedy Center Event\u201d isn\u2019t merely a sign of our times; it\u2019s a billboard. Three jerks in one Trumpified venue! What a night to forget to remember.<\/p>\n

\n

The world does not need \u201cRidiculous,\u201d and neither does Louis C.K.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Reports of C.K.\u2019s career death are greatly exaggerated, is what I\u2019m saying. But, since \u201cRidiculous,\u201d which C.K. wrote, directed and produced, is his first comedy special for a major streaming platform in nearly a decade, some are treating it as a comeback of sorts. \u201cA triumphant return to form for a man who may have lost a step at one point in his career,\u201d raves The Wrap \u2013 and, wow. \u201cLost a step\u201d is quite a leap.<\/p>\n

But ignore my Katie Killjoy grumping, because this special shows that C.K. has turned a corner. We\u2019re already amply aware that some stars are just so talented that they\u2019re beyond accountability or making amends for previous power abuses that irreparably harmed other people and their careers. \u201cRidiculous\u201d is C.K.\u2019s way of letting the world know, with put-on humility, that when you brush aside his Teflon-coated fame and elder statesman standing, the 58-year-old star is really just old and exhausted.<\/p>\n

C.K. riffs at length about the bags under his eyes, the existential terror of waking up and the absurdity of putting his father in a retirement home. Midway through the set, he wades through a bit premised on his opinion that we should all avoid looking at vaginas. Many people feel the same way about other people\u2019s genitalia, but that didn\u2019t stop him from whipping out his in front of his colleagues. But don\u2019t think about that!\u00a0 Such old material does nothing to augment his current sources of hilarious inspiration, including updates on his bowel movements.<\/p>\n

I am not here to tell you whether or not to watch \u201cRidiculous\u201d because let\u2019s be honest: You\u2019ve already made that decision. You may have even convinced yourself that it is the funniest thing you\u2019ll watch this month without having seen it yet. That is the way most comedy works these days. Some of the biggest jokers count on their fans\u2019 defiant loyalty more than on the quality, profundity and durability of the jokes they\u2019re telling.<\/p>\n

Read more Half of Americans will celebrate the Fourth of July in extreme heat<\/a><\/p>\n

Either way, know that nothing in this hour expands beyond territory he hasn\u2019t covered \u2013 including, and namely, any epiphanies about responsibility. Those are not coming.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cRidiculous\u201d is C.K.\u2019s way of letting the world know that when you brush aside his Teflon-coated fame and elder statesman standing, the 58-year-old star is really just old and exhausted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Instead, the most distinguishing aspect of \u201cRidiculous\u201d is how comparatively tame it is next to most of the racist, sexist and transphobic comedy Netflix is pushing elsewhere.<\/p>\n

This is the same streamer that only a few weeks ago premiered a comedy roast of Kevin Hart where Shane Gillis joked that the man of the hour was so short \u201cthat they\u2019re gonna have to lynch him from a bonsai tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next to that, C.K.\u2019s bit where he says he\u2019s so old that his mother is dead is as soft as taxidermy stuffing. Contemplative, even. Also a little grim, and precisely the kind of zinger that would lead a person to think that maybe that sad uncle at the cookout is flying solo for a very good reason.<\/p>\n

The thing about \u201cRidiculous\u201d is that we were given ample time to brace for its arrival. Its appearance is nothing like C.K.\u2019s surprise set at New York\u2019s Comedy Cellar in 2018, when he made a queasy joke about rape whistles that some people found to be uncomfortable and disgusting. \u201cThere were a lot of aggressive men in the audience and very quiet women,\u201d one told Vulture at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s the kind of vibe that doesn\u2019t allow for a dissenting voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

That moment has nothing on Trump 2.0 and the comedian-podcasters who helped make that dream come true. \u201cWith Trump flopping around, regularly threatening to start World War III, the unembarrassed have a pathetically low bar to compare themselves to,\u201d said W. Kamau Bell in an April newsletter post. \u201c. . . Why should any sexual assaulter be ashamed to be outside when our President is maybe the most outside sexual assaulter ever?\u201d<\/p>\n

Absolutely. However, as C.K.\u2019s supporters love to point out, he was never charged with anything, and even he knows he\u2019d better mind that gap or else. \u201cThere is a certain kind of morally slippery joke that Louis C.K. once specialized in that depended on your thinking he was a good guy,\u201d Jason Zinoman observed in his New York Times review of the comic\u2019s live performance last November. \u201cHe has largely dispensed with that.\u201d And how.<\/p>\n

Louis C.K. closes his \u201cRidiculous\u201d set by shaming people who buy issues of the pornography magazine Barely Legal by pointing out that they are more or less signaling that they\u2019re a few ticks on the calendar shy of being pedophiles.<\/p>\n

Not him, though. These days, he\u2019s content for the world to view him as a sexless, harmless old man \u2014 and trust the audience to forget that\u2019s how the predatory ones get you.<\/p>\n

Read more In 1976, I went to jail to celebrate the Fourth of July<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The supposedly disgraced comic’s mainstream return proves that expecting true accountability is the real joke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[825,4,1068,793,1069,58],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-comedy","tag-commentary","tag-louis-c-k","tag-netflix","tag-stand-up","tag-tv"],"yoast_head":"\nIt looks like the \u201credemption\u201d of Louis C.K. is complete - Relocation Across America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=747\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It looks like the \u201credemption\u201d of Louis C.K. is complete - 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