Louis CK

[BruceSmith78]

Castor really likes the guy, and I'm something of a fan. He usually gets the social issues right, I think. Well his SNL monologue is making waves, and I just watched it. I'm drunk, and I'm a privileged straight white able-bodied male, but I think maybe he crossed a few lines. Wudduya think?

[Derived Absurdity]

I just watched it and I found it really funny. As usual. Louis CK is never not at least a little bit funny.

I haven't heard of it before now and I have no idea what people are saying about it, but yeah, there are some valid criticisms. The [SPOILERS!] 'black guy in a gas station' thing, saying he's only prejudiced because he was raised in the 70s, well, that whitewashes and erases the extent to which the media today perpetuates awful stereotypes about blacks being criminals and thugs. If you just watch cable news - or Hollywood, which doesn't seem able to protray black people as anything other than simplistic cliches and stereotypes, a few major ones being the criminal thug and the "scary black man" - you can easily get those impressions. Erasing the complicity of the media/mainstream culture industry in perpetuating racism today is not cool.

And also the Israel/Palestine thing was just... fucking ugh. No. No. Parts of it could be read as ambiguous, but still, no. So Israel throws rocks at Palestine and Palestine burns all of Israel's dolls? Uh, no. And America just gets mad and blames them both equally like some frustrated parent? HAHAHAHA are you shitting me Louis CK? Fuck off with that shit. That's not how it works. That's not even a vague approximation of how it works. Shut up, Louis CK.

The child molestation part was hilarious and I found nothing wrong with it.

[Gendo]

He often goes over those sorts of lines. He's clever and funny, but he does sometimes rely on pure shock value.

[Monk]

I just watched it and I found it really funny. As usual. Louis CK is never not at least a little bit funny.

I haven't heard of it before now and I have no idea what people are saying about it, but yeah, there are some valid criticisms. The [SPOILERS!] 'black guy in a gas station' thing, saying he's only prejudiced because he was raised in the 70s, well, that whitewashes and erases the extent to which the media today perpetuates awful stereotypes about blacks being criminals and thugs. If you just watch cable news - or Hollywood, which doesn't seem able to protray black people as anything other than simplistic cliches and stereotypes, a few major ones being the criminal thug and the "scary black man" - you can easily get those impressions. Erasing the complicity of the media/mainstream culture industry in perpetuating racism today is not cool.
.

Yeah, I agree with this. I think he also doesn't realize that people born in the 80s, 90s, and 00's all pretty much have the same implicit biases.

[Cinemachinery]

Probably the most adept use of deliberate shock I've seen since Lenny Bruce.

Mocking child molesters doesn't bother me in the least - if he'd been making light of the victims I'd have had a hard time with it.

[BruceSmith78]

See, I was most uncomfortable when he kept referring to his racism as harmless racism, and then he said he gets uncomfortable around black kids in hoodies. I mean, I don't think he actually meant racism is harmless, and I guess the punch line was that it's really not harmless, but I thought it could easily be interpreted as something less charitable.

[Derived Absurdity]

Yeah, I got that too, but I kinda gave him the benefit of the doubt with that, knowing his past stuff on racism. I don't really think he thinks there are harmless types of racism, or I would hope not. Maybe I shouldn't have, but he seems to have a fairly solid history with this stuff, I'm willing to concede it was a slip-up or something. He seemed more nervous and a bit more fumbling than usual here.

[Derived Absurdity]

Also, I think it's awesome that it turns out the Internet is getting mad at the child molestation bit, easily the least problematic part of the routine. Because, I mean, of course that's what everyone would be focusing on. Not the trivialization of modern-day racism, or the erasure of American complicity in war crimes. No, the Internet is getting mad at literally the only part of the bit where he didn't say anything wrong.

Never change, Internet.

[Dr_Liszt]

Israel is a terrorist state if there ever was one.

[Derived Absurdity]

But all they do is throw rocks! Do you think Israel doesn't have the right to defend itself? Do you want Palestine to burn all its dolls?!?