Photo by Mark Seliger. On the last day of 2018, director/comedian Judd Apatow, along with thousands of others, went to Twitter to slam Louis CK’s leaked “comeback” stand-up show. CK, who was accused of and later admitted to doing sexual misconduct a year ago, has been shunned from the stand up community ever since. His new routine includes calling Parkland students boring, Auschwitz and the LGBTQ community.
CK kicked off his set mentioning that following his #MeToo scandal, he would “rather be in Auschwitz” than in New York City. “I mean Auschwitz now, not Auschwitz back then. There’s a gift shop, Starbucks. People buy tickets to go there.”
CK later takes a swing at gender pronouns and the Parkland shooting survivors.
“Why does that make you interesting? You didn’t get shot,” CK said. “You pushed some fat kid in the way and now I gotta listen to you talk?”
Apatow called the bit “hacky, unfunny and shallow” while saying it “is just a symptom of how people are afraid to feel empathy.”
“It’s much easier to laugh at our most vulnerable than to look at their pain directly & show them love and concern,” Apatow wrote. “Louis CK is all fear and bitterness now. He can’t look inward.”
This hacky, unfunny, shallow routine is just a symptom of how people are afraid to feel empathy. It’s much easier to laugh at our most vulnerable than to look at their pain directly & show them love and concern. Louis CK is all fear and bitterness now. He can’t look inward. https://t.co/aQVG0rk87y
— Judd Apatow 🇺🇦 (@JuddApatow) December 31, 2018
The “Knocked Up” and “40 Year Old Virgin” director is no stranger to raunchy comedy and has experience writing taboo jokes for TV and film. He further explained to Twitter users and fans the difference between jokes and what CK presented.
“I am not a sensitive comedy watcher,” Apatow wrote. “I just think it is weak material. Compare it to the work of our greats. Would Richard Pryor have done a routine about how shooting victims were boring? People will want to make it political but it is more about his fear of self discovery.”
The much harder comedic choice would have been to explore himself. Why did I need to do that? Why did I hurt people? Why didn’t I know I was hurting people? Why is it so hard to make amends? Instead he sought new victims. It’s super messed up and deserves discussion. https://t.co/aaRWrVbdJk
— Judd Apatow 🇺🇦 (@JuddApatow) December 31, 2018
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