Louis CK mocks Parkland survivors in audio of standup routine
Louis CK faces new controversy over a standup routine in which he appeared to mock survivors of the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
The comic has been attempting a comeback after admitting to sexual misconduct including masturbating in front of women. In audio posted online of a recent routine, he seeks to poke fun at the activism of teens who survived the mass shooting in which 17 people were killed.
“They testify in front of Congress, these kids,” he says. “What the fuck? What are you doing? You’re young. You should be crazy, you should be unhinged – not in a suit saying: ‘I’m here to tell …’ Fuck you. You’re not interesting because you went to a high school where kids got shot.”
Users who uploaded audio of the set to YouTube said was recorded on 16 December at the Governor’s comedy club on Long Island, New York.
“Why does that mean I have to listen to you?” the comedian continued. “How does that make you interesting? You didn’t get shot. You pushed some fat kid in the way, and now I’ve got to listen to you talking?”
The jokes were an apparent reference to students who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school on 14 February and have since become prominent advocates for gun control.
“It’s a shame when you sink so low that your comeback plan is to make fun of school shooting survivors for speaking out,” one Parkland survivor, Ryan Deitsch, wrote on Twitter.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the shooting, wrote: “To anyone who knows Louis CK, please deliver this message for me. My daughter was killed in the Parkland shooting. My son ran from the bullets. My wife and I deal with loss everyday. Why don’t you come to my house and try out your new pathetic jokes?”
CK also mocked political correctness among young people and requests by gender non-binary people to be addressed by certain pronouns. He also discussed his own “bad year”, which was set in train after he admitted to allegations of sexual misconduct. CK lost his TV show and a planned standup special.
He told the audience he lost “millions and millions” of dollars: “You don’t tell people you have $35m. But you can tell them you lost $35m, because that shit is hilarious.”
Joking that the controversy had shown him who his real friends were, CK said: “People say that like it’s a good thing. That’s not a good thing. That’s a horrible experience. Who the fuck wants to know who your real friends are? I liked having a bunch of fake friends and not knowing who was who.”
He went on to say he was “really disappointed in the younger generation”, calling them “boring” for objecting to what they consider offensive comments.
The routine was panned on social media.
“This hacky, unfunny, shallow routine is just a symptom of how people
are afraid to feel empathy,” actor and director Judd Apatow wrote on Twitter. “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.”
The comedian Andy Richter said: “You know what’s the worst, most boring kind of comedy? The kind where older white men are angry that older white men can’t do or say whatever the fuck they want any more.”
“All it took for Louis CK to go from ‘fuck Trump’ to sounding exactly like him was being caught,” said the standup comedian Dan Telfer.
CK appeared to acknowledge the possibility his jokes could cause offense: at the end of a bit mocking the shift from labeling children “retarded” to “intellectually challenged” he said the word didn’t bother him.
“You can fucking get offended. Listen, fuck it. What, are you going to take away my birthday? My life is over, I don’t give a shit. You can be offended. It’s OK. You can get mad at me.”
CK also declared that no subject was too taboo to joke about.
“Yes, that was a joke about fucking a child,” he said at one point. “Which, by the way, I know fucking children is wrong. Joking about it is not, obviously.”