These New Quotes From Louis CK About Politics And The Internet Will Be Memes In No Time
The huge interview in 'New York Mag' also covered feminism... That bit was less inspiring.
Despite proudly announcing he’d quit the internet last month, Louis CK has quite the history with this dump we call home. His since-deleted Twitter account was often used to weigh in to debates and controversies in the comedy community and occasionally casually solve the mysteries of the universe. He’s also used (and continues to use) the internet to release work in unconventional methods — stand-up specials are available for $5 a pop direct via his website and delivered with personal notes to your email inbox; his latest series Horace and Pete was dropped to loyal fans in the same way.
But all this is pales in comparison to his most prolific (albeit, indirect) contribution: memes.
Favoured by Australians reacting to certain comments made by Peter Dutton.
Favoured by angry uncles reacting to literally anything.
The mix of vulgar candor and surprisingly insightful social and political commentary which characterises Louis CK’s standup has resulted in his face being scattered across weird and nasty Facebook comments sections all across this garbage land. To make this process all the more easy, his quotes are collected in wide-ranging listicles and specific collections on topics like parenting. At one point someone even turned them into surprisingly affecting motivational posters.
Now, in a long cover interview with New York Magazine, the comedian has blessed the world with plenty more jokes and comments to try and claim as their own on Reddit. The magazine’s latest edition is ‘Television’-themed (to coincide with the commencement of voting for the 2016 Emmys), so a great deal of the interview is based around his work on Louie and Horace and Pete. But that didn’t stop CK or interviewer David Marchese from diving head-first into the US election, race and gender.
Here are the best bits:
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On Having Opinions In The Digital Age
Referring to that time he compared Trump to Hitler in an emotive email to fans, CK talked about his conflicting thoughts about the incident. He’s previously expressed regret over his comments and now chalks the subsequent response up to the fact everyone’s pressured to have a knee-jerk opinion on such things in a 24/7 news cycle.
“Politically I’m not an expert. And also there’s very little rational intake of political thought. People get so upset that they don’t hear what you’re saying. There’s this feeling with people where they’ve got to decide whether an opinion or information is right or wrong. Nobody can eat a whole meal and then digest it and see how they feel the next day.
“You’ve got a meal in front of you, and you take a piece of lettuce and you go, ‘Why is there just a piece of lettuce? I’m hungry for more.’ ‘What do you mean? There’s a bunch of other shit on the plate. Take a minute and eat that!’ ‘No. It’s just lettuce, and fuck you, I hate lettuce.’ That’s how it is with every conversation now.”
The perfect quote for: getting screaming strangers to DM you mean things about being a know-it-all.
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On The US Election
After suggesting celebrities can be “obnoxious” for commenting publicly on politics, CK launched into his take on the upcoming presidential election.
“Sometimes I think the system is so deeply fucked up that somebody as disruptive as Bernie — maybe he doesn’t even do a good job as president but he jars something loose in our system and something exciting happens. I mean, Hillary is better at this than any of these people. The American government is a very volatile, dangerous mechanism, and Hillary has the most experience with it.
“It’s like if you were on a plane and you wanted to choose a pilot. You have one person, Hillary, who says, ‘Here’s my license. Here’s all the thousands of flights that I’ve flown. Here’s planes I’ve flown in really difficult situations. I’ve had some good flights and some bad flights, but I’ve been flying for a very long time, and I know exactly how this plane works.’ Then you’ve got Bernie, who says, ‘Everyone should get a ride right to their house with this plane.’ ‘Well, how are you going to do that?’ ‘I just think we should. It’s only fair that everyone gets to use the plane equally.’ And then Trump says, ‘I’m going to fly so well. You’re not going to believe how good I’m going to fly this plane, and by the way, Hillary never flew a plane in her life.’ ‘She did, and we have pictures.’ ‘No, she never did it.’ It’s insane.”
The perfect quote for: Hillary Clinton’s political campaign, Lena Dunham’s Instagram.
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On White Dudes
After Louis talked about the fact it was hard to stand out as a white male comic in the New York scene in his early days (and was often knocked back gigs because of it), Marchese asked him if he understands white guys who think they’re “under cultural attack”.
“Oh, Jesus, no. White guys are fine. Nobody’s turning us down for a job. There’s nothing that’s being taken away from us. That’s a load of shit, people who think that. Most people are good people, and most people who are tasked with hiring or promoting take people at their value. That’s my experience anyway. But of course that’s my experience — because I’m a privileged white guy.
“The level of privilege is so high that if we lose a little bit, there’s a panic: What’s happening to us?”
The perfect quote for: wiping up man baby tears anywhere and everywhere.
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On Feminism
For many fans, feminism in Louis CK’s work has been a serious sticking point. On the one hand some of his comedy frequently exposes and skewers injustices and problems in women’s lives to a large and receptive audience. On the other, these moments come amidst others in which he remains (sometimes dangerously) ignorant.
With this in mind, the interviewer asked him point blank if he was a feminist.
“I don’t feel strongly enough about anything to give myself a label. My daughter is a feminist and I identify with her, with her rights and her feelings, and I’m listening to her. I’m learning from her. But I think the second you say ‘I am this’, you’ve stopped listening and learning.”
Perfect quote for: Minister for Women Michaelia Cash.
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On Being Controversial
Speaking specifically about problems people have had with his work in regards to women, Louis remained unfazed. He claimed these reactions have never/would never influence the way he tackles things in the future.
“The goal of the things I say onstage or in my shows isn’t to please everyone. My goal is not to have everyone say, ‘This was an excellent indictment of this bad thing’. I’m confounded by people who want that from art. ‘Boy, that sure showed that woman to be strong! That means that was good!’ It’s so much more interesting to shed light on these things that we all argue about. We don’t have to agree on everything, and that’s okay.
“After I made the episode about the fat girl, I read a blog post by a young woman who was furious. She said, ‘I’ve been talking about this all these years and nobody gives a shit. The fact that this guy’s being carried around on people’s shoulders by some feminists makes me sick to my stomach’. And I read it and I was like, You’re totally right. I completely see that. Would that make me go, I better not touch that note again? It’s the opposite. It’s exciting to be a flash point. It’s a valid thing to have your feelings violated and hurt. Sorry, but it is.”
Perfect quote for: Mark Latham (…but he’d only take the last two lines).
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On The Outrage Economy
After the interviewer took objection to the thinking that comedians shouldn’t grow and learn from certain reactions from their audiences, CK responded with a takedown of modern offence at large.
“But here’s the thing: part of what’s happened with American culture is the shit we choose to get angry about. The outrage economy. Everybody’s just such a sucker for this shit. Remember the dentist who killed Cecil the lion? People said, ‘We’re going to get that motherfucker!’ There’s no humility. Nobody goes, ‘Jeez, I dunno anything about this. I’m going to keep my voice out of it’. I saw somebody who has 20 million Twitter followers write that the dentist should lose his business and his home and his whole life. 20 million Twitter followers — that’s an enormous amount of influence to just go, ‘I am encouraging people to destroy this man’s life, and two minutes later I’m going to tweet about something completely different’…
“There’s such careless outrage. I’m not an insult comedian. I’m not a person who tries to hurt people’s feelings. I don’t like downgrading people. But you’ve gotta strike out in all directions.”
Perfect quote for: finally getting petitions about certain gorillas out of your feed.
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If you’d like to hear more about (the less controversial elements of) his work and why he thinks Samantha Bee is the best comedian around, check out the full interview here. It’s well worth the read.