Celebrities Without Comebacks: How Louis CK's career took a nosedive due to sexual misconduct and never revived
Louis CK is known for his unapologetic humor, that's been called both crude and shocking. That kind of humor is a large part of what made him popular, standing out as a comedian who tells it like it is. However, it's not his controversial comedy that nearly killed his career completely. The #MeToo movement was responsible for exposing his sexual harassment of women, and despite a comedy special released earlier this year, his career is a long way from what it once was. We take a look at how his career rose, what led to its downfall and why he may never return to the high standing in the comedic world that he once held.
Born Louis Szekely in 1967, Louis CK knew he wanted to be a writer and a comedian from an early age. He graduated from high school in the same class as 'FRIENDS' alum Matt LeBlanc. He was an industrious learner, making a study of his career aspirations with an early job working at a Boston public access cable TV network. Though a film he directed at 17 earned him interest from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, he decided to pursue a career in stand-up comedy first. After a false start in 1985, where he had only 2 minutes of material for a 5-minute set, he began performing in earnest in 1987 and moved to Manhattan in 1989.
He pursued his career doggedly, at points opening for Jerry Seinfeld, failing to get into 'Saturday Night Live' and getting his earliest writing work on 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien' from 1993 to 1994. CK has publically stated that Conan's decision to give him a shot kept him from quitting comedy. He had said, "because I was really desperate. I was literally hungry all the time." In 1996, he was the head writer for 'The Dana Carvey Show', whose writing team included major names such as Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert and more. His first comedy special also aired on HBO that year.
He began earning recognition for his skills as a writer for his work on 'The Chris Rock Show', which earned him three Primetime Emmy Award nominations — winning the 'Best Writing in a Variety or Comedy Series' award in 1999. Having attained writing success, he moved on to the next stage of his career — directing. His debut film was 'Tomorrow Night', a black and white absurdist comedy released at Sundance in 1998. He continued to write and direct several other films, the most infamous of which was 2001's 'Pootie Tang', which evolved a sketch from 'The Chris Rock Show' into a full feature film parody of blaxploitation films. It received largely negative reviews from critics but has since become something of a cult classic emblematic of Louis CK's humor — vulgar, chaotic and unashamed.
His real comedic breakthrough started around 2005 with various HBO stand-up comedy specials, sitcom series and a viral video in which he pesters Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with absurd accusations. He also began appearing regularly in comedic films, bringing him further into the public eye. He made history in 2010 with a concert film called 'Hilarious', which he directed and produced independently, making it the first stand-up comedy film accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. In 2009, FX picked up 'Louie', a series that CK wrote, directed, created, edited, produced and starred in, that showed a fictionalized version of his own life as a divorced comedian raising his daughters in New York City. The series helped propel his career to new heights as a writer, director, stand-up comedian and actor.
In 2015, rumors began swirling of CK's sexual misconduct. Comedian Roseanne Barr publically called Louis CK out for "locking the door and masturbating in front of women comics and writers", and in 2017, The New York Times released a report detailing the allegations of five women who said CK sexually harassed all of them to varying degrees, including forcing them to watch him masturbate. The accusations came at the height of the #MeToo movement, which saw women all over the world come out publically against prominent male figures for their sexual misconduct.
The results were immediate. The public turned against Louis, as did Hollywood. The release of his latest film, 'I Love You, Daddy', was canceled and networks like Netflix and FX cut ties with him completely. The Disney Channel went as far as to redub all of the actor's lines from his role on 'Gravity Falls'.
His attempted returns to comedy have been met with public criticism, both from fans online as well as from other comedians. His first, unnannounced appearance at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan, New York, made no mention of his misconduct, though the audience was reportedly pleased enough with his set to give him a standing ovation. His most recent work, 'Sincerely Louis CK', was released on his own website in April 2020 and was still praised by critics for its quality. Fans believe that the comedian is at his absolute best in the special, while others criticize him for his apparent lack of remorse about his sexual misconduct.
This seems to be the trend with Louis's return. His comedy is as dark and controversial as ever and die-hard fans are loving every minute of it. His image in the public eye, however, remains forever tarnished. As far as the public is concerned, there's no debate about whether or not Louis CK is a good comedian. This, however, has nothing to do with his behavior. The public appears divided on whether or not his past misconduct should be moved past and while that division exists, his comedy will continue to be limited to those who believe sexual harassment shouldn't get in the way of a good career.