I don't trust people who dislike the FX show, Louie. I know that taste is often very subjective, but Louie is too good to hate. Hating it would require the revealing of some very complex issues. I had an ex-girlfriend who didn't like it once, and I still haven't been able to clean all the bats out of my mouth. I'm not calling her a witch, but if you asked me what to do with someone who thought Louie was ?so-so? I'd be lying if my immediate response wasn?t to find fire and a large stake.
Louie is great for the amount of emotions I feel from watching it. The stories are cool and the characters are all engaging, but what draws me in is the fact that I watch it and feel both happy and ashamed.
Both the man and the title character that it is based off the man are hilarious. Louis CK is the best working comedian today, a fact shown by how often people have already started to imitate his style. I understand it's been done before, but now every ?hip? white comic with a belly and a bad relationship history is trying to ?tell it like it is.? They?ll reveal embarrassing and ?real? truths about life, with all the tact and class of a cooking instructor who eats all the ingredients and then asks the students why they weren't more prepared.
Louie, the character, with his blend of selfish reasoning, good intentions, arrogant dealings with the outside world and constant low self esteem, is a fascinating study in the modern Common Man, or, what the former Common Man used to view as the antagonist. If Louie was a character in the 1950?s, he'd be most likely attempting to steal the hand of the ranch owner?s daughter, twirling his ginger moustache and then whining and losing a gun duel later. In the classic era of TV and Hollywood, he would be a scheming, cowardly side-character or villain. Today, he is Homer Simpson, in flesh and blood, with even more characteristics to relate to.
It's the relating to that makes me feel ashamed. All the masturbating and the attempts to hook up with women that he has no chance with and the displays of aggression that often land him in trouble and the subsequent masturbating; I can relate to all of that. I'm not saying that I masturbate as much as Louie, but guess what I'm doing right now.
I'm writing, obviously.
But, by the time you read this, I'll probably be masturbating.
Masturbating is the main theme of this piece, as it makes one feel both ashamed and great, much like I mentioned the show doing in the second paragraph.? It makes one ashamed because, well, they're are many more vagina-related things that one can do with the dong to make it feel the same way. But that would take effort and precision that a lot of men aren't willing to put forth.
It's effort that Louie often isn't willing to put forth. If he just tried a little harder to connect with people and wasn?t so stuck in his own head, he could probably be a well-liked guy. He's obviously funny, insightful and usually intelligent. He could find a nice, normal wife and create a happier home for his kids. But he just doesn't exert himself in that manner. He takes the quick relief of jerking off over the long shot.
Louie finds all of these crazy women, the short-lived hook ups, because he never goes out of his way to impress the better women in his life. Sure, he ?loved? Pamela, but, despite talking poetically about his feelings, he just spends too much time ?masturbating? to be attractive to a woman like that who obviously needs stability at their age. It's unknown whether Louie truly believes that things will be handed to him in life, but outside of comedy (and even sometimes in comedy,) he remains too bewildered by the actions of the outside world to be successful as a person.
It's both embarrassing and great to be able to relate to this. I laugh at Louie?s mishaps and think about his problems and realize that, in the sweat pants that I've worn for three days, with the article deadlines that should have been worked on yesterday and the gym membership that draws from my bank account like a tick I'm aware of but choose to ignore, that I am today's common man. I am Louie. Gifted, but too self-centered to be appealing.
A lot of people want to be the person that Louie wants to be: charming, hilarious and attractive, yet remaining in touch with their emotions and their flaws. And many of those same people are, like Louie, so concerned with their flaws that it prevents them from social, personal, romantic or financial success. They get stuck on the ways that society is unlike them and their entitled feelings on the world, and, when the time comes to do something right, well, they're too busy whackin? it.
Louie is an extraordinary show, presenting the flaws and inner demons of the new common man. This common man is funny to watch, but often painful to relate to, and he is one who could do great things with all the tools and options at his disposal, if he'd only stop masturbating.
Blake says
let this be a lesson to us all