The show "Louie" has been rocking my world lately. I used my DVR to record a few shows recently and I'm hooked. (I'm not willing to write DVR'd yet mostly because of that freaking apostrophe when there should be an ed.) It's so real yet so exaggerated at the same time. It's a completely different show than anything else I've ever watched. I've never seen "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" but I can bet that it sort of feels like that just from the previews.....still never seen it though.
Louis C.K. is a comedian and a damn good one. He's vulgar but somehow doesn't really cross that line of disgustation. He makes dick jokes but they're just innocent enough where most people can enjoy them. He laughs at his own jokes which dulls their effects a little bit. He's just really funny.....and his show is too. He "plays" a comedian, as himself, in the show. He has two kids, an ex-wife, and an obsession with masturbating.....and that's pretty much how the show goes forward.
A couple episodes have definitely impacted me but it's usually just a few scenes that make the biggest impression on me. One scene in particular that I recently watched was very jarring for me. Louie walks down the stairs into a subway station and there's a man in a tuxedo playing a violin. The man is killing it. Amazing stuff. Louie immediately dropped a few coins in the violinist's case and just watched as the guy just got down with that violin. In the background you can see a homeless man come down the stairs. At first he's out of focus but then you know Louie sees him and he is now in focus just behind the violinist (who is still playing beautifully). The homeless man begins to strip off his clothes and bathe himself with a bottle of water right there in the subway station, right behind the violinist, right in front of Louie. Louie doesn't know what to do. He stares at both men for a while and walks away once the violinist is finished with his piece he was playing. Just walks away. He gave the violinist money but not the homeless man showering with a bottle of water. What does that mean? What is he trying to say? Is he saying he's so disgusted by the homeless man that he can't pay him? Or that he didn't even think of giving him money because he was so grossed out? I don't know. But it got me thinking. A comedic show got me thinking. I know!!!
Another episode showed Louie and his two daughters on a trip to Pennsylvania (from New York) to see his great aunt. While driving Louie just starts getting down to the Who's "Who Are You". He plays the drums, the keyboards, sings lead vocals....all while driving the car. I mean he gets after it. He made that song his own. The man was pumped up. They showed pretty much the whole song/performance. The girls just sat in the background, staring, even when Louie engaged them with his hand microphone. Once the song ended you're allowed to just bask in the greatness of what you just saw for a few seconds of silence. The silence is broken when Louie sees a goose and tells his daughters to take a look. They get so excited and just look out the window as Louie drives on. What was the point of that?!?!? And what is he trying to say about his kids and what makes them happy? He just got weird with an amazing musical performance to a socially important song and the kids could care less. They see a goose and go apeshit. A comedy making me think again. I know!!!!!!
What I'm trying to say is that there is greater meaning in comedy than meets the eye. Louis C.K. is single-handedly bringing those greater meanings to life. Whether or not I, or any other viewer, can fully understand those meanings is up for debate. But he's doing it, man. He's doing it. And my world is becoming rocked. I know!!!
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