Louis CK and the Manifest Destiny of the American Male Ego

But he wants it!

Apr 03, 2026

Louis CK is going to be non-consensually autoplaying on our Netflix home screens soon and, for many reasons, that sucks. I’ll preface this all by saying that so much of my career in comedy is predicated upon being a chill girl who can hang.

But it’s exhausting being chill and I don’t especially like to hang, so to paraphrase Louis himself, I’m just going to come out and say a resounding:

“UuUnnnnnnnnnggggghhhhhhhhhhhh. Uuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. AAahhhuuhhhhn!!!! Oh God oh God. Fuuuuuck.”

I should say, Louis CK was one of my favorite living comedians. His show “Louis” was, to me, close to perfect. It remains a template for how to make a good, funny, true show the way “Annie Hall” remains a template for how to make a good, funny, true movie.

And like Woody Allen, in reconciling the art and the artist I find it best to consider them both archival acts. And as a human woman who thinks it is bad to use your position of power to sexually terrorize someone for your pleasure, I think the non-redemption arc of Louis CK is deflatingly sad, but not at all surprising.

It’s sad because it makes anyone who raises an issue with it an annoying killjoy bitch. And it’s unsurprising because there is no such thing as cancel culture so long as the canceled person was a man embraced by the American Right. And if the Right’s resounding silence on the release of the Epstein files demonstrates anything, it’s the majority consensus of the United States is you can do whatever you want to terrified girls and get away with it. You can even invade Iran if it makes you feel better. Or get a Netflix special.