The Best Thing On TV: 7/16-22

Louie: "Travel Day/South"

By Amanda Hughes
Published: July 23rd, 2010 | 5:05pm

I'll be honest. I don't really like Louis C.K. I've seen his stand-up a couple of times and it never really hit my funny bone. Don't get me wrong, I know he's very popular. And he's written for Conan O'Brien and David Letterman, whom I love. I just didn't click with C.K.'s stand-up. And his other TV show (which shall remain nameless) was also pretty lackluster. I guess there was just too much parental humor. It was almost like being stuck in your doctor's waiting room (or supermarket line or family event) with a new parent and their toddler. Some people just assume you want to hear every single detail about their little munchkins' lives, especially the gross parts. And since I'm not really good around babies unless I'm related to them, it's a lose-lose when I'm involved.

So sitting through a whole stand-up act about Louis C.K.'s kids was not my idea of a good time. That was then, five or six years ago when C.K. was a married family man, kvetching about his full, boring life. Now, on FX's Louie, his character (like the comedian himself) is a divorced single man with partial custody of his children, navigating daily social situations made uncomfortable by his middle-aged-and-newly-single status. It feels like the sad turn his life has taken has provided C.K. with a lot of comedic material. Every single aspect of his character's pathetic, lonely, beaten-down life is explored mercilessly. From having his only romantic partner--a bottle of lube--confiscated at airport security ("It's technically for sex, but I've never used it that way myself.") to swapping bad parenting thoughts with a single mom ("I think when they turn 18 I'll kill myself."), C.K. doesn't spare his character a single embarrassment. It's ridiculously funny.

This week's episode of the show (which C.K. writes, directs, edits, produces, and stars in), "Travel Day/South" finds Louie on his way to a comedy show in Birmingham, Alabama. Airplane humor has been done to death--the security line gags, the tiny-bag-of-peanuts jokes, the neurotic traveler confessions. But C.K. manages to score some fresh material here. The premise of the episode, revealed through snippets of C.K.'s stand-up act peppered throughout the show, is that people feel entitled. They act like anything that goes wrong in life is a personal affront to them. As if accidents should only happen to other people. In keeping with this theme, Louie finds his seat on an airplane, only to be squashed by the exceptionally large man who sits next to him. I've seen this joke before, too, but what makes the sight gag work is the surreality of the scale--the man next to Louie is positively enormous, and he's so close to Louie that he's almost completely eclipsed by the larger man. It's just so extreme you can't help but laugh. And when Louie asks the flight attendant for some water and is given a thimble-sized plastic cup, you know just how he feels.

A lot of the laughs on Louie actually come from pity for the character, and empathy for the situations he finds himself in. Despite his pathetic life, Louie is still a likable guy. He's honest about himself, and he tries to be honest with himself, too. The show makes you care for Louie as often as it makes you laugh at him, and the emotional investment is what makes this one of the most interesting and addictive comedy shows on TV.

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