Comedian Louis C.K. is known for jokes that toe the line and more often than not cross it: rape jokes, masturbation jokes, racism jokes, terrorism jokes. A number of these jokes, while uncomfortable to begin with, are now downright disturbing, in light of confirmed allegations in the New York Times that he made a number of women watch him masturbate.
In his May 2015 monologue on Saturday Night Live (the third time he hosted the show), C.K. jokes about compulsive sexual behavior, appearing to sympathize with sexual predators for their urges. In an extended riff on child molestation (5:30-8:25 in the clip below), C.K. talks about how the town child moleseter wasn’t interested in him when he was growing up—“he didn’t like me, I felt a little bad”—and points out how much molesters must love molesting if they are willing to risk everything to do it.
Child molesters are very tenacious people. They love molesting childs [sic], it’s crazy. It’s like their favorite thing. I mean it’s so crazy because when you consider the risk in being a child molester—speaking not of even the damage you’re doing, but the risk—there is no worse life available to a human than being a caught child molester and yet they still do it. Which from, you can only really surmise, that it must be really good. I mean from their point of view, not ours, but from their point of view, it must be amazing for them to risk so much.
Even C.K seems to realize he’s stepped over the line. “How do you think I feel? This is my last show, probably,” he quips at one point.
He goes on to compare his love for Mounds bars to a molesters’ love of teenage boys.
Look, I can’t key into it. Because I love Mounds bars, I love Mounds bars, it’s my favorite thing right, but there’s a limit. I can’t even eat a Mounds bar and do something else at the same time, that’s how much I love them. Like if I’m eating a Mounds bar I cant read the paper. I have to just sit there with it in my mouth, and go “Why is this so good? I love this so much.” Because they are delicious, and yet if somebody said to me “if you eat another Mounds bar you will go to jail and everyone will hate you,” I would stop eating them. Because they do taste delicious, but they don’t taste as good as a young boy does—and shouldn’t!—to a child molester.
At the time, the monologue was lambasted mainly for going too far. Now, in light of the fact that C.K. is a repeat sexual offender himself, his sympathy for the compulsions of pedophiles seems like a cloaked justification for his own inability to control himself. Louis C.K. must really love masturbating in front of women to risk everything to do it.
