Lucky Louie:HBO

[panerd]

I remember seeing this advertised (it might of actually been one of the annoying banner ad's on this site) about a month ago and being real excited. Louis CK's HBO One Night Stand is one of the funniest stand-up routines I have seen. The part about the dirty goblin getting a blowjob from him in hell had me in tears. But this show seems to just be vulger for the sake of being vulgar. I didn't expect it to be winning any awards, but I also didn't expect to see Louis CK having sex half of the epiosde, including full frontal nudity. Anyone else watching this? Any fans of his as disappoined as I am?

[ThunderingHERD]

Originally Posted by panerd

I remember seeing this advertised (it might of actually been one of the annoying banner ad's on this site) about a month ago and being real excited. Louis CK's HBO One Night Stand is one of the funniest stand-up routines I have seen. The part about the dirty goblin getting a blowjob from him in hell had me in tears. But this show seems to just be vulger for the sake of being vulgar. I didn't expect it to be winning any awards, but I also didn't expect to see Louis CK having sex half of the epiosde, including full frontal nudity. Anyone else watching this? Any fans of his as disappoined as I am?

Louis CK is a great standup, but this show is shit--I watched the first episode and had no desire to watch the second. The vulgarity didn't bother me so much as the lack of funny.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

Louis CK is a great standup, but this show is shit--I watched the first episode and had no desire to watch the second. The vulgarity didn't bother me so much as the lack of funny.

Yeah, you're absolutely correct. It is terrible. I am not offended by vulgarity, obviously I like Louis CK, but the 2nd episode was even worse than the first. Not sure whether to hope that something funny happens on the next episode or two or just give up now.

They want to tackle a lot of taboo subjects like masterbation and recreational drug use, but their sterotypes on the show are even worse than not adressing them at all. I realize the above topics wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea but I would love a show that can go out of bounds with stuff like this but do it in a realistic way.

[Bad-example]

I watched for 10 minutes. Early impression was that it is terrible. I tend to give HBO shows a four episode grace period, so I will give it a real chance to prove itself before giving up hope.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I agree with all of the above. The show was horrible.

Here's a very solid review of/insight on the show.

http://www.pajiba.com/two-tragedies-of-comedy-act-i.htm

My original goal this week was to write “The State of Summer TV.” But I’m going to have to save my praise of “Rescue Me,” “Deadwood” and “Entourage” for another day (and if you missed the last season of “The Wire,” that should be on your Sunday night HBO lineup as well). Ditto for my borderline animosity toward “Windfall,” my indifference to “Last Comic Standing,” and my slight anticipation of “Rock Star” (July 5, CBS), “Brotherhood” (July 9, Showtime), and “The Office” webisodes (July 13, NBC.com). The reason for the change in direction is HBO’s other new shows, “Lucky Louie” and “Dane Cook’s Tourgasm.” As I was watching them both, sitting in a fluctuating state of loathing and boredom, I found my thoughts drifting to the nature of comedy in general and stand-up comedy in particular. So with this column as well as my next one, that’s what I’m going to be talking about, within the context of “Lucky Louie” this week and “Tourgasm” next week. It’s a little self-indulgent, perhaps, and you can feel free to flame me in the comments, but fuck it — it’s my column.
Now I’ll acknowledge right off the bat that comedy is subjective. To my mind, it’s probably one of the most subjective of the art forms. You need look no further than the just-vomited-on-the-public Nacho Libre. While I loathed it from the first moment I heard of it, I had several friends wildly anticipating it, and when I saw the trailer my groans were entirely outweighed by the majority’s laughter. Or take “Arrested Development,” which myself and others loved dearly, but which the vast majority of television watchers couldn’t give two shits about. So I acknowledge that I may not find funny the same shit you find funny, and vice versa. I just happen to be right, and you happen to be wrong.
… just kidding. Sort of.
Also, at the outset, let me make it clear that I don’t think comedy is easy. Comedic writing is fucking hard, be it jokes, monologues, stories, whatever. And pulling off a good comedy performance, either acting or stand-up routines, is just as hard (albeit for very different reasons). Back in my L.A. days, I was friends with a few low-low-low-level stand-ups and ended up going to several open-mike and low-rent comedy shows. Watching the amount of crap there, as well as watching the few folks with potential working to hone their material and approaches, really emphasized this idea. And then it was brought home, with an exclamation point, at the funniest comedy show I’ve ever been to. It was at an L.A. hole-in-the-wall that comedians often use as a testing ground for new material. Among others, that night I saw David Cross, Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, and Doug Benson. In addition to doing some regular bits, they were all trying out new material, much of it still written on little notebook pages or cocktail napkins. And I specifically remember David Cross going through one bit that fell totally flat. I’m talking crickets and tumbleweed. And there are only about 50 people in this small but fairly well-lit place, so he can see every face staring blankly at him. He just looked at his paper, looked out at us, said “well that fucking sucked,” and crumpled up the page. So even for those who know what they’re doing and are good at it, it’s a hard process.
Louis C.K. is one of those comedians who have gotten good at stand-up. I’ve watched several of his acts on various shows, and he always has me in hysterics. So I was totally psyched over the impending arrival of his new show “Lucky Louie,” HBO’s first multi-camera studio sitcom. But while his stand-up is hilarious, and his writing chops are clearly top notch (he even has an Emmy under his belt from his days writing “The Chris Rock Show”), man alive does this show blow. And there are two reasons, I think, why it doesn’t work.
First, there’s the language. Now I’m certainly not a prude about language. It’ll come as no surprise to regular readers (or even just those paying attention to the cusses that’ve already flown in this column) that I’m often described as having a trucker mouth. In fact, my father even scolded me for cussing too much in the house at last year’s Thanksgiving dinner. So I’m not offended or bothered by the show’s incessant use of vulgarity, but it just doesn’t work. For one thing, it’s distracting as hell. While attempting to make their dialogue sound more “natural” because they can say “fuck” and “shit,” it all just feels overly unnecessary, indulgent and cheap. And it certainly doesn’t have to — take, for example, “Deadwood.” I can’t think of any show, ever, that’s had more profanity, but I love those cocksuckers’ dialogue. The language is used artfully, giving an ambiance to the setting and helping to define the characters. It adds to the show’s style. But with “Lucky,” it’s just distracting and detracting.
I recently watched a great BBC show that someone chopped up and put on YouTube, “Ricky Gervais Meets Larry David”. One of the many things Ricky and Larry talked about was the use of vulgarity in comedy and how good comedy shouldn’t always go for the crutch of the automatic laugh that comes with a “shit” or “fuck.” Sure, there are times they go for the cuss-related laugh — for example, they discussed the hilarious season finale of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” where Larry’s new restaurant turned into maelstrom of vulgarities thanks to the new chef’s Tourette’s Syndrome. But going that route is the exception to the rule on “Curb,” which actually makes it funnier when they go there. When a show’s dialogue is simply littered with vulgarity for no apparent reason other than that because it can be, as it is with Louie and Company, its actually pretty grating. “I can cuss? Well, wait till these fuckers see how much I can throw into a 30-minute show. Fuck yeah. … cunt.”
The second, and larger, problem with the show is its overall feel and structure — its vibe. It comes off like quick and cheap skit versions of his act, and everything is getting lost in the translation. The “plotlines” themselves, like this week’s “my wife doesn’t orgasm,” are tired and have been rehashed an innumerable number of times. So they feel like nothing more than a vaginal receptacle within which he can insert the penile jokes from his act. And those jokes, while often downright hilarious in his act, fall like dead weights within the context of the show.
Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David did an unquestionably incredible job of creating a show that retained and was truthful to the nature and tone of their acts while being an independent and quality show in its own right. Ever since, comedians and the networks seem to think that any stand-up can readily and easily be translated into a successful sitcom, which we have learned time and time again simply isn’t true. “Seinfeld” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” (while I never loved it, it certainly was a hit) are the exceptions to the rule. For every “Home Improvement” (not really a good show, but don’t forget that it was a big hit for a while there and, admittedly, it did an excellent job of morphing jailbird Tim Allen’s act into a workable, though repetitive, show) there are a dozen steaming piles of “Norm,” “Titus,” and “Boston Common.” And “Lucky Louie” fits squarely within that latter category.
One of my favorite stand-ups, Patton Oswalt (who appears on “The King of Queens”), has discussed the issue of comedians and sitcoms and has said that for him and his friends, the sitcom isn’t the goal, it’s simply a means to allowing them to continue doing their stand-up (by putting money in their pockets and giving them wider exposure). I have absolutely no problem with that, even if you want to call it, to some degree, selling out (though I would differ on the point). But what I do have a problem with is that I think many folks over the last decade have gotten involved in stand-up not to be stand-ups, but to land a sitcom. I’m particularly reminded of the loathsomely unfunny Dat Phan, winner of the original “Last Comic Standing,” who didn’t try to hide the fact that this was exactly why he was doing comedy. This type of mentality hurts the quality of the sitcoms that ultimately get stuffed down our throats and it especially hurts the quality of stand-up comedy. While these folks may work on their stage presence, delivery and charisma (where and when they actually have some form of these things to work on in the first place), they neglect their material.
I’ll again turn to Ricky Gervais, who told Larry David about going to see an L.A. comedy show the night before their interview. He was struck by how interchangeable each comedian was. Everyone used “what the fuck?!” as their repeated punchline, and the general gist of everyone’s act was “my ethnicity is fill-in-the-blank, and my parents didn’t want me to be a stand-up comedian because … retch.” Now, the notion of mining your own personal history is certainly an important component of good comedy, but you’ve got to make it unique by inserting your perspective and giving the story a voice. And that’s one of those things about comedy that I was specifically referring to when I acknowledged just how fucking hard it is to do well. But those with sitcom glints in their eyes skip this necessary and often grueling stage of the process. I don’t necessarily think they’re lazy (not all of them, anyway), I just think they’re taking the easy way out because the endgame has changed. And that’s certainly not their fault. That’s the damn networks’ fault for plugging it into our heads that “stand-up comedy equals sitcom.”
However, there’s hope on the horizon. If you look over the sitcom landscape, with the exception of “Everybody Hates Chris,” the crop of the truly quality shows aren’t coming from the “based on my act” angle, they’re coming from the angle of plot and characters and good fucking writing. “Entourage,” “The Office,” “Scrubs,” and “My Name is Earl” all come from this place, and that’s certainly an encouraging trend, both for sitcoms and, ultimately, for stand-ups. In fact, when HBO advertises “Lucky Louie” as “the death of the sitcom as you know it,” I don’t think they realize how prescient they may actually be.
Next Week: With Dane Cook as our tour guide and, if we can overcome the boredom, we’ll delve a bit deeper into the world of stand-up comedy and hopefully come out relatively unscathed.

[Swaggs]

I caught a bit of it this weekend. The first thing that stood out was that it was strange. The second and biggest thing that stood out was that it just was not funny.

[chinaski]

damn that sucks, I love his stand up.

[Pyser]

i think the awkwardness of the format makes it appear less funny than it is.

i dont love, but i dont mind it. ill keep watching for now.

[sachmo71]

none of the sitcoms HBO has tried have panned out. having said that, i thought the first show was funny, in a sitcom sort of way.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

none of the sitcoms HBO has tried have panned out. having said that, i thought the first show was funny, in a sitcom sort of way.

Curb Your Enthusiasm? Entourage? Sex & The City?

Unless you don't consider any of them a sitcom.

[Bad-example]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

none of the sitcoms HBO has tried have panned out. having said that, i thought the first show was funny, in a sitcom sort of way.

I would call The Larry Sanders Show a sitcom, and I think that is one of the best shows of all time.

[sachmo71]

my bad...sitcom with live studio audience. yes, the others you mentioned are indeed sitcoms as well, and most of them are very good.

[ThunderingHERD]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

my bad...sitcom with live studio audience. yes, the others you mentioned are indeed sitcoms as well, and most of them are very good.

What other HBO shows have had a live studio audience?

[Coop]

Originally Posted by Bad-example

I would call The Larry Sanders Show a sitcom, and I think that is one of the best shows of all time.

Great show! They need to release the second season on dvd though!

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

What other HBO shows have had a live studio audience?

deleted

EDIT: Apparently, I have no idea what the ford im talking about.

[Bad-example]

Originally Posted by Coop

Great show! They need to release the second season on dvd though!

Ugh. I am surprised they haven't released this show on dvd beyond the first season. At least we can all buy the complete series 1st and Ten (WOW!)

[Bad-example]

Originally Posted by Bad-example

I watched for 10 minutes. Early impression was that it is terrible. I tend to give HBO shows a four episode grace period, so I will give it a real chance to prove itself before giving up hope.

I watched the first 5 episodes last night. I laughed four times. None of the laughs could be considered more than a brief chuckle.

The look of the show makes me wonder if HBO skimped on the budget, perhaps because they sensed the show would flop.

[Solecismic]

My wife and I love this show. It has a dry wit that reminds me of the sitcoms of the 1960s and '70s.

In those days, television was still seen as an extension of the theater, and Louie C.K. says he consciously designs the sets to remind the audience of the theater experience.

Some of the obvious jokes fall flat, but the acting is top notch, and the situations create the humor without that. I can sense this show isn't going to be around, long-term, but to me, it's 1000 times better than the insufferable Curb Your Enthusiasm.

[Pyser]

i cant say i agree about the acting at all...in fact, i think the acting is horrendous. the norton character makes me want to punch things.

but theres usually one or 2 things that make me laugh. the "i thought i was done masturbating in closets when i got married" line killed me, as did the "when was the last time you got in a sword fight?"

on the whole, i stick by my original review. the format makes it more awkward than it should be.

[Fouts]

I watch the show and enjoy it. I'll sit threw 20 minutes of sorta funny for those one or two laugh out loud moments I get from this show.

[Bee]

My DVR decided on its own not to continue taping this show. I took it as a sign that it wouldn't get any better.

[Bad-example]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I can sense this show isn't going to be around, long-term, but to me, it's 1000 times better than the insufferable Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Agreed. The inexplicable success of Curb Your Enthusiasm will go down as one of the world's great mysteries, while Lucky Louie is at least watchable.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Bad-example

Agreed. The inexplicable success of Curb Your Enthusiasm will go down as one of the world's great mysteries, while Lucky Louie is at least watchable.

1. Curb your Enthusiasm is more of a continuation of Seinfeld for hardcore Seinfeld fans like myself. I don't put it at the same level, but it has been one of the funnier shows out there.

2. That said the last couple of seasons of Curb have been pretty bad. But there is no denying there are some classic episodes in seasons 1-3.

3. Louis CK (as I mentioned in my first post) is one of the best comics out there. He is really good.

4. Lucky Louie sucks.

[Bearcat729]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...d=False&rpc=92


HBO cancels Louis C.K. comedy
Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:39pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - HBO has opted not to renew its racy blue-collar family comedy "Lucky Louie" for a second season. The show was created by and starred comedian Louis C.K.

The cancellation marks the end of HBO's experiment with the traditional multicamera sitcom format, at least for now.

HBO has thrived in the past with such single-camera comedies as "Sex and the City," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Entourage."

Multicamera shows are shot like a stage play with cameras trained on a handful of standing sets; single-camera shows have less of a sitcom feel, requiring different locations as well as different camera angles for each scene.


HBO recently greenlighted two single-camera projects, the partially improvised series "Flight of the Conchords" and the female ensemble pilot "Whitney."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

[Terps]

That sucks. Well, hopefully the 1st season comes out on DVD at least.

[Ksyrup]

I don't have HBO, but I saw an episode while staying at a hotel a couple of months back. I didn't think it was all that well done. Really bad acting, and the way it was filmed/staged, it almost looked like a late 70s sitcom or high school stage production with the pauses between lines and the obvious"enter/exit" of the actors.

Remember those older shows where the "scene" would end, the actors would freeze, the audience would clap, and they'd go to commercial? That's what this was like. 30 years later, it seems very...amateurish. I couldn't get beyond the constant thought that I was watching a stage show, instead of just watching it for the content, if that makes sense.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I don't have HBO, but I saw an episode while staying at a hotel a couple of months back. I didn't think it was all that well done. Really bad acting, and the way it was filmed/staged, it almost looked like a late 70s sitcom or high school stage production with the pauses between lines and the obvious"enter/exit" of the actors.

Remember those older shows where the "scene" would end, the actors would freeze, the audience would clap, and they'd go to commercial? That's what this was like. 30 years later, it seems very...amateurish. I couldn't get beyond the constant thought that I was watching a stage show, instead of just watching it for the content, if that makes sense.

I only caught the first show and I think that was deliberate on their part. That's the sort of feel they were going for. I agree, it was pretty distracting it was like what was happening on screen (which wasn't all that great to begin with) was twice removed. It was like watching a TV show about a play or some such. It didn't work at all. The rather hit-and-miss content certainly didn't help.

That Louie guy was on the Daily Show back right before the show started airing. He was pretty funny, but it just didn't seem to translate on the show.

[CleBrownsfan]

I enjoyed the Entorage/Lucky Louie hour... oh well

[Bad-example]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

The rather hit-and-miss content certainly didn't help.

This was my biggest issue with the show. There were definitely some laugh out loud moments in most episodes and I liked the casting, but the show was too inconsistent. After viewing I never thought to myself, "That was a funny episode". It was always more like, "There were a few good laughs".

That being said, I think the show might well have improved if given a second season.

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by Bearcat729

HBO recently greenlighted two single-camera projects, the partially improvised series "Flight of the Conchords" and the female ensemble pilot "Whitney."

finally. the flight of the conchords deal has long been rumored. ive seen them in person as well as their hbo one night stand special, and they are absolutely hilarious. they sing jokey folk songs, with witty banter inbetween.

definitely looking forward to their show, even at louie's expense.

[Bearcat729]

Originally Posted by Bearcat729

HBO recently greenlighted two single-camera projects, the partially improvised series "Flight of the Conchords" and the female ensemble pilot "Whitney."

The first episode of the Flight of the Conchords new show is up on HBO.com for those who want to check it out.

http://www.hbo.com/conchords/