Like most comedians, Louis C.K. likes to push the envelope when it comes to controversy in his routine. Keeping with that tradition, his monologue this week on Saturday Night Live‘s season finale touched on a range of taboo topics from pedophilia to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Did he go too far?
His monologue opened with a discussion of race and growing up in the 1970s. Under that umbrella, the Louie star said, he responds differently to a black man wearing a hoodie and a white man wearing a hoodie. “I have mild racism,” he said. “It’s benign. It’s not aggressive.”
The pedophilia remarks were perhaps the most shocking. He begins by telling a story of a child molester in his hometown growing up, who carried out his acts with impunity. If the comedian’s story was true, it’s hardly a laughing matter. After mentioning the ostracism that caught child molesters face in today’s world and adding that some go on to still do it, he said, “You can only really surmise that it must be really good, I mean, from their point of view—not our’s—but from their point of view, it must be amazing, for them to risk so much.” The SNL band standing behind him can be seen shaking their heads.
Recognizing the crowd reaction, like a nervous laughter, he jokes: “How do you think I feel? It’s my last show, probably.”
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