What Louis CK Did Was Wrong In 2018. And in 2025

Louis CK appeared on Bill Maher’s show on Friday night, giving his first television interview in eight years. When he was introduced, the audience gave him a standing ovation.

They stood for Louis CK.

Sometimes, I understand this culture’s desire to give people (mostly men) (mostly white men) second chances. We love a good redemption story. But Louis CK is not a man who has overcome addiction issues, like Robert Downey, Jr. He is not a man, like Brendan Fraser, whose box office powers suffered and was blacklisted for speaking out against powerful people. Or Winona Ryder, whose career nosedived after an arrest for shoplifting.

Louis CK was accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct. Louis CK admitted that the women who made those accusations were telling the truth. And they gave him a standing ovation. For his bravery? For his resilience? For what? Why are we giving standing ovations to Louis CK?

And then Louis CK and Bill Maher basically mocked the reasons for his “cancellation,” discussing his forthcoming novel, Ingram, about a man who discovers masturbation and “pays a high price for it.”

“Where do you get your ideas?” Maher asked, as C.K. and the audience laughed uproariously.

“Like you said, write what you know,” C.K. replied

Can you imagine being one of the women who accused Louis CK of sexual misconduct, turning on the television, and watching Louis CK and Bill Maher joke about it while the audience laughed “uproariously”? I just want to say this, in case no one else does: It’s not fair to those women. It’s not fair to any woman who has been sexually harassed only to have the perpetrators dismiss, ignore, or mock their accusations, their humiliation, or their pain. It’s messed up.

I understand that the left may have become a bit too eager to cancel for a few years, and that online mobs may have turned against their own, leading to cancellation attempts against individuals who said something foolish, mispoke, or defended the wrong person.

This was not that. This was a man who used his power to pull out his penis and masturbate in front of several women who did not want to be there. He was rightly condemned at the time by the comedy community.

Are we saying, OK: Well, it’s been eight years. He’s paid his debt … by going on sold-out tours, successfully releasing comedy specials independently, and by winning a Grammy just three years ago?

Am I being unfair? Am I being an overly sensitive, triggered lib? Should I just shut up and let it go? Welcome Louis CK back into the mainstream comedy world? You know, back during those cancellation days, plenty of people argued that there had to be a path to redemption, that those who made mistakes should be able to make amends. But even in that scenario, Louis CK has done next to nothing to earn his way back.

It’s not like Louis CK has spent the last eight years fighting the good fight, speaking truth to power, or becoming a symbol of free speech. The man literally just returned from the Riyadh Comedy Festival and spoke on Maher’s show about what a positive experience it was, and how using “comedy is a great way to get in and start talking.” And Maher called him — and all the others who attended the festival — “brave” for being paid obscene amounts of money to give the Saudis exactly what they wanted: A lot of positive press.

It’s one thing to begrudgingly accept this man back into the comedy world because he still commands a big audience and is a skilled stand-up comedian. But to celebrate him? To say to his victims, and to victims of sexual harassment in general: We don’t care. This man is so funny that we’ll not only forgive his transgressions but we will give him a standing ovation.

I’m sorry that we dug up old tweets and yelled at celebrities for the stupid jokes they made ten years ago. But I’m not sorry about Louis CK. It wasn’t an overreaction of the times. What he did was wrong. In 2018 and in 2025.