The second season of Louie is still on a rise and only getting better and more meta as we move along. In “Oh Louie. Tickets” we take a look back at what Louis CK’s life might have been like while he was filming his first attempted series “Lucky Louie” and go backstage with Louie to settle a debt with Dane Cook. We all know that Louis CK’s humor is off base but with Louie we get a way to go even deeper with his thoughts and his comedy.
The episode opens like a sitcom with Louie walking into a kitchen grabbing a beer and popping the bottle top off by using the table. His “wife” then comes in and there is some back and forth shared with audience laughter happening in the background. Immediately we know something is going on and its hard to tell if this is going to be the whole first part of the episode with just a look back at Louis CK’s old show but instead Louie starts asking questions and we are pulled into the fact that they are filming a television pilot and Louie is having problems all over with the writing and the way Louie views comedy. Louie not only wants it to be more berating and semi-depressing and awkward like Louie is but he also starts pointing out the foils of most modern sitcoms. From the blatantly bad writing to the horrible match-ups of husbands and wives attractiveness levels to the idiot unrealistic friends, this time played by Bob Saget. As Louie walks out saying that he can’t be a part of the show we find him walking into a house and up the stairs to open a door and be handed a baby. We watch Louie trying to explain to the baby version of his daughter that he just cant muster the commitment to be on a bland sitcom and will have to continue going on comedy club tours.
After a break of standup the second part of the episode, “Ticket”, takes us to Louie and his oldest daughter getting food at a diner and find out that its his daughters birthday. Louie hands his daughter over an envelope and explains that thankfully through his promotion company he was able to get her tickets to Sabrina Bubble, what sounds like a female version of Raffi. The look of almost full fledged disappointment on her face causes Louie to question what she would rather have tickets to and he finds out it’s Lady Gaga. Louie then goes off to his agent, who seems to be played by a 13 year old, to see if he can get him tickets. Louie then finds out that not only he cant but that Gaga is under AEG for promotions and their only comedian he could try and reach out to is Dane Cook. Again we have the episode take a very meta turn as we follow Louie trough a backstage area escorted by four burley guard to meet with Cook. As soon as he sits down we are brought back to the real life situation between the two where it seemed like Cook had stolen jokes from Louis CK. The scene is so incredibly tense between the two that its hard to tell if they are not just filming the two talk about the actual situation that occurred. In the end we see that Cook subliminally convinces Louie to instead get her an actual present and when we see Louie deliver it to her we are taken back to that same disappointed face of hers and now of Louie.
Many episodes of Louie have taken a somewhat skewed look at his actual life but note closer to than here where the public could see strands to actual evens. Lucky Louie did not win over many people and received a too darring consensus through its single season run at the time. The situation between CK & Cook was also a very heated one and here we see it somewhat downplayed a bit where the actual situation seemed to go even further into dislike between the two. The path of destruction Louie has been going on during its second season is phenomenal and to get to witness looks inside such known problems in Louis CK’s life is amazing.
Grade: A
Side Note:
Comic’s Comic is a word I have been hearing tossed around a lot lately especially between Louis CK and Marc Maron.
The end of the episode where Saget takes Louie’s role on the sitcom is hilarious.
