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Louis CK: Masturbation is a recurring theme in comedian's work

Five women have accused the comedian of sexual harassment 

Roisin O'Connor
Friday 10 November 2017 08:14 GMT
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Louis CK
Louis CK

Louis CK's history of joking about masturbation takes on a more sinister tone amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment.

Five women spoke to the New York Times about alleged experiences with the comedian and filmmaker. All of the claims accuse CK, whose real name is Louis Székely, of masturbating in their presence or implying that he wanted to.

Comedy duo Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov claimed that CK invited them to his hotel room in Aspen, Colorado after a show and then, while they were still fully clothed, proceeded to "get completely naked, and start masturbating".

Abby Schachner and Rebecca Corry both accused CK of asking them if they could go to his dressing room so he could masturbate in front of them.

CK's publicist, Lewis Kay, told the New York Times that the comedian would not respond. "Louis is not going to answer any questions," Kay wrote in an email. The Independent has contacted his representative for comment.

Since the New York Times story, people on social media along with several publications have pointed out how masturbation is a recurring theme in CK's work, which takes on a more sinister light in the wake of the allegations.

Here are some of the most cited examples, via The Cut:

“Men don’t really have judegment, they have intent. They just want to spray the world with their cum, with their mist.” —Louis CK, 2017

“My problem is very simple — trying to find a place in my house where I can masturbate without somebody bothering me. And that’s getting really difficult, there’s nowhere to go. And my wife has her mother living with us. I’m on the streets now with nowhere to go. Now I know when I see a guy in the West Side Highway, jerking off in plain daylight. That’s not a homeless guy, that’s a married man right there. He’s got nowhere to go. Fuck it. Fuck you. Go ahead and look, man. What else am I going to do?” —Louis CK: "One Night Stand", 2005

“Now when I see a beautiful girl walking down the street, I’m like, ‘Hey, fuck you, I don’t give a shit.’ — ew. Go fuck somebody else, I’ll jerk off to you later, probably have a better time.” —Shameless, 2007

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“My dick had touched a lot of things — because — that’s what you do when you’re a young boy, you touch your dick to many surfaces around the world, just fucking looking for anything that feels good enough — that, uh, you don’t have to talk to a girl.” —Shameless, 2007

“I’m 42, I’m really good at masturbating. I’m like the best masturbator on the planet earth. I’m really there is nobody better at that than me, so I’m gonna continue to excel at that. I’m gonna focus on that and raising my children. I know it’s not nice to say both those things in one sentence, but they happen to be the two things that I do the best.” - Louie, "Night Out,” 2010

“I need to cum, I need to — cumming is a need, I came the first time when I was 12 and I haven’t skipped a day. I cum every day and I fucked maybe 20 times in my life so. It’s just been me doing most of the work and I really — you know, I jerk off way too much and it upsets me and I don’t know why. Maybe cause it’s so selfish, I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s bad, I know I’m hurting somebody somewhere.

"There’s something wrong with – I was thinking the other day, that you can figure out how bad — how bad a person you are by how soon after September 11th you masturbated, like, how long you waited? And for me it was between the two buildings going down.” —Chewed Up, 2008“Some things I’m sick of, like the constant, perverted, sexual thoughts. I’m so tired of those … It makes me into an idiot. Jacking off to morons, and ooh, look at my tits. Yeah, your tits are awesome. It’s a dumb part of life that I’m sick of.” —Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theatre, 2011

In 2015 there was also an article published by Death and Taxes which compiled a 27-minute supercut of the times CK referenced masturbation.

​Reports around CK's alleged behaviour emerged as far back as 2012, when Gawker ran an article titled Which Beloved Comedian Likes to Force Female Comedians to Watch Him Jerk Off? The article, which did not mention anyone by name, described as "shameless funnyman" - widely interpreted to refer to CK's comedy special Shameless,, and mentioned a specific alleged incident where the comedian exposed himself to a female comedy duo in his hotel room and blocked the door when they tried to escape.

In 2016, in an interview with the Daily Beast, Roseanne Barr predicted that another male comic - after Bill Cosby - would get "busted".

"It's Louis CK, locking the door and masturbating in front of women comics and writers," she claimed. "I can't tell you, I've heard so many stories. Not just him, but a lot of them. And it's just par for the course. It's just s**t women have to put up with."

Barr later clarified to the publication that she had no "first hand knowledge" of the allegations and was repeating on the rumours she had heard.

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