In Episode 6 of Louis C.K.’s first season of “Better Things,” the protagonist Sam, a divorced actress, is driving her teenage co-star Jesse home when, out of the blue, Jesse insists on pulling out his penis.
“I gotta take it out,” he tells her. Startled, Sam (played by Pamela Adlon), throws him out of her car before driving off.
C.K., who co-wrote the 2016 episode, is now finding himself in an eerily similar real-life situation, only this time, it’s he who is being dumped on the side of the road as his decades-long career appears to drive into the sunset.
On Thursday, The New York Times published a damning report on the standup comedian and filmmaker, in which several female colleagues accused him of exposing himself and masturbating in front them.
His publicist, Lewis Kay, told TheWrap that C.K. will issue a written statement in the coming days.
Like Harvey Weinstein, C.K. has been plagued by rumors of sexual misconduct for years. It didn’t help matters that the topic of masturbation seemed to have a recurring role in his comedy routines.
He once defended masturbation in a fictional debate with a Christian anti-masturbation advocate during an episode of his FX comedy “Louie.”
A Fox News anchor can be seen introducing C.K. (who plays himself) as “an aficionado of masturbation, a man who is well known for being a prolific masturbator, who even brags about it.”
To which C.K. sheepishly answers: “I like it. It’s easy and it’s fun and nobody gets hurt.”
The Times report included accounts of five women who claim C.K. masturbated in front of them, in a manner that bears a striking resemblance to Jesse from “Better Things.”
Two women said C.K. spontaneously began masturbating in front of them.
“He proceeded to take all of his clothes off, and get completely naked, and started masturbating,” they told the Times.
Another woman said that C.K. began pleasuring himself while they were talking on the phone. A fourth told the Times that C.K. invited her to his trailer so that she could watch him masturbate (she declined).
A fifth claimed that in the late ’90s, while working in production at “The Chris Rock Show,” C.K., who was then a writer and producer on the program, repeatedly asked her to watch him masturbate. (She went along with his request, but later questioned his behavior).
The Times article sparked immediate comparisons between the accusations and C.K.’s own comedy routines. A successful stand-up comedian, TV writer, producer and filmmaker, C.K. made a name for himself as a straight-shooting funnyman who often talked unapologetically about his sexual inadequacies, with masturbation featured heavily in his material.
In his upcoming movie “I Love You, Daddy,” scheduled to be released next week, one of the characters pretends to masturbate in front of other people. (The movie’s premiere was canceled ahead of the Times report and the film’s distributors are now rethinking its release altogether).
In another comedy routine, C.K. lamented that, as a married man, he can’t find a private area to masturbate anymore.
“Now I know, when I see a guy on the West Side Highway jerking off in plain daylight, that’s not a homeless guy, that’s a married man right there.”
“It’s not fair, man” he goes on to say. “I’m 37 and I own my home.” At this point C.K. pretends to masturbate on stage. “I should just be able to stand in the living room, ‘How are you doing honey, good morning.”
In “Louie” Season 3, C.K. meets Jeneane (played by Chloë Sevigny), a woman who masturbated publicly in a coffee shop.
In another “Louie” scene, C.K. and his poker pals, discuss masturbation techniques.
After the game, C.K.’s character goes straight to a sex shop to buy a vibrator, where he ends up throwing his back out as he points at dildos.
Even his credits have featured masturbation:
Watch the “Better Things” scene between Pam and Jesse above.