Louie: "Joan"

Season 2, Episode 4

The problem with Joan Rivers

“It doesn’t get better. You get better.”

-Joan Rivers

I feel like the world is trying to get me to accept Joan Rivers, and I don’t want really to.

Let me explain. Regardless of whatever talent Rivers may or may not have as a comedienne, I grew up with the Joan of the Red Carpet, the woman best known at the time for making cracks about people’s clothing. I hated that woman, because she was mean and shallow and unfunny. (As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of insult humor.) My perception of Rivers has tempered a bit over the years, but only a bit, and it’s a hard wall for me to get over when it comes to her. (It doesn’t help that she still hosts shows were she disses on people’s fashion.)

Now “Joan” wasn’t really about Rivers – it was mostly about the difficulties of having a comedy career – but she still bugged me when she was around. (I’m sorry, but I find her voice to be grating.) I’m spilling all of this not to hate on Joan Rivers – such a move wouldn’t really help this review – but so you can be aware of why I don’t like this episode as much as everybody else might. To me she is a bit of a black hole in terms of my enjoyment in this episode, but I will try to soldier on best as possible. To put it simply, I found this episode much better in theory than in practice.

Apart from Joan, I liked the idea of Louie getting a shitty gig in Atlantic City and failing to make it work, and then running into another comic that he respects and then they discuss their craft. At these moments, even Rivers shone a bit for me, and I even found her likeable at times, especially when she was dissing Dane Cook or talking about bouncing between the highs and lows of the business. I also enjoyed that their talk wasn’t all seriousness, as we had good laughs both at Louie guessing the wrong number of blowjobs Rivers had to dole out (its 0, not 40) and then later when he jumped her and she eventually ceded to having sex with him.

That all of this was preceded with some random scenes (probably put in to fill time) that quickly and humorously clued us into Louie’s misanthropy and why he acts the way he does around other people, tonight served as a great illustration of the life of a comic, both the difficulty of doing the job for years on end and also why these people do what they do. And it’s a good thing that this episode had this, because it’s when the show turns to internal reflection, and not stunt casting, that it really shines.

Quotes, Etc:

In case you didn’t hear, Louie got two Emmy nods this morning, one for writing, the other for acting. Looks like some ATAS voters are finally starting to understand what quality television is.

“I’m always within a 48 hour window of diarrhea.”

“Why are you hearing extra letters?”

“Please sir, don’t gamble anymore.”

“Now you’re united as a people in your hatred against me. That’s nice.”

“It’s not for me, it’s for you. Nobody likes necrophilliacs.”