Louis CK is Hysterical, And He Vindicates the Middle Class White American Male

Culture

Louie, the FX network "comedy-drama" television series which began airing in 2010 as written, directed, edited and produced by Emmy Awards winner stand-up comedian Louis C.K. arrives to its season 3 finale tonight, while already creating anticipation for the show's fourth season.

The show stars Louis C.K. as a fictionalized version of himself: a comedian and newly divorced father raising his children in New York City. Part of the show's appeal has been its loose format, which is atypical for scripted contemporary television comedy series. Louie consists of largely random storylines and segments that revolve around the main character's life, alternated by the live stand-up performances that have made Louis C.K. a legend in the world of comedy: a funny guy in a league of his own.

C.K.'s low key yet caustic style is the humorous vindication of the middle class white American male who struggles with financial challenges, relationships, fatherhood, the threat of obesity and the urgent sense of keeping his identity in an ever changing America where demographic tectonic plaques are shifting fast -- and the once dominant patriarch finds himself relentlessly attacked by the increasingly empowered social groups that are becoming the new majority. "I love the phrase 'white trash,'" a chubby Louis C.K. wearing jeans and a black t-shirt says ironically on stage. "Nobody seems to get angry when people bashes 'white trash,'" he adds. 

Louis' stand up act addresses sexuality, race, feminism and other social topics from the perspective of the adult white male who's self conscious about stepping in cultural insensitivity (not that comedy has to be politically correct anyway), while dealing with a Homer Simpson alter ego who gets up from his couch, sets the remote control and the chips aside and wonders why he feels so lost in Obama's America.