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Tig Notaro Says Louis C.K. Needs To Address Those Sexual Misconduct Allegations
By
Jen Carlson
Published Aug 23, 2017
Modified Aug 23, 2017
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Aug 23, 2017
Modified Aug 23, 2017
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In the upcoming second season of One Mississippi, which will return to Amazon in September, "a large part of the plot revolves around sexual assault," the Daily Beast notes in a new interview with the show's creator, Tig Notaro. "Specifically, we see a character forced to sit and watch as a man in power surreptitiously masturbates in front of her in the workplace."
This storyline echoes anonymous accusations that have been directed at Louis C.K.—who is credited as Executive Producer of the show—for years.
C.K. was named in a Gawker article in 2015, around the time a Jen Kirkman podcast disappeared in which she "heavily implied" that a comedian who matched C.K.'s description was a "known perv," adding that her career would be over if she ever directly named him. Since then, several stories have come out involving an unnamed comedian "jerking off in front of" women; one anonymous comedy duo even claimed, in a blind item, that an unnamed comedian "stood in front of the door, blocking their way with his body, until he was done."
Roseanne Barr has also claimed that C.K. has been known to lock doors and masturbate "in front of women comics and writers."
While it's not 100% clear this plot line is directly derived from these accusations, Notaro did bring them up in the interview, while also noting that C.K. "has nothing to do with the show" (which is under his Pig Newton banner).
Notaro went on to ask the interviewer, Matt Wilstein, if C.K. had ever addressed the allegations, saying, "I think it’s important to take care of that, to handle that, because it’s serious to be assaulted. It’s serious to be harassed. It’s serious, it’s serious, it’s serious.” She added that, "It’s an ongoing issue and in the writers’ room we were very open about the different levels of harassment or assault that we’ve witnessed or experienced... we really feel like we have the opportunity to do something with One Mississippi, because it does not stop. And, you know, I walk around doing shows at comedy clubs and you just hear from people left and right of what some big-shot comedian or person has done. People just excuse it."
At one point C.K. seemed to have a good working relationship with Notaro, and even gave her career a huge boost in 2012 when he promoted her work through his website and mailing list. However, earlier this year Notaro called out C.K. for allegedly plagiarizing her work in one of his Saturday Night Live skits, and in this interview she says there was “an incident” with C.K. in recent years and the two no longer speak.
Last year, C.K. was asked about the allegations that Gawker had published, telling Vulture writer David Marchese, "You can’t touch stuff like that," adding, "If you need your public profile to be all positive, you’re sick in the head. I do the work I do, and what happens next I can’t look after. So my thing is that I try to speak to the work whenever I can. Just to the work and not to my life."
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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