Louis CK and the Problem of Pedophilia

Louis CKIn the Saturday Night Live finale, Louis CK did an opening monologue that started a lot of tongues wagging. Of course, I didn’t see it at the time because, you know, it was on Saturday Night Live. So I watched it. The truly shocking thing about it is that the opening monologue is funny. Who thought such a thing even possible? Actual comedy on Saturday Night Live. I had seriously considered pitching a show to Animal Planet, “Finding Humor on SNL.” But there was a big problem with it: there is so much more evidence for Bigfoot than there is for comedy on the venerable late night show. It doubtless helps when they book an actual comedian. But people weren’t talking about that. They were talking about the pedophiles.

Louis CK’s monologue was actually entirely typical of his work. He started by talking about about his “mild racism.” And then he goes on to joke about the racist urges that exist in all of us. They bubble up into consciousness the same same way sexual urges do. And if you are like Louis CK, you recognize them for the irrational impulses that they are, and bat them away. It’s like a guy who sees a really pretty woman — he doesn’t start humping her leg. Well, most of the time he doesn’t. Louis CK didn’t talk about that directly; his routine was about unwanted thoughts, and that’s how he got to pedophiles.

There is something deeply disturbing about the bit he does on the town child molester. He presents it more or less the way we once did the town drunk. Also, I have a problem with the child molester he presents. For one thing, he’s kind of incompetent, thus indicating not really a threat. But most of all: it is man who is attracted teenage boys. Yes: that is wrong, but it is understandable in a society that fetishizes youth. Much harder to understand are those who are attacked to pre-pubescent children.

But the line where Louis CK got into trouble was something I quite agree with, although with caveats as I will explain in a moment. He said:

Child molesters are very tenacious people. They love molesting childs — it’s crazy! It’s like their favorite thing. I mean, it’s so crazy, because when you consider the risk in being a child molester — speaking not of the damage you’re doing — there’s no worse life available to a human than being a caught child molester. And yet they still do it! Which you can only really surmise that it must be really good.

I’ve discussed this issue before, Free Will. It really comes down to this: I’m not morally superior to a pedophile because I don’t rape children. I’m not attracted to children so it simply isn’t a problem I face. I suspect that there actually are a lot more pedophiles than we are aware of who are simply able to make the calculation that sex with a child is not worth the price — to themselves or the child. So what we are left with are people’s whose urges are so great that they cannot contain them. These are tragic figures.

About a year ago, I started thinking seriously about a question that probably doesn’t occur to many people, “Why do people have sex?” I’ve done an informal poll, and everyone seems to agree that in a pure orgasm sense, masturbation is better than sex because you are completely in charge. So other than all the kissing and hugging that is very important, why sex? It speaks very much of my own distorted vision of the world that it took me the whole year to figure out that people find having sex more erotic than masturbation.

It must be the same thing with pedophiles. It must be that these pedophiles are just out of control. The thought or the actuality of the act is just too much for them. And like Manson’s family, they doubtless work their way up to it. I had an experience when I was eight or nine. I was at The Emporium — a department store very much like Macy’s. In those days, they had little record stores in them and I was alone in one of them. This older man came up to me with a record album, saying, “Look at this, kid.” The album was pressed up against his pants and his not quite erect penis was propped up on it. On seeing this, I immediately turned and walked away, saying, “That’s gross, man.”

I don’t know if he was a pedophile or not. I certainly didn’t see it that way at the time. It seemed instead more like a prank to disgust me. But I’ve long thought that the incident was part of a progression. Whether this guy went on to rape children, expose himself on street corners, or head the Santa Rosa Police Department, I cannot say. But I can say that of all the notable problems in my life, I feel very lucky to have never felt compelled toward anything outside one sigma of the sexual behavior mean. (In English, that means: I’m incredibly boring in terms of sexual interests.)

It is really great that Louis CK is talking about this kind of stuff — even if he does misrepresent and minimize it. As a society, we could do more for pedophiles — And the society at large! — than wait until they start preying on children.

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About Frank Moraes

Frank Moraes is a freelance writer and editor online and in print. He is educated as a scientist with a PhD in Atmospheric Physics. He has worked in climate science, remote sensing, throughout the computer industry, and as a college physics instructor. Find out more at About Frank Moraes.

4 thoughts on “Louis CK and the Problem of Pedophilia

    • I was overstating for effect. But I have a long standing problem with SNL in that I think it has been such a pox on comedy. It took the idea from Monty Python that punch lines are not necessary, but nothing else to make that acceptable. So it normally provides innocuous comedy that isn’t even well crafted. On the other hand, there are times it succeeds marvelously. I loved the ISIS commercial, for example. This routine is pretty funny. I thought “the halfway beeper” was especially funny. But it is typical of SNL in that it is a decent idea that they don’t do much with. And I agree: Key and Peele are amazingly good.

  1. Yeah people think he’s offensive and he is. He doesn’t sugar coat things. He says a lot of stuff that’s entirely true, people just don’t want to hear it. He also did a bit about how it’s the “best time” to be a pedophile because parents are putting kids entire lives online for everyone to see. From innocuous tooth brushing videos to whole child themed ASMR videos 🤮 People thought it was rude but he was entirely correct. I wish he didn’t do racist bits but that doesn’t discount the fact that he’s asking real questions with some of his jokes. I wish I stead of crapping on him people would start a discussion among themselves about these tough topics.

    • One of my great concerns about our society is the way we sexualize children. It’s made all the worse by all the people who claim to want to protect children when they are actually just using the issue to attack their political enemies. I have a real problem with making women look young as much as making girls look sexy. But I seem to be in the minority. And I think the reason is because there is a lot of money to made from this. And we would do anything to protect our society — as long as it doesn’t cut into corporate profits.

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