Louis C.K. and Philosophy: You Don't Get to Be Bored

Mark Ralkowski

Open Court, Apr 6, 2016 - Philosophy - 288 pages

Charlie Rose has called Louis C.K. “the philosopher-king of comedy,” and many have detected philosophical profundity in Louis’s comedy, some of which has been watched tens of millions of times on YouTube and elsewhere. Louis C.K. and Philosophy is designed to help Louis’s fans connect the dots between his pronouncements and living philosophical themes.
Twenty-five philosophers examine the wisdom of Louis C.K. from a variety of philosophical perspectives. The chapters draw upon C.K.’s standup comedy, the show Louie, and C.K.’s other writings. There is no attempt to fit Louis into one philosophical school; instead the authors bring out the diverse aspects of the thought of Louis C.K.
One writer looks at the different meanings of C.K.’s statement, “You’re gonna be dead way longer than you were alive.” Another explores how Louis knows when he’s awake and when he’s dreaming, taking a few tips from Descartes. One chapter shows the affinity of C.K.’s “sick of living this bullshit life” with Kierkegaard’s “sickness unto death.” Another pursues Louis’s thought that we may by our lack of moral concern “live a really evil life without thinking about it." C.K.'s religion is "apathetic agnostic," conveyed in his thought experiment that God began work in 1982.

Contents

• 1 Everythings Amazing and Nobodys Happy: 3
• 2 Sex Has Something Behind It: 11
• 3 When to Hate and When to Be Irate: 23
• II Misery Is Wasted on the Miserable: 37
• 4 On Being a Dead Person Who Hasnt Died Yet: 39
• 5 Just Want a Shitty Body: 59
• 6 Youre Gonna Die: 69
• III Raising the GrownUp Theyre Going to Be: 79
• 7 Because Nothing Cant Be: 81
• 8 Should Jane Get to Be Bored?: 93
• 9 What Fuckin Chance Does a Kid Have?: 107
• IV That Knowledge that Its All for Nothing and Youre Alone: 119
• 10 On Crying Like a Bitch: 121
• 11 Louis CKs NoBullshit Philosophy: 131
• 12 Confronting the Forever Empty: 143
• V Did You Look in the Downstairs Bathroom?: 155
• 13 Why? Why? Why?: 157
• 14 Louis CKs God: 167
• 15 God Started in 1983: 177
• VI Having a Lot of Beliefs and LIving by None of Them: 187
• 16 Youre Not Starving: 189
• 17 Louiss Little Believies: 199
• 18 Believies Are Not Motivaties: 211
• VII Take Some Responsibility for the Shitty Words You Want to Say: 223
• 19 The Playful Thought Experiments of Louis CK: 225
• 20 Feminists Can Take a Joke: 237
• 21 If Youre Not White Youre Missing Out: 247
• VIII Of Course but Maybe: 255
• 22 Sometimes Cartesian: 257
• 23 Louis CK Meets the Unconscious: 267
• 24 An Hour: 277
• References: 287
• Some Dead People Who Havent Died Yet: 291
• Index: 297

About the author

Mark Ralkowski: Mark Ralkowski is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Honors at The George Washington University. He is author of Plato's Trial of Athens (2016) Heidegger's Platonism (2009) and editor of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Philosophy (2012) and Time and Death: Heidegger's Analysis of Finitude (2005).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Louis C.K. and Philosophy: You Don't Get to Be Bored; Volume 99 of Popular Culture and Philosophy
• Editor: Mark Ralkowski
• Publisher: Open Court, 2016
• ISBN: 0812699173, 9780812699173
• Length: 288 pages
• Subjects: Humor / Form / Essays; Humor / Topic / Marriage & Family; Performing Arts / Television / General; Philosophy / Essays