This summer, HBO premiered a new comedy called Lucky Louie starring Louie CK. The show is very funny, but more importantly it’s groundbreaking. It blends the classic form of the American sitcom with the cutting edge material that Louie’s fans have come to love. Basically it’s like All in the Family if Archie cussed and talked about banging Edith. Recently, Louie CK was a guest on The View. If you haven’t seen it find it somewhere on the web, because it is the best example of what is wrong with television. The show begins with Barbara Walters announcing that Louie will be a guest and how she has a “biiiiiig problem” with his show. She mentions how show found it vulgar and racist and wants to know the feelings of the other women. She can ask this because they all watched a videotape of Lucky Louie over the weekend to prepare for their guest. What happens after that is a testament to the supreme idiocy of The View and the four idiots who are on it.
First, Henry Winkler comes out. What he is promoting, I have no idea, because they immediately ask him what he thinks of Louie’s show and offensive TV in general. Like the real-life Fonzie he is, he makes the point that in some countries theater and movies and TV are the only places where people can say and do risqué things without getting thrown in jail and sometimes even that isn’t safe. This shuts them up for a minute or two.
When Louie comes out, he defends his show with the truth, which is that all the stuff that happens on the show is based on his real life. Walters is unswayed by this and continues to run her trap about how she was so offended even though she never once details what was racist about the show. The rest of the interview has to be seen to be believed.
What I love about this is how it shows how severely out of touch and self consumed these four women are. Barbara Walters couldn’t convey a sincere emotion if she were on fire. Star Jones has gone from a strong black woman to a Hollywood lapdog that can’t stop obsessing about her own body and somehow she is less unattractive after her plastic surgery. She’s like a female Michael Jackson. Joy Behar has become even more removed from society and less funny than she ever was. The most amazing one is Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who took no time at all to go from “reality star” to “mindless yap machine,” being the nicest of the bunch because she’s just so happy to be famous.
How is it that Walters is mad about watching a show that she would have never seen if Louie hadn’t been her guest? Is she really that stupid or just supremely unaware of the world she lives in?
The one saving grace is that the other three women clearly understand that they made the choice to watch Lucky Louie since it’s part of their job and, therefore, hold no ill will towards Louie himself. It is too bad that Meredith Viera was the only person on this show who had a passing familiarity with the real world since she has kids of her own. I’m sure her replacement, Rosie O’Donnell will fit right in with the yenta, the bubblehead and the chick suffering from body dysmorphic disorder and the inability to notice her husband’s a gay.
