‘Louie’ Recap (Season 3, Episode 2): “Telling Jokes/Set Up”

Louis gets intimate with Melissa Leo in FX’s Louie.

The second episode of Louie returns to the show’s original formula: two unrelated short stories: one simple and amusing; the other bizarre, terrifying and hilarious.

The first half of this episode is the simple and sweet part: Louis listens to his daughters tell “knock knock” jokes, which get exponentially more ridiculous. After years in the comedy business, the usual structure of a joke does nothing for Louis anymore, but his daughters are able to work around this because they are so unpredictable. He even analyses one of his youngest daughters’ jokes about a gorilla and ballet at a gig. I always love seeing Louis with his daughters, who are sometimes annoying but always adorable. From reading and listening to interviews with him, I can tell that Louis C.K. is a great parent, and his love for his kids is clearly evident in the show.

The second half of the episode is where things start to get nuts. Louis is invited to dinner by a fellow comedian and he reluctantly agrees, not realizing that the dinner is just an opportunity for the comedian’s wife to set Louis up on a date. The date turns out to be Melissa Leo, who unknowingly follows Louis to the house after the two buy wine at a liquor store. Neither Louis nor Leo want to be in this kind of situation but decide to leave together, ending up at a bar. The two drink and have fun, and then Leo proposes a blowjob in the car. As we know from the past two seasons, Louis is always up for sex, no matter how strange or uncomfortable it is, and he agrees. The thing is… Leo wants Louis to reciprocate. “Your sperms are dying in my mouth right now,” she shouts after Louis refuses to eat her pussy. It is a weird and uncomfortable moment, but strangely amusing, because Louis always finds himself in these situations.

However, it’s not long before Louis is performing oral sex on Melissa Leo (a sentence I never expected to type). She bets him $1,000 he will be doing so in less than three minutes, calls him a faggot in order to manipulate him, shoves his head against the window, breaking it, and then jumps on him and threatens to break his finger. Louis gives in and, because this is Louie, the two agree to meet up again: a successful blind date. I can’t think of any other show that this series of events would make any sense, but this only makes me love Louis more. Only he could get Melissa Leo, Academy Award winner, to threaten someone for oral sex and have it seem completely normal.

Last week, I said the premiere of Louie’s third season felt easy and plain; this episode is the complete opposite. These kinds of episodes are what made Louie the show it has become. Amusing, terrifying, challenging (all the important ‘ings): this kind of episode is exactly why I love Louis C.K. and Louie.

Image credit: FX

Comments