Rockin' and NOT Rockin'

I finally got through episodes 2 of Lucky Louie and Dane Cook's Tourgasm currently running on HBO. Lucky Louie continues to disappoint, lying there on the screen like...



...well, yeah, spoiled squid. (Sorry, P.Z.) Seth Freilich, television critic over at Pajiba, agrees that the show is so flat you can't even accuse it of stumbling. He chalks it up to a failure to translate the stand-up humor of star Louis C.K. Full disclosure, I've never heard the guy's standup, but I did see him in an interview with Jon Stewart, and his schtick was funny in that context.

There's a lot of cussin' on the show, a lot of profane language and behavior...



Episode 2 featured three "humorous" sex scenes with the show's co-stars: Pamela Adlon and Louis C.K. - made "cutting edge" by the knowledge that they were bouncing up and down on the bed in front of a much touted live studio audience. Episode 2 was basically the old - women and their difficult orgasms routine - which wasn't even that funny back in the 70s...

I agree with Seth that the cussin' is distracting. The swearing is included to make the characters more "realistic." But real people don't talk like that. Oh, for sure plenty of folks swear like sailors on the job, in school, or hanging with friends. But husbands and wives don't talk to each other like they do on Lucky Louie. So it is indeed, distracting and off-putting.

There is some talent here - there was a great line in episode 1 when Kim was all a dither about getting pregnant and Louie was terrified that they couldn't afford it.

Louie: "We're fifty bucks overdrawn at the bank. We have to EARN fifty dollars just to be broke!"

That's not bad. The potential is there...I guess.




Louis C.K. deflates while Dane Cook pumps up. I felt the first ep of Dane Cook's Tourgasm was fairly lame. But the second ep came back with a vengeance. The material - both on the bus and on stage - was much stronger. They didn't cut things up as much giving you longer stage sequences. The focus was on Gary Gulman and this guy is funny. I'd love to hear a comedy album from him. Last night was episode 3 of both of these shows as well as Dead Wood and Entourage. Really looking forward to rolling through that tape. (No, I don't have a Tivo yet...)