Louis C.K. Faces Backlash After Appearing to Mock Parkland Shooting Survivors

Louis C.K. is at the center of another controversy after audio footage of a stand-up bit of his shows him mocking survivors of the Parkland school shooting and their effort for gun reform.

In the leaked audio, an audience laughs while he jokes about “boring” survivors of the Feb. 14 shooting testifying in front of Congress.

“Testify in front of Congress, these kids, what the f—? What are you doing?” he said. “‘Cause you went to a high school where kids got shot, why does that mean I have to listen to you? Why does that make you interesting? You didn’t get shot. You pushed some fat kind in the way and now I gotta listen to you talking?”

A YouTube video that reportedly showed C.K. at a stand-up set at Governor’s Comedy Club in Levittown, New York earlier this month has since been deleted, Variety reports.

On Feb. 14, 17 teenagers and adults were killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The 51-year-old comedian also appears to make fun of LGBTQ teenagers, as well as the general “boring” nature he says young people have compared to when he was young.

“They’re like royalty. They tell you what to call them. ‘You should address me as ‘They Them’ because I identify as gender neutral,’” he said in a sarcastic tone. “Oh, OK. OK. ‘You should address me as ‘There’ because I identify as a location. And the location is your mother’s c—.’”

After a clip of the leaked audio was posted on Twitter, many Twitter users took offense to it.

“The challenge of great comedy is to make people laugh who are different than yourself. This fails to do that. It’s just mean,” one person wrote.

“A comedians [sic] job is to be funny. To turn a school shooting into comedy is nearly impossible. He failed miserably & ended up mocking kids who survived a mass murder proving he’s really bad at his job. It’ just not funny,” another person wrote.

But others defended the comedian.

“Hand us a list of what we can joke about and what is off limits. Any ‘comedian’ who agrees to your list is probably really, really bad at their job,” one Twitter user said.

The Dec. 16 show is part of C.K.’s return to the stand-up circuit following his sexual misconduct scandal. He opened a set in October by saying, “It’s been a weird year.”

Five women detailed their alleged experiences with C.K. in a November 2017 New York Times article, which included allegations that he masturbated in front of them. Comedians Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov said that in C.K.’s hotel room after a show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 2002, he “proceeded to take all of his clothes off, and get completely naked, and start masturbating.”

Comedian Rebecca Corry said that C.K. “asked if we could go to my dressing room so he could masturbate in front of me” while filming a TV pilot in 2005; writer Abby Schachner said she heard him masturbating through the phone during a 2003 call. A fifth, anonymous woman said that C.K. masturbated while she sat with him on his office at The Chris Rock Show in the late 1990s.

In a lengthy statement, C.K. admitted that “these stories are true.”

Last week, C.K. and Ricky Gervais faced backlash after an old video of them surfaced using the N word alongside Chris Rock. The clip, from a 2011 HBO special called Talking Funny, showed C.K., Gervais, Rock and Jerry Seinfeld discussing the craft of writing and performing comedy, where Rock joked that C.K. was “the blackest white guy” he had ever met.

“And all the negative things we think about black people, this f—er,” he said, slapping C.K.’s knee.

“You’re saying I’m a n—?” C.K. said.

“Yes!” Rock said, as all four comics laughed. “The n—est f—ing white man I have ever…”

C.K. continued to make liberal use of the N word throughout the bit, suggesting that the biggest distinction between himself and Rock versus Gervais and Seinfeld is that the latter pair did not use the N word onstage.

“You and me say n— in private, but these two guys don’t,” C.K. joked to Gervais.