Jon Stewart was ‘stunned’ to hear about Louis CK, despite hearing rumors a year ago
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In one of the stories I did about Louis CK last week, I mentioned the year-old video of Jon Stewart being asked directly about Louis and the rumors (at that time, it was just “rumors”) of his sexual harassment of young, female comedians. Jon Stewart was a complete douche about it. Here’s the video:
Just one dude standing up for the reputation of another dude? Or something more sinister? Personally, I’ve been feeling less and less generosity towards Jon Stewart over the past year or so. He lost me his political comments following the election, and there were long-standing criticisms that his tenure as host of The Daily Show was mostly about the glory of white dudes. White dudes behind the scenes, white dudes as guests, white dudes making jokes. Jon Stewart has blind spots, like most people, but the way he reacts to criticism left a bad taste in my mouth.
Anyway, Jon was on the Today Show this morning to promote The Night of Too Many Stars, which he’s hosting for HBO. Louis CK was supposed to appear on the charity show but HBO kicked him off last week. Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie asked Jon about Louis CK, his friend and colleague of 30 years.
WATCH: “Stunned.” Jon Stewart talks Louis C.K. scandal with @MLauer and @savannahguthrie pic.twitter.com/fXBGz7NkEK
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 14, 2017
“Have you talked to Louis C.K.?” -@MLauer
“No, I haven’t.” -Jon Stewart pic.twitter.com/BItu3TDLyc
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 14, 2017
Jon says he was “stunned” and he asked himself “Did I miss something? Could I have done more?” and “In this situation, I think we all could have. So you feel anger at what you did to people.” Except that he did hear about it a year ago, which he also brings up. So what is it – he was stunned at this new information, or he was stunned that he didn’t believe the rumors years ago? We also don’t know the extent of how many people were covering for Louis CK over the years, whether they knew the extent of Louis’s predation and actively looked the other way, or whether they simply didn’t believe women’s stories within comedy.
Jon says he had a feeling of “I know Louis, he’s always been a gentleman to me” and admits that “it speaks to the blindness that I think a man has… Digging around in it and finding that some people had done, it was hard, but we were all assured like, no, but we took somebody’s word for it, and maybe that’s an error on our part.” Maybe it’s an error? Louis CK was allowed to do this for so many years because men like Jon Stewart actively chose to ignore the rumors and the stories and cover up for him.
Jon also says, “Look, comedy on its best day is not a great environment for women… The idea that there was this added layer of pressure and manipulation and fear and humiliation… you get mad at yourself, too, for laughing it off or for thinking, ‘That didn’t happen.’ And it’s hard….It’s another one of those endemic, systemic and complex problems that we all haven’t had the urgency for, certainly myself included.” Passing this off as another “well, we ALL made mistakes” is not the right answer either. Can you tell I’m feeling especially churlish about this? Ugh.
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Photos courtesy of Getty.
Source: Jon Stewart was ‘stunned’ to hear about Louis CK, despite hearing rumors a year ago
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