"Now, after years of unsubstantiated rumors about Louis C.K. masturbating in front of associates, women are coming forward..."

"... to describe what they experienced. Even amid the current burst of sexual misconduct accusations against powerful men, the stories about Louis C.K. stand out because he has so few equals in comedy. In the years since the incidents the women describe, he has sold out Madison Square Garden eight times, created an Emmy-winning TV series, and accumulated the clout of a tastemaker and auteur, with the help of a manager who represents some of the biggest names in comedy. And Louis C.K. built a reputation as the unlikely conscience of the comedy scene, by making audiences laugh about hypocrisy — especially male hypocrisy."

The NYT reports.

The main story that begins the article has 2 women accepting an invitation to hang out in his hotel room and then being "asked if he could take out his penis." He asked, and they just laughed, as they tell the story. He got completely naked and masturbated.

The stories told by the women raise sharp questions about the anecdotes that Louis C.K. tells in his own comedy. He rose to fame in part by appearing to be candid about his flaws and sexual hang-ups, discussing and miming masturbation extensively in his act — an exaggerated riff that some of the women feel may have served as a cover for real misconduct.

That's stand-up comedy, in essence. Standing in front of people naked (metaphorically) and masturbating (metaphorically). It's not surprising that this would be the man's sexual fetish. Why is he getting thrown in with the other men who are getting ruined these days? It sounds to me as though he asked for permission. What is the story here, that people have decided his sexuality is loathsome? Am I missing something? I would give this man his privacy. We're getting into Pee-Wee Herman territory now. Masturbation is not a big deal. These women were not forced to watch him masturbate:

During Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov’s surreal visit to Louis C.K.’s Aspen hotel room, they said they were holding onto each other, screaming and laughing in shock, as Louis C.K. masturbated in a chair. “We were paralyzed,” Ms. Goodman said. After he ejaculated on his stomach, they said, they fled. He called after them: “He was like, ‘Which one is Dana and which one is Julia?’” Ms. Goodman recalled.

If they were "screaming and laughing in shock," they were acting like the audience at a stand-up show. They should have just left. Before "he ejaculated on his stomach." Which I don't need to know. I'm sure it was aggravating that he didn't know Dana from Julia, but that's not a reason to destroy the man.

ADDED: "I mean, everybody's a pervert. I'm a pervert. We're perverts. Who cares?" That's the last line of the trailer for Louis C.K.'s new movie:



And the answer to that question is: Everybody cares now. It's everybody's business. And that movie you worked so hard on is, instantly, trash. The evocation of Woody Allen's "Manhattan" isn't art now. It's ick.