C.K.

Louis C.K. is a genius.

Every now and then I watch an episode of his show, Louie, on FX. I highly recommend it if you can tolerate lots of profanity and quite explicit references to sexual acts. What really sets this comedian apart, at least in my mind, is his ability to be ridiculous and absurd yet still speak about everyday truths of being a human being. And I mean...DEEP truths. They're just often disguised in the show as sex jokes or thoughts on masturbation - also a part of the human experience whether you like it or not (or whether you like seeing and hearing about it on a television screen).

ANYWAY, I finally got around to watching the season 2 finale tonight. SPOILER ALERT

Quick background. In the show, Louie plays himself, a single, middle-aged father who has a career in New York as a comedian. There are lots of father and dating themes in the show.

Back in season one, Louis meets a single mother, Pamela, at parents' night at their kids' school. They develop a friendship. They hang out while their kids have play dates and that sort of thing, but they're just friends. At some point in season two, Louie expresses that he has feelings for her. These feelings are not reciprocated -- anyone every been in that situation?

Anyway, so in the season finale, Louie takes Pamela to the airport so she can catch a flight to Paris. At the airport, she explains the nature of the trip. Her son had gone to visit her deadbeat ex-husband who has never expressed interest in having a relationship with his son. Now all of a sudden, the two of them have bonded and the son wants to be with his dad in Paris. So, Pamela is going to try and salvage the relationship also. She is NOT coming back. Louis is understandably upset.

He reminds her how her ex-husband is a "shitty person." This is just a "whim." She stands there and tells Louis to move on and get over her. She knows he has feelings for her, but she doesn't have them back. "You're a nice, guy Louis" but this will never work. Blah bla bla. You can't help but feel terrible for Louie as he stands there and says, "I will wait for you" even though she has NO intention of coming back. He starts to tear up, and that's the final straw for Pamela. She turns and gets in line for security. Then, there's the most awkward, hilarious, and heart-wrenching scene in television history as Louie watches her slowly make her way through the security queue. They can see each other every time the line faces his way. He just stands there and watches with tears in his eyes like a sad dog. Then he watches her climb an escalator...painfully slowly, I might add. At the top, she finally turns and waves. He just stands there.

She calls out, "Wave to me, Louie! Wave to me"

"What!"

"Wave to me!"

"WHAT! I...WHAT!?"

"WAVE TO ME!"

"Wait for you?"

"Yeah. Wave to me."

(this goes on for a while...)

Waving now, "I'LL WAIT FOR YOU, PAMELA! I'LL WAIT FOR YOU!"

They wave goodbye, not understanding the other. We then see Louie walking out of the airport with the faintest smile on his face. Poor guy.

Very little is clear in life, you know? There's always the baggage we carry. Feelings we feel for someone who doesn't feel them back. Information we lack or information we have but don't know what to do with. Communication that gets jumbled by distance and differences and misunderstandings. Life can be an absurd mess of random shit that we do our best to make sense of. Sometimes, we do a pretty good job. Other times, we fail abysmally.

Louis C.K. is really good at showing us the latter, a side of things we can often relate to (60% of the time, every time), and letting us laugh at it. It's ridiculous. BUT, we keep learning and improving. Life goes on...until it doesn't. All we can do is do our best in the meantime.


Incidentally, Season 3 of Louie premiers tomorrow night, June 28th, at 10:30 PM. Check out the official website HERE.