bill bodkin reviews Louis C.K.’s new dvd Hilarious …
“You know what hilarious means? Hilarious means so funny that you almost went insane when you heard that shit … it’s so funny that is almost ruined your life. You’re homeless now because you can’t cope or reason anymore. Because that hilarious thing just shattered your mind and three months later you got shit and leaves in your hair and you’re drenched in pee in the gutter. That’s how funny hilarious is.”
— Louis C.K.
While I didn’t end up with fecal matter or leaves stuck in my hair, I did find Louis C.K.’s film Hilarious to be just that. I’m sure if he read that sentence, he’d track me down and punch me in the face for lack of originality, and maybe I deserve it. But I will not tell a lie. C.K. delivers the of comedy that makes my chest feel like it’s going cave in, I’m laughing so hard. Tears roll from eyes, my sleeping wife gets annoyed by my incessant bombastic laugh at 2 in the morning, and when you really listen to the message C.K. delivers, you feel like you want to change your life up a bit.
C.K. is one of those comics that will give it to you straight — sometimes so brutally that you just have to laugh, whether it be in agreement with his sentiment or just out of sheer disbelief in what he’s just said. But any way you slice it, he’s honest. His rants on how we take technological advancements like cell phones and flying for granted are so dead-on and told in a manner that will have you going back and watching again because you’ve laughed over three other great bits he told while you were on the floor.
However, the biggest target for the majority of his rants is himself. Recently divorced, C.K. spews his own self-loathing about having to return to the dating and his lack of a physique. He goes off on the stupid thoughts he has like: a man who hooked up his cellphone to his dog or the thoughts that run through an old Chinese woman’s mind. He tells countless stories of his trials and tribulations of being a father, which ended up in one of his daughters getting bit by a pony and the other covered in her own poop.
And it’s these stories, these self-deprecations and pessimistic rants that make you love Louis C.K. He’s not a comic who comes on and spews 90 minutes of bile and hate. No, he’s you, he’s me. He’s dealing with the same problems everyone else does, and he’s not afraid to call himself out on things. He’s an “everyman” who just also happens to be one of the funniest men on the planet. You love what he has to say because you know he’s got nothing to hide, no pretensions and no reservations. And it’s his delivery — straightforward, honest and chock full of outrageous statements — that makes you laugh.
Hilarious is a must-see for people who love stand-up comedy. It’s a well-shot (C.K. directed the film), well-edited and hilarious movie that should be instantly placed in the canon of legendary stand-up comedy films.
