Louie - "So Did the Fat Lady/Elevator"

Out of all of the extraordinary things that Louie does, what I may love best about it is how it uses its flexible formula and small but dedicated viewing audience to cover topics and viewpoints that simply can't exist in any other forum. Louis CK himself has always done this with his comedy act, unveiling parts of the human consciousness that simply have to be left shaded in any other light other than the light of gritty stand-up comedy. But on Louie, this gets taken to a new level. Never before has that been more apparent than in the first of the pair of episodes that aired last night, "So Did the Fat Lady". The episode allows the voice of a subset of people that is not only rarely given a voice in media, but rarely has anyone care that they don't have a voice - overweight women.

The idea that fat people are "discriminated" against is an idea that completely pisses a lot of people off. It's true that the plight of the fat woman is not on par with the plight of other subjugated minorities. But it's also true that the idea of a "healthy body weight" is so ingrained into our society that people who fall out of that ideal - particularly women who fall out of that ideal - are simply treated like shit. All of the time. Think about it. Think of all of the times you've heard someone negatively comment on someones' weight. Think of all of the times you've heard someone make a really shitty fat joke and no one even batted an eye. In many ways, overweight people are the last people we're allowed to discriminate against without being called racist or homophobic or what have you. For whatever reason, it's okay to treat them like lesser beings. Of course Louie wouldn't find someone like Vanessa sexually attractive! Why would he? Sure, she's a nice, funny, seemingly smart and charming woman that seems to mesh quite well with him, but she's...fat. It's harsh. But it's an unfortunate reality, and Louie is a show that is always sure to make you realize just how unfortunate our reality can be. And that's what's so amazing about "So Did the Fat Lady". It takes all of the preconceptions we have about body weight and its (mis)conceptions and just tells them to FUCKING STOP. It gives Vanessa a platform to just stop and say everything she's feeling but isn't allowed to say. It takes all of the shameful thoughts that both parties in the situation are thinking and lays them right out there. Actually, it doesn't lay them right out there, it smashes your face into them. This show has a way of just making you sit with the most uncomfortable human emotions a television show could possibly make you experience and then turning that into some kind of strange, empowering knowledge about the human experience. There is so, so little like it. And when it takes a little appreciated stance like this and uses that talent to just tell everyone to get the fuck over themselves and stop baselessly judging people based on superficial observations - all while including himself in the group of people he's trying to knock sense into - it's powerful in a way hardly any TV show, or any art in general, can manage to be.

Um...oh, and then there was "Elevator". This was a really interesting and engaging episodes of Louie, as well, but it showcases the problem of FX's double-pumping method. It just couldn't compare to what came before it, even if it was still some really solid Louie.

But yeah, "So Did the Fat Lady", guys. Damn it.