Hannah Gadsby Says Louis C.K. "Honestly Thinks He's the Victim in All of This"

Following a sexual misconduct scandalLouis C.K. has spent the last year or so trying to make a standup comedy comeback, and despite his best legal efforts, audiences are mostly unhappy with his edgelord jokes. His peers aren't having it either, with a series of comedians speaking out against C.K.'s actions and subsequent return to the stage. His latest critic is comedian Hannah Gadsby.

The performer, whose Nanette special made her a global star, told the Los Angeles Times that C.K. has become a complete self-parody at this point.

"He is a joke now," she said. "And I think it's important to keep making that joke. He has not reassessed his position of power, and that is why he was able to abuse it. It's difficult to see a shift in your own power and privilege. It's not something we're trained to do. He still honestly thinks he's the victim in all of this."

Referring to C.K.'s actions where he admitted to masturbating in front of female comics without their consent, Gadsby said, "Why are we trusting a man who has a compulsion like that where it diminishes the humanity of people around him? Why do we care what he thinks about the human condition? He needs to worry about his own condition a bit. Just sit quietly."

Still, she doesn't think C.K. should be banned from performing outright.

"Censorship is useless because it leaves a gap where we learned a lesson," she said. "Let's say Picasso. I'm not a fan. But I am a fan. I'm not a fan of the gap that was left in his story, that he was a toxic, hostile individual and that his behaviour was enabled by the community around him. But if you were to wipe him from our collective memory, we not only lose what he did well, we lose what he did badly. And we can learn from both."

Hannah Gadsby's next special is called Douglas and will arrive on Netflix later this year.