The Bad Things People Said about Bad Men This Week
Tig Notaro Was Right
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Last week Tig Notaro made an auspicious prediction. Asked what she makes of talk about how or if disgraced men like Louis C.K. might come out of exile, she told the New York Times, “You know what? If any of these people come back, I would say, ‘I can’t wait to see who is actually going to support them.’ That is going to be the glaring horror. Who is going to be, like, ‘This is a pressing issue, and we need to get them back?’” This week we received a small taste of that horror, or rather several small tastes. They did not bode well.
First: On Monday, Vulture published a lengthy interview with Bill Burr. Among other bizarre comments, Burr predicted that Louis C.K., who he said was “punished pretty extremely,” will come back sooner or later, because now that he has been punished he should be “allowed to move on.” Burr did not clarify how exactly C.K. has been punished for masturbating in front of a number of female comics, though presumably he is referring to the aborted release of I Love You, Daddy and the severing of various network relationships: “They took everything he had,” Burr said. “Do people want him to become homeless?”
Second: Also on Monday, Paste published my colleague Brock Wilbur’s interview with David Cross, who reiterated his support for alleged sexual harasser Jeffrey Tambor. “I support him but I do not condone the behavior,” Cross said. “I don’t think he’s a monster. I know the guy and love him.” Cross went on to bemoan what he described as “one of the problems” he has with the Me Too movement, which boils down to his perception, like Burr’s, of punishments not fitting crimes: “I’m not talking about egregious situations about raping someone, I’m talking about something like the Aziz thing,” he said. “I felt so bad for Aziz. What he did was boorish behavior. And he was getting mixed signals. But publicly he felt the need to hide. That’s shitty. He didn’t do anything to merit that response.” Cross would come under the spotlight for similar comments later in the week.
Third: On Tuesday, GQ published an interview with Sarah Silverman, who also spoke in support of her friend Louis C.K. “I think that there are people who were caught and there were people who were not caught, but the important thing is that they are forever changed,” she said. “And if that’s the case, I don’t see any reason why they can’t continue being artists.” She drew a distinction between men like C.K., who admit their abuses, and men who don’t, complaining that the latter group gets to “continue to be the politicians or the filmmakers that they are” while the former are “excommunicated.” Then she said she doesn’t believe that Al Franken, alleged to have groped several women and forcibly kissed one, ever touched anyone inappropriately. (In his resignation speech, Franken said the allegations either aren’t true or that he remembers them differently.) She is still friends with Ansari, she also said, the allegations against whom she does not appear to take very seriously: “I was just like, Gross, I don’t wanna know that about Aziz! Hopefully he’s dealing with things, looking inward, and will blossom from it.”