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If there are two more different standup comedians with different observational views of life than Louis C.K. (see right) and Jerry Seinfeld, I don’t know who they would be.
This thought came to mind when watching the second season of their TV shows that premiere in the next few nights.
The first episode of the second season of “Louie” on FX premieres at 10:30 tonight on the basic cable channel.
It is a semi-autobiographical series. Louis C.K. plays a divorced standup comedian who has joint custody of his two young daughters.
He is a loving father who cooks for his kids and tries to give them his skewed view of the unfairness of life.
The mood of the New York-based series is established in the first scene when Louie is helping his young daughter brush her teeth. She proceeds to tell him that she likes living at mom’s better because mom is a better cook.
Louie appears to take this innocent but hurtful comment well. But as his daughter turns away and leaves him, he expresses his true hurt feelings and gives her half of the victory sign.
I roared. The scene illustrates Louie’s tendency to say or do what he thinks no matter who it is directed at. I mean if you can do that to your innocent daughter, you can do just about anything to anybody for a laugh.
The scene also illustrates how crude and even hurtful Louie can be. This is not a series for conservatives. Since it is on FX, Louie can deliver mild expletives. Not that he refrains from using them when he is on network TV, either. His expletives had to be deleted a couple of times during his Wednesday night appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
Louie’s kids provide him with standup material and he needs it because he does some standup in every show. In one clever piece tonight, he notes that his 5-year-old’s inability to do anything usually means she controls whatever he and his 9-year-old daughter can do. It’s a funny bit , primarily because there is truthfulness behind it.
He also speaks to the feelings of some parents when he says how much he loves his kids, before adding the dark line ”there were times when I wish they weren’t alive.”
That may be a bit too much dark truth for Seinfeld fans.
The truth is “Louie” can be very funny in a dark way and occasionally throws in some poignancy about the importance of knowing your neighbors and relatives for balance.
Jerry is back with the second season of NBC’s “The Marriage Ref” at 10 p.m. Sunday. He joins Ricky Gervais and Julianne Moore on a panel whose members listen to married couples’ complaints about silly issues like how long the mother-in-law should visit; how much time a husband spends growing giant pumpkins; and whether a wife should have to put up with a guy who is willing to wear a women’s sports bra and mow the lawn dressed like Elvis to win a bet.
It is all good clean, light fun, a 180 degree difference from “Louie.”
As expected, Gervais provides most of the good lines. The highlight came after Seinfeld sings a pumpkin tune that he has perfected by performing it annually for his kids for Halloween.
Gervais feigns being appalled, noting that this is the same guy who wrote one of the classic comedies of our time, “Seinfeld.”
I’m with Ricky.
When you’ve become as big a star as Seinfeld, you have the pull to get NBC to carry “The Marriage Ref.” But it is a little sad to see Seinfeld produce a very safe show in which the celebrities seem to be laughing a lot more than the audience.
Now if Seinfeld were to get Louis C.K. to be a guest panelist on “The Marriage Ref,” I might watch again.
* Before “Louie,” FX premieres a new 10 p.m. off-beat comedy, “Wilfred.” It stars Elijah Wood (“Lord of the Rings”) as Ryan, a suicidal former lawyer who gets his advice from a pretty neighbor’s dog, Wilfred, who is a Matt Damon fan.
Well, at least he looks like a dog to everyone but Ryan, who wonders if he is hallucinating because he sees a guy (played by creator Jason Gann) with an Australian accent wearing a dog suit.
Adapted from an Australian series by David Zuckerman of “Family Guy” and “American Dad,” viewers shouldn’t be surprised to know that it is from the crude school of comedy. In one of the cruder moments, Wilfred attempts to hump a waitress.
Wilfred’s message to Ryan is that you only go around once in life and it isn’t wise to do everything you are told to do out of fear of failure. You certainly can’t accuse FX of playing it safe or fearing failure.
But unfortunately, the goal of a comedy is to make one laugh more than think. I only watched the pilot, titled “Happiness.” On that score, I fear the off-beat “Wilfred” frequently fails.
Alan Pergament was the television critic for The Buffalo News for 28 years. He currently is an adjunct professor at Buffalo State College and Medaille College, teaching courses in communications. He also writes a monthly column on the media for Buffalo Spree magazine.
Um, Louie is not autobiographical. He does pull from his own experiences (divorced dad with kids, being a comic), but that’s about it.