Louis C.K. Celebrates Capitalism

…and tells America to stop whining. The fun begins at about the two minute mark.

Comments

[Warren]

Oh man tell me about it. Any of you old enough to remember when we had to watch the commercials the big corporations beamed into our skulls, because there was no fast forward, and changing the channel meant getting off your ass, walking across the living room, and actually touching the TV. And what would you change it to anyway? There was only five channels and one of them was UHF. The picture was pretty good, very light ghosts and minimum of snow, as long as no one stood in front of the refrigerator.

[Mo]

He completely forgets the big issue: damn kids on his lawn.

[kilroy]

Oh yeah. And the huge roof mounted antenna that looked like a wire-frame death ray. If you actually wanted to see the picture you'd need to rotate the whole thing using this dial operated control that weight 20lbs.

And don't forget the repairman that would come out to change the blown vacuum tubes.

Ahh, nostalgia.

[Abe Lincoln]

Boo-freaking-hoo. At least you didn't have to go to the theater to see entertainment.

[Soda]

kilroy, I believe Louis C.K. is being the opposite of nostalgic. He's saying things are better now, not in the past. Unless I'm missing something.

[kilroy]

Soda, yeah, I got that. Just playing the Any of you old enough to remember when... game. I'm old...

[Soda]

Well, in my day, kilroy, we played the Any of you old enough to remember when... game without computers. That's how tough we were!

[Samuel Morse]

In my day we strung up miles of cable and tapped on a key to play that game.

[ed]

Thanks for reminding me why I don't stay up late.
Rhetorical question: how funny would it be without the laugh track?

[Paul]

The fun begins at about the two minute mark.

Wrong, the fun begins as soon as it starts rolling. Someone sent that clip to me about a week ago and I've been rewatching it ever since.

Soda, you're missing nothing. Anyone who thinks Louis CK is waxing nostalgic either didn't watch the clip, or has serious comprehension issues. Hence the title "Everything is amazing, nobody's happy"

[Warren]

And don't forget the repairman that would come out to change the blown vacuum tubes.

Bwaa ha ha ha! You PAID someone to change your tubes? Dude, that's so lame. New tubes, and ones salvaged from old TVs and radios, were kept in either a cigar or a shoe box.

If your TV went out, the first thing you did was look for a tube that wasn't lit. If they were all lit, you pulled them all out (careful to number them) and took them to the drugstore where there was a tube tester. You looked up the part number on the big cross reference drum, and it would tell you which socket to plug it into and how what position to put half a dozen switches, then you would press the big TEST button and watch the big meter. If the needle swung into the green "Good" zone, then that tube was OK and you tested the next one.

[Paul]

Wrong, the fun begins as soon as it starts rolling. Someone sent that clip to me about a week ago and I've been rewatching it ever since.

Ahem, allow me to revise that comment.

I thought that it was this clip. The clip I link to is the clip which was cut to start at the two minute mark of the clip on the blogpost. Sorry.

[Will Schenk]

Great clip... I'm with you on the not whining bit, but where did he Celebrate Capitalism? Talk about a misleading headline.

[Jim Treacher]

I'm with you on the not whining bit, but where did he Celebrate Capitalism?

How else do you think we got all this stuff?

Don't worry, Obama has the same problem. He seems to think that Blackberry just magicked itself into his pocket.

[Will Schenk]

Technological progress may happen the most rapidly under capitalism for all I know but nothing in the clip was remotely about that.

[Paul]

Don't worry, Obama has the same problem. He seems to think that Blackberry just magicked itself into his pocket.

No, it Life Lotteried its way into his pocket. Subtle difference, but different nonetheless.

[Joe]

"He seems to think that Blackberry just magicked itself into his pocket."

Racist!

[Brian Sorgatz]

Is he celebrating capitalism and telling us not to whine-or is he whining about capitalism? He says that the younger generation is spoiled by the blessings of capitalism. It's the kind of Luddite old-fartism that I read Reason to get away from.

Why the hell is this clip so overpraised by Reason writers? Why is it considered pro-capitalist when it starts with a celebration of poverty, i.e. "donkeys and tin pans"?

[Rick H.]

It's the kind of Luddite old-fartism that I read Reason to get away from.

He's saying that these new technologies are awesome and amazing and worthy of appreciation. How is that remotely a Luddite position? You are being ridiculous.

Plus, Louis CK is the funniest guy on the fucking planet.

[Tom]

Shattered capitalism equals donkeys with tin pans, he says, which is the opposite of the comfort we now have -- comfort presumably wrought by capitalism in its non-shattered state.

So, yeah, he's celebrating capitalism, even if in a backhanded way.

[..]

If this is Funny, I'm buying stock. What could happen?

[Paul]

Why the hell is this clip so overpraised by Reason writers? Why is it considered pro-capitalist when it starts with a celebration of poverty, i.e. "donkeys and tin pans"?

Watch it again. Seriously. "Everthing is amazing, nobody's happy".

To complain that the wonders of the modern world is wasted on the crappiest generation, while curmudgeonly, is still a celebration of modern technology. He marvels at the ability to browse YouTube clips while sitting in a chair... in the SKY! Anyone who says it that way is... celebrating the achievements of the modern world. Just because he's complaining about other people not being happy with the fanstastic state of things doesn't mean he's eschewing capitalism.

[Paul]

when it starts with a celebration of poverty, i.e. "donkeys and tin pans"?

To address this point specifically, he's not celebrating donkeys and pots clanging on the side. He's suggesting that idiots who whine about how hard life is in our modern, amazing technology rich society should go back to donkeys and tin pans... to give these idiots some perspective.

You know, just like Reason likes to suggest that environmentalists should have to go back to 35 year life spans and bad teeth... you know... for some perspective.

[FTG]

Loved the comment about a single coin able to buy a glass of beer and whiskey, a room, a steak, a shave and a haircut, a woman and hay for the horse.

Good times.

(A single Krugerrand still buys you all those things, you know... Ok, depends on the woman.)

[Ellie]

I love Louis C.K. I think my favorite bit of his is the one where he complains that nobody ever calls kids on their shit. "What did you draw? That's a dog? Show me a dog that looks like that and I'll give you a thousand dollars."

[Louis CK]

I'd blow 20 guys in an alley with bloody penises, just to get AIDS, so I could fuck a deer and give it AIDS. That's how much I hate deer.

[Alberta Libertarian]

That guy is way funnier than Bill Maher.

[Bill Maher]

New Rule: I have to quit calling myself a libertarian.

[Bill Maher]

New Rule: I have to take that stick out of my ass.

[Patrick]

No. Hilarious clip, but nothing really there about capitalism save for the donkey joke. Not your finest moment Radley. This is the same thing that Nick has written about ad nauseum, where someone like Dee Dee Ramone dies and everyone in the media grafts some sort of leftist persona onto the corpse. The opposite version of this annoying tic flies under the radar here. That's no surprise.
Capitalism is great and all, but the really dogmatic version that gives everyone a chubbo here is not the only game in town as far as technological innovation is concerned.

[George Bernard Shaw]

Watch it again. Seriously. "Everthing is amazing, nobody's happy".

To complain that the wonders of the modern world is wasted on the crappiest generation, while curmudgeonly, is still a celebration of modern technology.

How insightful. No one has ever thought of that before.

[joshua corning]

i remember being a kid riding around in the back of a pick up and waving at other kids diving by in backs of other pick ups and waving at cops and democrats and pretty much everyone and everyone not really caring that i was a kid being driving around in the back of a pick up and they would wave back....

[Guy Smiley]

Rhetorical question: how funny would it be without the laugh track?

Ed,

It's a live studio audience.

[ron]

i wish lucky louis had managed to last more than one season, but at least he can concentrate on stand-up now. he is easily one of the funniest and hardest working stand-up comedians around.