Louis C.K.: Oh My God

Louis C.K. shoots from the lip and keeps scoring. The beauty is the seeming ease with which he does this. And the knowledge of how hard it really is.

It is possible to argue that, although Louis C.K. has created a work of genius with the FX show Louie, what he's really good at is stand-up. Oh My God offers further evidence for the thesis.

Oh My God, taped in February, is a crackerjack show, a polished, manifestly professional performance that couldn’t be more different in tone from “Louie.”

Oh My God is animated by deep skepticism and an appreciation of joy, qualities that don’t normally mix in comedy and that might seem, in a different context, incompatible. But they aren’t incompatible--not here, anyway.

This HBO special, it must be noted up front, is not for all ages. Like the other best comedians, though, Louis never seems to tack on the graphic subject matter and language simply for shock. His nongraphic bits are also just as funny, like his riff on divorce and parenting.