Louis C.K.: Ridiculous

A strong hour of material performed with practiced expertise. .... The contrast between puerile bits about pissing and resonant reflections on slow-motion death is an effective one, enhancing the impact of each tactic in turn.

It is a triumphant return to form for a man who may have lost a step at one point in his career, and even though he spouts jokes from an older face covered in small-rimmed glasses, Louis C.K. owns the Beacon Theater audience with humor and frankness.

It’s classic C.K.: superficially offensive but actually taking a kind of gleefully amoral route to morally defensible positions. And funny, too.

In “Ridiculous,” the remnants of his former inquisitive, committed self are all but gone. His set doesn’t build enough to be rewarding in the aggregate, and his individual riffs keep stopping short of real wisdom.

Yet Ridiculous remains uninvolving compared with C.K.’s pre-2017 specials, which fits a pattern: His post-allegation jokes just aren’t as memorable as his most acclaimed routines. .... It results in work that’s stunted by design.

It has brilliant stretches, to be sure. .... Elsewhere, though, he relies on dopey shock laughs.

Did you want to imagine the 58-year-old comedian getting molested by his elderly father? Congrats! This special is for you. At this point, at least, this hour of comedy isn’t going to change anyone’s minds about him. If you never stopped loving Louis C.K., then you’re going to STREAM IT. If you’re on the fence or jumped off the bandwagon a decade ago, SKIP IT and wait to see what he has to say next.

About half is vintage CK. At his best, he manages to be vulgar, shocking, and funny while poignantly and accurately depicting the nihilism of existence. As someone with an aging parent, I especially relate to his experiences of getting older and putting his father in a nursing home as both sad and relieving. Unfortunately most of the other half, while often funny, is more superficially shocking than insightful. Whether you like his comedy or not, Ridiculous probably won't change your opinion.

Solid. He needed another year on this and his arrangement and flow was off. In his bottom 3 but still better than 80% of the very not special, specials that get pumped out these days. He is also getting older. Almost 60 and I wonder if that plays into the energy of it. But solid 6.5/10. The fact that comedians on podcasts overhyped this one did not help. I suspect I went in with unrealistic expectations after 2017 and the masterpeice of the 2 specials in his canceled years. Glad to see he is being restored to his rightful place.

A passable special with solid jokes, though dragged down by some clunky editing. Okay on its own, but definitely a step down from his older work.

AIDS, peeing on kids, **** infatuation. Where is the punchline? His only schtick these days is unrelatable shock value. I don’t care if he hasn’t evolved one bit from **** off in front of unsuspecting women, but be funny!

Something tells me he didn't care enough to try to deliver what he's capable of doing. It seemed intentionally bad. Maybe he didn't like his Netflix contract.