SORRY

Louis C.K. performs in front of a massive, illuminated sign spelling “SORRY,” but he spends the hour doing everything but apologizing. Instead, he targets his post-scandal notoriety with a sort of weary defiance, complaining to the audience that “everybody knows my thing now” while joking that even Barack Obama is aware of his private misconduct. Filmed in August 2021 at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, the set represents a comic doubling down on the direct-to-fan distribution model he built before his career derailed in 2017.

Rather than looking for redemption, the material retreats into the familiar territory of uncomfortable social hypotheticals, biological absurdities, and mundane annoyances. He spends a significant stretch on a trio of bits involving bananas—including a meticulous breakdown of a stranger peeling a banana on Sixth Avenue all the way to the bottom, comparing it to a man lowering his pants to his ankles at a urinal. Other routines touch on the biological logistics of two gay men trying to have a baby, the lingering dread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and why men live in constant terror of being misidentified as pedophiles.

Critical reception to the self-released special was deeply divided. Writers for mainstream publications like Slate noted that while the hour showcased C.K.’s stagecraft, it lacked the ambition of his peak work and leaned too heavily on repeating his established themes. Meanwhile, harsher reviews pointed out that using passive self-deprecation to brush off his past actions felt evasive, particularly when paired with his continued use of dated slurs.