Name: Louis CK on Independently Releasing "Fourth of July" and Algorithms
Uploaded: 2022-08-19T00:18:18.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Louis CK on Independently Releasing "Fourth of July" and Algorithms' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-08-19. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Louis CK on Independently Releasing "Fourth of July" and Algorithms' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-08-19. Transcript available.

- The Joe Rogan Experience.
- That's a true story, by the way, that I tell.
I have an ex-girlfriend that when we first started dating,
we had been together for like a few weeks
and it was like popping off, we love each other, oh my God.
And she left her email open and I searched my name,
thinking I would find all these great things she's saying
about me behind my back.
It was really bad.
And there was like a chat, like a G-chat, Gmail chat,
between her and her best friend.
And she literally was like, I just met this guy.
I think I'm in love with him.
He's the funniest guy I've ever met.
I'm not attracted to him, but I'm gonna give it a shot.
- Oh, that's hard. - And I just read it.
And then like, you know, she comes home a few hours later
and it's like, hey.
I'm like, hey. - That's hard.
- And it's brutal.
It still lingers, by the way.
- Was that the end of it?
- Because, no, 'cause I couldn't, first of all,
I was like in love with her and it wasn't a confidence boost.
I was like, I can't go be single now knowing I'm ugly.
But it's like, the person who loved me the most
in the world, behind my back, described me as unattractive.
- That's horrible. - Yeah, it's horrible.
It's why I'm behind this mic as much as I can be right now.
I'm hideous.
It's horrible.
- We had, that's why we had an easy time writing the movie too,
because he has these stories.
So he would just tell me stuff like that.
And I know from experience what's gonna work in a script.
I've written them before, I've directed them before.
So he would just tell me that and I'm like, it's going in.
That's gotta be in here.
- We had to change the names, of course.
- It changed the names.
- Of course.
- And so you're releasing it only on your website?
- Yeah.
- You're not gonna put it out anywhere else afterwards?
- I mean, we'll see, you know.
But right now, the best mouth to drink in the interest
is the website.
It just goes right, comes right to us.
- We did a big theatrical run also.
- Yeah, it was in the theaters for--
- It did very well.
- Yeah, for a month and it was killing.
- Really?
- Yeah, it was AMC theaters and Regal and a few theaters.
What they do if they don't give you a full run,
they just go, you can have every city for one night.
Like at seven o'clock on a Wednesday,
we were in 70 screens across the country.
- Wow.
- And they all sold out and doubled.
In a lot of cities, we were like in three theaters,
like Thor or something.
- Holy shit.
- Yeah, and at the Lemley in LA,
it got held over like three, four weeks, I think.
- Yeah.
- It just kept getting held over.
It was very, in New York, we had a premiere
at the Beacon Theater and we packed it
and everybody watched the movie in the Beacon Theater
and it was huge.
- That's fucking amazing.
- It was huge laughs.
I don't want to derail the conversation.
My ash just fell off on the rug and I feel terrible.
Okay, great.
- No one gives a shit here.
- That was helpful.
- There is an ashtray, but--
- Well, it fell, you know, sometimes.
I didn't ash on the rug.
- You get ash on the table, it doesn't matter.
- All right, but it fell, it was a mistake.
- Doesn't matter.
- But people loved watching the movie together,
I think, in crowds and laughing.
It was really fun to be in a cinema
where people are laughing so you can't hear the dialogue.
That's like the best feeling in the world.
- Oh man, that's great.
- It was pretty magical.
And there was laughs where we didn't expect laughs.
For me, it's like about my life, basically.
My mother's much nicer.
I don't know where the camera is.
My mother's wonderful, she's not a sociopath.
But, you know, to you, everything about you is dramatic.
And then there's moments that happen in the movie
and it would be like this huge house room laugh.
And I was like, I didn't even think that was funny.
Like when the dad, I don't want to give too much away,
but I try to talk to my parents and my dad just responds
by being like Jesus and takes a sip of beer.
I thought it was like a sad moment.
And the place like explodes with laughter.
- And different in each city.
Like we did big screenings, premieres with us there
and cast members in Beacon and then in Boston
at the Schubert and then at the Vic in Chicago.
So in New York, he tells his family off.
The moment where he just really lets him have it
and says fuck you to his mom.
- Don't give away too much.
- Too bad.
- Well listen, it doesn't matter.
- The New York crowd went berserk.
They cheered like, yeah, 'cause we're all in New York.
- Right.
- We all came from some fucking town
and it was a fantasy for them.
And everybody's like, that's right, that's right.
Then we take the movie to Boston where everybody's from.
And that moment, the crowd was like, oh no.
When he said fuck you mom, it was, oh no you don't say that.
And so totally split.
But then later when his uncle, they have this fight
where it brings, in both cases, brought the audience
back together because he kind of levels the thing out.
And so to me that's a successful movie.
One that it gets completely different reactions
from different people, but they all like it.
They're all compelled. - Is this the first time
you've ever released something just directly?
I know you did your animated show.
You released that directly on your website too, right?
- Oh yeah, which one, animated?
- Horace and Pete.
- Oh yeah, Horace and Pete.
That was the stage show.
Yeah, this is the first thing I've made
that besides stand-up specials.
I have two new ones that are out now.
But that's the first one that I, yeah.
It's the first movie I've ever put out on my site directly.
And you've just been doing mostly your stand-up specials
that way, right? - Stand-up specials.
Also my series, Louie, on FX, that's on my website
too, exclusively.
I licensed it from FX and from Disney who actually owns it.
And so you can buy it on my website.
I got them to give it to me exclusive
so I wouldn't have to compete.
So you can buy the whole series,
all five seasons for $30 for the whole five seasons.
- Do you think you'll ever get to a point
where your website is like a subscription thing,
like a fuckin' Hulu type deal
where you can just subscribe to your website
and get all the things?
- I think it's tough because it's not that much content.
I mean, I have, there's packages.
Like you can buy all my,
I have seven stand-up hour specials on there now.
And you can buy 'em all for 25 bucks.
So that unlocks all of 'em.
You can stream 'em, you can download 'em
and own them and whatever.
That's just the way it's always been
between me and my fans on the website.
I put stuff out once in a while, set a price
that's just enough for me to get some profit
and get the money back, you know?
So it lets me operate independently
and it's outside of the kind of algorithmic.
The thing is that those platforms
depend on algorithmic plugin
and it's a very different model.
They also have billions of dollars
to create content and the license content.
I don't know where it's going.
It's starting to be a lot of stuff.
There's a lot of stuff on the website.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, that's what I'm getting to.
It's like, I thought about that too
because a lot of people are starting to do that now.
Like Schultz released his new special
completely on his website.
- Yeah.
- And a lot of people are doing those kind of things now
because you do encounter these problems
with streaming services and censorship
and just weird, just having their input on content.
It's not fun.
- No, of course not.
And they have 'cause when you're on a streaming service
or on any platform, they have their own problems.
- Yeah.
- And because they're all owned by larger
and larger corporations, they can't do anything
that wiggles too much.
So they have just too many concerns.
And that's the way I look at it.
It's not like oppression.
It's just like they're too mixed in with other shit
to be my boss 'cause I wanna be able to fuck around
and have fun.
- Yeah.
- So, you know, and so for me,
I mean, I've been doing this since like 2010
when I put my first special on my website.
And I like it.
I like the way, the feeling of it.
Everybody that's bought a ticket to one of my shows
or has bought one of my shows is on my email list.
So they get told.
It's different now because social media's
and the algorithm is a kind of a giant suck.
It's like-
- It does suck.
- Well, it's like everything is directed to you.
You're told what's coming next by the algorithm.
It's tailored to each person.
And it's hard.
People have less of an impulse to look around
and to find their own shit.
- Yeah.
- Nobody picks up a flyer anymore.
What is this strange thing, you know?
Going to midnight movies.
The kind of the way that people used to find things
outside of the corporate sort of old algorithm
of advertising.
Now they can just kind of just keeps coming to your phone.
So you know what's coming.
So I think though that people are starting to want
to make more of an effort to find their own shit,
to find something that's not in that thing.
So that's why I like to keep my website the same
and the same model and the same way I've always done it.
'Cause we keep getting more people that, you know?
And that's the feeling we got
when the movie was in the theater.
It's not like the other shit that's out right now.
It's not a Marvel movie and it's not about a black girl
with one leg who persevered and it's not, you know?
- It's about a white guy with two legs that perseveres.
- Yeah, exactly.
Who didn't persevere that well, but who did his best.
- Well, see the film for God's sake.
- Yeah, that's right.