In 2017, Louis C.K. was largely exiled from comedy after five women accused him of sexual misconduct at the height of the #MeToo movement. Cut to 2026, and he headlined a show at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the Netflix is a Joke comedy festival.
C.K. took the stage in L.A. on Tuesday night, the show serving as the final stop of the worldwide “Ridiculous” tour he’s been on for the last year. The iconic venue was roughly 75 percent full, mostly of male fans in their 20s and 30s, who came to life when the comedian started his set after four opening acts.
He never addressed the misconduct allegations — the women alleged that he masturbated in front of them or on the phone with them as C.K. later admitted to the behavior, saying he believed at the time it had been appropriate because he had asked first — and returned to his regular raunchy material. The hour of jokes centered heavily around sex, with bits on penises, vaginas, STDs and Barely Legal magazine.
The 58-year-old comedian also opened up about his dating life, revealing he has a girlfriend and believes in dating women his own age. “If you date young women, there’s pressure sexually. But with a woman my age, I’m like, ‘Do you want to fuck?’ She’s like, ‘Nah’ and I’m like ‘Yeah, good.’ And if you do, there’s no condoms.” He later mused, “I think it’s crazy that it’s legal for me to date an 18-year-old, that’s fucked up. That’s 40 years difference. You shouldn’t have sex with somebody if the years between you would be the age of a woman who can’t get pregnant naturally.”
As he brought his set to a close, C.K. was met with a standing ovation from the crowd. “That was my last show, last time telling those jokes, and I’m really happy I got to tell them to you,” he said in response. “Thank you very much for coming. Thank you to Netflix, I really appreciate the gig.”
It’s not his only gig with Netflix either, as in addition to the comedy festival, the streamer will premiere C.K.’s upcoming comedy special, Ridiculous, on the platform this summer. Ridiculous is directed and executive produced by C.K. himself and executive produced by Lea Cohen Zuckerman and Brady Nasfell. He previously worked with Netflix on his 2017 special.
C.K. has been slowly rebuilding his career over the past eight years; following the misconduct report, FX cut ties with C.K. and ended his overall deal, as he also lost executive producer credits on multiple shows and was dropped by his management firm and publicist. A film he starred in, wrote and directed, I Love You, Daddy, was also dropped by its distributor. Since then, he has played increasingly larger venues around the world and released a novel, Ingram (which was sold as his sole merch item at the show), alongside several other creative side projects.
In an email to his newsletter subscribers when the Netflix is a Joke appearance was first announced, C.K. called the Hollywood Bowl set “the very last show of this tour which has taken me around the world and will likely be my last full-scale comedy headline type show for a looong time.” He added, “I hope you can make it.”
Netflix is a Joke runs through Sunday with hundreds of shows happening across Los Angeles, featuring fellow headlining sets from Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, John Mulaney, Nate Bargatze, Chelsea Handler, Wanda Sykes and many more.
