{"id":204674,"date":"2025-10-06T08:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T08:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/204674\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T08:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T08:26:07","slug":"disgraced-comedian-makes-tv-comeback-on-bill-maher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/204674\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgraced Comedian Makes TV Comeback on Bill Maher"},"content":{"rendered":"

After several years in exile that followed his exposure as a serial sexual predator, comedian Louis C.K. returned<\/a> to American television screens with a Friday-night appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher.<\/p>\n

Maher gave C.K., who is promoting his forthcoming novel, an incredibly friendly reception, as did his audience, who gave the canceled comedian a standing ovation as he walked onto the set.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ll let that standing ovation speak for itself,\u201d Maher quipped. Maher has previously vocally defended<\/a> C.K., asking Kara Swisher in an episode of her podcast last year, while likening C.K.\u2019s plight to that of Woody Allen, \u201cDo we have to punish him for the whole rest of his life?\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair talked about C.K.\u2019s novel, Ingram, which will be released next month. Discussing the novel, Maher mentions that the eponymous character Ingram discovers masturbation, and \u201ckind of pays a high price for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere do you get your ideas?\u201d Maher asked, as C.K. and the audience laughed uproariously.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike you said, write what you know,\u201d C.K. replied.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the comedian was accused<\/a> by five different women of masturbating in front of them without their consent, becoming one of the most famous faces of the #MeToo movement.<\/p>\n

\"Louis<\/p>\n

Louis C.K. has largely avoided the spotlight since admitting to masturbating in front of women without their consent in 2017, until now. \/ Kevin Mazur\/Getty<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a> at the time, C.K. confirmed that the allegations were true. \u201cThese stories are true. I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Continuing to perform standup shows in the years since, and even winning a Grammy Award <\/a>in 2022 for Best Comedy Album, C.K. has largely avoided the spotlight until this month, when he made headlines for being one of the comedians scheduled to perform at the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival<\/a> in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Discussing the festival on Friday night, Maher argued that the comedians who appeared at the festival were brave.<\/p>\n

C.K. explained that he agreed to appear at the festival because he felt that \u201ccomedy is a great way to get in and start talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love standup comedy and I love comedians, so the fact that that\u2019s opening up and starting to bud, I want to see it, I want to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While otherwise remaining positive about the festival despite substantial backlash, C.K. expressed skepticism at fellow festival performer Dave Chappelle\u2019s claim that comedians can \u201cspeak more freely\u201d in Saudi Arabia than in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s true,\u201d C.K. said with a laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After several years in exile that followed his exposure as a serial sexual predator, comedian Louis C.K. returned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,60021,117684,61898],"class_list":{"0":"post-204674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-real-time-with-bill-maher","11":"tag-standing-ovation","12":"tag-woody-allen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}