The Most Awkward Moments on "Louie" (So Far)

When Louis C.K.'s half-hour comedy, Louie, gets awkward, what happens exactly? You're not always laughing at the stand-up comic's predicament. In fact, more often than not, you're squirming lower in your chair as the dominant emotion on screen reaches out to get you, like water rushing out of a bathtub after something large has crashed in it. (Imagine Louie swan-diving into a small space and splashing you with shame.)

So does this show really qualify as a comedy? Compared to other shows that get nominated in the Emmy comedy category, Louie has a more balanced laughs-to-cringes ratio. Collected here are the most cringe-worthy moments of discomfort in the show's history. Did you laugh during any of them?

RELATED: 20 Louie Quotes to Use in Everyday Life
RELATED: What We Talk About When We Talk About Louis C.K. As Auteur

Episode: "Travel Day/South" (Season 1, Episode 5)
Awkwardness level: High

Fans, for some reason, sometimes think it's appropriate to approach the people they admire. Some fans build a relationship with their idol in their minds. They think, "I've given them my attention and maybe even some of my money, and now I'm in the same room with them by total happenstance. They owe me something." This scene gives us the perspective from the other side of that exchange.

What is a celebrity supposed to say or do in a situation like this? The admirer (Elizabeth Morton) repeats, "I'm a big fan of you" over and over again as though it will somehow engender some connection with Louie, as though if she says it enough times it will warrant more of a response than, "That's nice." With this scene, Louie asks fans everywhere a question: What do we expect? Of course, we already know the answer: Even we don't know. —BG

Episode: "Bully" (Season 1, Episode 9)
Awkwardness level: High

Watching Louie get bullied by a teenage boy is one of the most withering things the series has ever shown us. The low point doesn't come when Sean (Michael Dreyer) threatens Louie, but when his date admits the she loses all respect for him as a result. Sandra (Amy Landecker) says, "If I'm being totally honest, that was a turn off seeing that. I'm sorry I can't help it. I don't know. It's like a primitive thing or something. You see a guy totally debase himself to be safe. It's a turn off." She continues, "I'm a grown woman. And my mind is telling me you are a great guy. But my chemistry is telling me that you're a loser."

Personally, this scene transcended the vicarious emotional connection of an audience member and became something I felt viscerally. No matter what personal achievements we reach, no matter what businesses, algorithms, or novels we think up, men wrestle with their masculinity. As we age, and grow soft and doughy, we we want to write off muscle bound, cockstrong assholes who commit acts of aggression. We sign petitions and think of eloquent retorts to end the cycle of violence. But when a bigger man gets in our face, beneath our rational words is the hope that he won't decide to take it a step further and start a fight that we will surely lose. It may be childish, it may not be worth our time, but there is still a painful insecurity that comes with the knowledge that another man could just kick your ass. —BG

Episode: "Bummer/Blueberries" (Season 2, Episode 2)
Awkwardness level: High

No strings attached sex is supposed to be the best thing ever. It's supposed to be reckless, uninhibited, and wonderful. Except when it isn't. If a new partner begins the evening with a matter of fact, "Do you want to have intercourse now?" odds are, you're done for. Of course, for Louie, that's the high point of the night. A night of Vagatine, blueberries, and a weeping woman with daddy issues lies ahead of him from there. —BG

Episode: "Country Drive" (Season 2, Episode 5)
Awkwardness level: Medium

Everybody has a racist relative. OK, well, at least I have a racist relative. Dealing with that relative is always one of the most uncomfortable experiences in a calendar year. This encounter is even worse when it takes place in earshot of impressionable children that you would prefer not turn out racist. At least these kinds of visits are a good reminder that growing older doesn't necessary make us wiser, but that lesson comes at the cost of our patience and sometimes our sanity. —BG

Episode: "Oh Louie/Tickets" (Season 2, Episode 7)
Awkwardness level: High

One of this show's greatest strengths is its ability to truly inhabit the perspective of the characters other than Louie; Louie creates the most sympathetic antagonists on television. Nowhere is this more evident than in his confrontation with Dane Cook. Cook says it right, comedy fans have a general distaste for his work while Louis C.K. is a god among the humor intelligentsia. The best moment of their exchange, and the hardest to watch, is when Cook accuses Louie of fanning the flames of anger towards him by never commenting on joke-stealing accusations. Louie doesn't defend himself there because he knows it's true. To see a person use their TV show to admit, yet not apologize for, the real-life pain they caused someone is a strange, beautiful, and awkward moment. —BG

Episode: "Eddie" (Season 2, Episode 9)
Awkwardness level: Medium

"Eddie," for its unflinching grapple with suicide and what you might say to someone who wants to die, is great television. Louie's old friend Eddie is a real prick and thus the cause of many uncomfortable moments during his episode, but the real low point comes when he makes a number of racist remarks to the cashier at a liquor store. Eddie assumes the guy is from a southern Asian country, and it's just ugly. —RS

Episode: "Halloween/Ellie" (Season 2, Episode 10)
Awkwardness level: High

On some episodes of Louie, awkward becomes the wrong word, and instead the dominant emotion is something closer to "oh god I really don't want to watch this anymore." The "Halloween" portion of this episode is one of those times. Louie is trick-or-treating with Lily and Jane when the streets get too deserted. And then two creeps show up and accost our trembling family. There's no joke here; it's just scary. —RS

Episode: "Telling Jokes/Set-up" (Season 3, Episode 2)
Awkwardness level: High

Oh, man. I don't want to try and unpack what happens in Laurie Brent's truck during "Set-up." Melissa Leo won an Emmy for her performance as a woman Louie's been set-up with, and whom, after blowing Louie in her vehicle, demands he reciprocate. This episode is about consent. I'll leave it at that. —RS

Episode: "Miami" (Season 3, Episode 3)
Awkwardness level: Medium

Straight American men don't have a lot of good pop culture examples of how to express productive and strong affection for one another through language. "Miami," the episode where Louie makes a friend after not really drowning, does not remedy this. It does provide commentary on this dilemma, though, especially during its awkward moment. Louie wants to simultaneously say that he's not gay and that he had a good time getting to know Ramon, the lifeguard who rescued him. It's a disaster of verbal communication, riddled with pauses, half started sentences, and unfinished thoughts. —RS

Episode: "New Year's Eve (Season 3, Episode 13)
Awkwardness level: High

Why? Why did it have to be Liz? Played by Parker Posey with such life, Liz is one of the most complicated women Louie has tried to date in the show's history. And then, out of nowhere, she dies during Louie's shitty holiday experience in "New Year's Eve." They run into each other on a bus. It's going great. Then blood is rushing from her nostrils and her legs are giving out. Cut to the hospital, where she wants to know if she's dying. Louie tells her no, which guarantees that she is. And she does, leaving the viewer shock-sobbing. Shock-sobbing is the new awkward. —RS