Louis CK’s Grammy win draws backlash amid history of sexual misconduct

“How was your last couple years?” comedian Louis CK says to the audience on the first track to his album “Sincerely Louis CK.” “How was 2018 and 2019 for you guys? Anybody else get in global amounts of trouble?”

Louis CK did, after he admitted, in 2017, to masturbating in front of women. Several said in interviews that he had done so without their consent; in a statement acknowledging the incidents, he claimed he had always asked first but later realised that was insufficient since there were power differentials at play. For a short time he disappeared from public view, as a movie he directed and starred in was shelved and other deals dissolved in the early days of the #MeToo movement.

But Louis CK returned to stand-up, first at comedy clubs and then at bigger venues, which often sold out. And Sunday night he received a sign of support from the entertainment industry: “Sincerely Louis CK” – his first album since the scandal – won the Grammy for best comedy album.

The album opens with the chants and wild applause of an audience.

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The response to his Grammy was less joyous. As his name trended on Twitter, many comedians, comedy fans and others wondered how the Recording Academy saw fit to bestow an award on someone with an admitted history of sexual misconduct.

'We won't look back at people's history; we won't look at their criminal record; we won't look at anything other than the legality within our rules'

“Every woman who has been harassed and abused in the comedy business, I hear you and see you, and I am so, so angry,” podcast host Jesse Thorn, who interviews comedians, wrote, followed by several expletives.

Female comics shared their own responses. Jen Kirkman posted a segment from her latest album, “OK, Gen-X,” in which she recounts her own encounter with Louis CK. She had avoided talking about it in detail previously, she explained in the bit, because of negative and threatening blowback.

“I’ll forward you the rape threats I get after this,” she said.

On Sunday Kirkman reposted some messages from supporters of Louis CK who responded to her, often hatefully and in terms that diminished the experiences of assault survivors.

Australian performer Felicity Ward offered a lengthy list of mostly female comics “who’ve never sexually assaulted anyone”. She added, “Follow, see, buy their stuff.”

And comedian Mona Shaikh wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that the award sent a troubling message.

“The comedy establishment sends a dog whistle to sexual predators, forgiving their abusive actions as long as they offer a superficial apology (often drafted by their publicists) and go underground for a year or so,” she wrote. “After that, they can emerge and revive their careers.”

In the fall, after the nomination of Louis CK and others like Marilyn Manson – who is facing an investigation over multiple sexual assault allegations – drew public ire, Harvey Mason Jr., chief executive of the Recording Academy, defended the right to nominate anybody as long as that person met the organisation’s eligibility rules.

“We won’t look back at people’s history; we won’t look at their criminal record; we won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work eligible based on date and other criteria,” he told trade publication The Wrap. (Manson was later removed from the nominations list as a songwriter on Kanye West’s track Jail but remained eligible as one of West’s collaborators on Donda, which was up for album of the year.)

Rather than weighing in on who could be nominated, Mason said the Grammys would instead draw a line around who was invited to the ceremony, held this year in Las Vegas. The comedy award was one of dozens presented in a ceremony held before the prime-time broadcast and was shown online only. Louis CK did not attend. Representatives for the Recording Academy did not return requests for comment.

On the album, amid bits about religion, aging and sex, Louis CK addresses his misconduct a few times, mostly jokingly.

“Man, I was in a lot of trouble,” he says in the opening. “Wait till they see those pictures of me in blackface. That’s going to make it a lot worse. Because there’s a lot of those; there’s thousands of pictures of me in blackface. I can’t stop doing it. I just – I like it. I like how it feels.”

This year’s trophy is the third Grammy for Louis CK in the comedy album category.

In the 64-year history of the Grammys, women have been nominated more than 40 times for comedy but only five have won awards outright

The Recording Academy does not release details of how its more than 11,000 eligible members vote. Members are limited in the number of categories they may cast a vote in, as the academy tries to encourage them to vote in their various areas of expertise. The nominations process was tweaked for this year’s awards after complaints of secret agendas and uneven playing fields, and boycotts by major artists like the Weeknd.

In recent years, the Recording Academy has also been roiled by accusations that it did not include or acknowledge enough women or people of colour, and the organisation has pledged to do better. But a report last month from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California found that the number of women credited on pop songs has remained largely unchanged for a decade and that a Grammy-led effort to hire more female producers and engineers did almost nothing.

The comedy category has changed names and focus somewhat over the years as recorded comedy shifted from musical numbers to spoken word. Bill Cosby won the prize a record seven times; in 2012, one of his albums was also named to a Grammys Hall of Fame. In the 64-year history of the Grammys, women have been nominated more than 40 times for comedy but only five have won awards outright: Elaine May (as part of a duo with Mike Nichols); Lily Tomlin; Whoopi Goldberg; Kathy Griffin; and, in 2021, Tiffany Haddish. – This article originally appeared in The New York Times