Fwd :CULTURE DEBATE : Nathan Hamelberg: No one has claimed that Louis CK is not funny, Åsa Linderborg

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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Jan 8, 2025, 10:48:26 AMJan 8

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It’s about Louis CK

https://www.dn.se/kultur/nathan-hamelberg-ingen-har-pastatt-att-louis-ck-inte-ar-rolig-asa-linderborg/

CULTURE DEBATE

Nathan Hamelberg: No one has claimed that Louis CK is not funny, Åsa Linderborg

Published yesterday 18:22

Aftonbladet's Åsa Linderborg doesn't intend to stop laughing at Louis CK.

Just as you have to be able to joke about everything, you also have to be able to reflect critically on everything. But Åsa Linderborg who uses Louis CK as a bat against political correctness, does not, writes Nathan Hamelberg.

This is an opinion piece in Dagens Nyheter. The writer is responsible for opinions in the article.

For approximately ten years ago , but one must not say that in this country, was one of the most popular ways of guarding oneself against criticism; whoever objected to what was said seemed to confirm the guard. Therefore, backstabbing could be sorted as censorship, linguistic policing or political correctness rather than a dissenting opinion.

When I read Åsa Linderborg's column "Whatever Louis CK may have done, I continue to listen to him" (Aftonbladet 27/12), I first think that she is after something similar.

The documentary "Louis CK. Sorry not sorry", which can currently be seen on SVT Play, is both about the comedian's greatness and about how his career was affected by revelations that he subjected employees and co-workers to sexual harassment.

Linderborg lands in the fact that, unlike a bloodthirsty humor-free mob, she will defiantly continue to laugh at the brilliant humor. But the purpose of the documentary is not to question Louis CK's hilarity - rather it is a very interesting discussion about one of the eternal topics of the present and history, the relationship between artists and their work.

The participants in the documentary mention that CK is a genius. He highlights everything from the most mediocre to the worst in men, but just as you have to be able to joke about everything, you also have to be able to reflect critically on everything. Including your favorite comedian.

If we just get to say the n-word again and make jokes about Polish whores at work, we'll go back to the left, the thinking seems to be

Then I think that Linderborg's text is part of a pattern that goes beyond problematic stand-ups. The message - tipped towards political correctness and woke - seems to be: some want to take something I love away from me and I refuse to go along with it.

Linderborg thinks highly of the theme that metoo and social media have killed humor, but ends up skewed in his time perspective. If her text had come about seven years ago, at the beginning of the metoo movement, the article would have been more understandable as a warning directed at its own guild.

But the comedian that Linderborg doesn't intend to stop laughing at has hardly disappeared from the spotlight. He has fans all over the world, this year he won his third Grammy. And it is now easier than ever to take part in humor that deals with topics that were taboo a few decades ago.

Therefore, it is difficult to shake off the suspicion that Linderborg's thesis – that it was better in the past – is fueled by an imagined main conflict in society. The one between an uncouth and vulgar working class and a fine and masterful middle class. The problem is only that it is a bourgeois fantasy, which unfortunately lives rent-free in the social debate. A large part of Sweden's middle class is anything but educated, while at least an equally large part of the working class is not only educated but also well educated.

Not infrequently, as in the case of Louis CK, the jokes can be a gateway to talking about difficult subjects

But the trendy notion that the Sweden Democrats' strong support within the working class would weaken if the left stopped talking about feminism and racism, metoo and whatever else, is out of touch with reality.

It's hardly just Linderborg who thinks like that, even leaders within the Social Democrats and the Green Party are betting hard on fighting the windmill woke , in the belief that it will win the hearts of working-class voters. In this trick of illusion, the "working class" is suddenly synonymous with white native industrial workers. If we just get to say the n-word again and make jokes about Polish whores at work, we'll be back to the left, the thinking seems to be.

However, what characterizes Louis CK's humor is not that he "jokes about everything". The brilliance lies in how he twists and turns what you can and can't joke about. Humor changes with society, when it is brilliant it often depends on how it relates to taboos, obsessions and obsessions. Not infrequently, as in the case of Louis CK, the jokes can be a gateway to talking about difficult subjects. Therefore, the comedian deserves to be taken seriously, and not used as a battered bat against political correctness.

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