Hannah Gadsby: Louis CK is "a joke now" and "a trapped man"

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"He is a joke now. And I think it’s important to keep making that joke," Gadsby said in an extensive interview with the Los Angeles Times. "This is dangerous to talk about, but I’ll give it a go. What the issue is, for a long time Louis CK’s comedy platform was that he was this hopeless guy bumbling through the world. And at some stage, he was no longer that, but that was still his voice. And I think he still believes that. He has not reassessed his position of power, and that is why he was able to abuse it. It’s difficult to see a shift in your own power and privilege. It’s not something we’re trained to do. He still honestly thinks he’s the victim in all of this." She added: "He’s saying the same kinds of things. The material hasn’t changed. He’s just angry and bitter. I always struggled with his work because I’m a visual thinker. And there’s just so much semen. So I literally couldn’t see the humor in this waterfall of body fluids. That’s my issue. I never blamed him for that....If you’re used to controlling a narrative and then you’re witnessing it go to a different place, you will not let go. He’s a trapped man. He’s doing his comedy from a position of defensiveness." Gadsby also responded to accusations Nanette was essentially a TED Talk: "When I think about people saying, 'Oh, it’s not stand-up comedy,' I say, 'Let’s not define what comedy is. Let’s define what the purpose of comedy is.' And that’s, I believe, to laugh. And what’s the purpose of laughter? Catharsis. To feel better about something. Laughter is not the only way to reach catharsis....So maybe I do stand-up catharsis."