Louis CK's return may be a preview of how other #MeToo offenders stage their comebacks

Slate

The #MeToo offenders could find their way back to the public eye by following Louis CK's lead, staging small comebacks that will generate repeated outrage that will dissipate over time, says Christina Cauterucci. "Here’s a forecast for future post-#MeToo returns based on what has transpired since Sunday," says Cauterucci. "Every time CK or one of his canceled peers reemerges, some people will get mad, but most people won’t, and there will be other, more pressing outrages to smother with energy, and before anyone fully grasps what’s going on, they’ll be back on tour, or rolling through the credits of our TV shows and movies, with an ugly entry on their Wikipedia pages but a growing bank account to soothe that indignity." She adds: "CK’s Sunday set suggests that it may not be a sympathetic Charlie Rose roundtable or glossy magazine spread or self-aware, highly produced streaming special that heralds these men’s reentry into public life. The more likely route to reputation renovation will simply be nonchalant reintroduction into the cultural bloodstream, little by little, like routine allergy shots that cause a milder reaction with each prick."

ALSO:

• Why do the bad men think we need them? "It seems that these men think the world needs them and their work"
• Louis CK should be banished until he demonstrates some measure of understanding of what he has done wrong
• There seems to be a sexist double standard for comebacks: Samantha Bee and Kathy Griffin had to beg for forgiveness, while Louis CK just had to sit out
• Louis CK specialized in a comedy of complicity: "When the charming f*ck-up does something genuinely unforgivable, where is there left for him to go?"
• Michael Che's argument that "any free person has a right to speak and make a living" belittles and delegitimizes the actual conversation around Louis CK
• Louis CK apologists should follow the lead of Michael Ian Black, who seemed to have learned something from sympathizing with the disgraced comedian