Some industry figures have distanced themselves from the comedian following a new report – but many long kept quiet despite years of questions

Whenever rumors intensified about the sexual misconduct of Louis CK, the comedy world seemed to close ranks. Speaking directly about the allegations seemed like it could be a career-ending risk.

“I was told to delete a tweet I wrote about Louis CK abusing women before I applied to a high-profile comedy job because the people conducting the hiring process might not like it,” Nicole Silverberg, an editor and TV writer, said Thursday.



“There’s a lockdown on talking about him,” the comic Jen Kirkman said in 2015 on her podcast, I Seem Fun, without naming the man in question, who was widely believed to be Louis CK.



“His guy friends are standing by him, and you cannot say a bad thing about him,” Kirkman said. “And I’ve been told by people, ‘Well, then, say it then. Say it if it’s true.’ If I say it, my career is over.”

Louis CK: laughter ends as years of allegations dog comedy superstar Read more

That veil of protection around Louis CK was shattered on Thursday, when the New York Times laid five women’s allegations of CK’s sexual misconduct bare. Through his publicist, Lewis Kay, Louis CK declined to answer the Times’ questions. Kay did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. On Friday night, Kay said on Twitter: “As of today, I no longer represent Louis CK.”

Stories of the comedian masturbating without consent in front of female comics roiled comedy circles and the internet for years, but the Times report had accusers on the record for the first time.

The reaction of many Louis CK collaborators to the news was swift. On Friday, the distributor of his forthcoming film canceled the movie’s release and Netflix abandoned plans for a stand-up special.

FX Networks, which aired his show Louie before it went on hiatus in 2015, said Friday night it was ending its association with CK. The network said he would no longer be executive producer or receive compensation for four other shows he was involved with on FX.

But in the weeks since Harvey Weinstein was first accused of sexual harassment, Louis CK’s behavior has prompted comparisons to the allegations against the producer – as comedy’s version of the “open secret”.

Megan Koester, working as a journalist for Gawker, confronted male comedians about the allegations on the red carpet of the 2015 Just For Laughs festival.

It was a time when most of Hollywood was turning its back on another comedian, Bill Cosby. Cosby was facing accusations that he had drugged and raped multiple women. (A mistrial in the case was declared in June.)

“One by one, I would ask a conveyor belt of comedians, all men: ‘How do you feel about the Cosby allegations?’” Koester wrote in Vice. “They would all, invariably, claim to be disgusted by the man’s misdeeds. I would then follow up with ‘How do you feel about the Louis CK allegations?’ They would all, invariably, claim ignorance.”

A woman working at the event told Koester her questions about CK had been getting complaints. Then a “livid” executive intervened.

“Red faced, he informed me that JFL [Just For Laughs] is a ‘family’, that Louie is a member of said ‘family’, and that I could ask my question on ‘my turf’, but that this was ‘our turf’,” Koester wrote. “This wasn’t ‘that kind’ of red carpet, he informed me, it was a ‘friendly one’, and Louie was a ‘friend of the festival.’ Were I to ask the offending question again, he said, I would be ejected from the carpet.”

Bruce Hills, the Just For Laughs COO, acknowledged that he approached Koester and said her account was accurate.

“This was the nature of my conversation with Ms Koester that day,” he told the Guardian through a spokesperson, after the Louis CK report was published. “My intent was to keep our awards ceremony as a celebratory event. In doing so, I was in no way defending nor aware of any allegations towards talent.”

He continued, “If Ms Koester wanted talent to comment on the record, we would hope she go through the proper journalistic protocols, be forthcoming with her intentions and request a full interview.”

One year later, Jon Stewart echoed several of the celebrities Koester attempted to interview.

“All I can tell you is I’ve worked with Louis for 30 years and he’s a wonderful man and person and I’ve never heard anything about this,” Stewart said in 2016, when asked about the stories dogging CK. “We’ve all known Bill Cosby was a prick for a long time, so I don’t know what to tell you.”

The comedians who did speak up tended to be women and tended to be well-established in their careers, such as Roseanne Barr and Tig Notaro. Notaro’s show One Mississippi featured a character who masturbated in front of a woman without her consent.

“It’s Louis CK, locking the door and masturbating in front of women comics and writers,” Barr told the Daily Beast. “I can’t tell you – I’ve heard so many stories.”

Thursday’s New York Times story suggests Louis CK enforced women’s silence through his powerful manager.

Louis CK responds to sexual misconduct allegations: 'These stories are true' Read more

Julia Wolov and Dana Min Goodman claimed in the story that Louis CK masturbated in front of them, without their consent, in a Chicago hotel room in 2002. In the intervening years, as the two shared their story with a wider circle of comedians, they claimed, they learned that Louis CK’s manager, Dave Becky, was unhappy that they were talking. Becky and a spokesperson for Wolov and Goodman did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.

In an apology Louis CK issued Friday, he said: “I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused.”

Becky strongly denied to the New York Times that he ever threatened Wolov and Goodmans’ careers – but threats weren’t necessary for there to be silence.

Without naming Louis CK, Kirkman said she had struggled with the decision to join a comedian on tour because of the rumors surrounding him.

In September, she strongly signaled she was talking about CK, but did not have proof the rumors about him were true, in a Village Voice interview.

“What I said was, when you hear rumors about someone, and they ask you to go on the road with them, this is what being a woman in comedy is like – imagine if there’s always a chance of rain over your head, but [with] men, there isn’t. So you go, ‘Should I leave the house with an umbrella, or not?’”