2017: not a vintage year for alleged serial sex offenders. First Weinstein, then Spacey, and now we can’t go to Louis CK’s new film because he happened to have exposed himself to upwards of five women over the course of the past 20 years. If using your status to corner a woman in your dressing room and masturbating in front of them isn’t a form of sexual abuse, I don’t know what is. But, hey, what is the world coming to? Pretty soon you won’t be able to pleasure yourself in front of unwilling females at all. This is the future liberals want. Wake up sheeple.

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It’s a shame about I Love You, Daddy – personally I was looking forward to the contrarian four-star reviews that it predictably would have garnered, with critics undoubtedly calling it “brave”, “edgy” and “finally speaking up for that marginalised group: male millionaire film stars who like to commit sexual abuse”.

Truth be told, I’ve always had a soft spot for famous sexual abuser Louis CK. He is definitely funnier than most sexual abusers. He even admitted that those five women were telling the truth about him sexually abusing them in his “Never Actually Saying The Word Sorry” apology statement: say what you like, but he’s an honest sexual abuser, and at the moment that seems to be the best we can hope for with any celebrity.

I wish I could pretend that until this week I had only known Louis CK as a comedian and not as a famous sexual abuser, but the truth is this has been an open secret for years. Master of None star Aziz Ansari refused to answer questions on the allegations back in autumn 2015: these rumours have been so prevalent that a fan would have to actively avoid them to not encounter them.

I know that I had heard rumours about Louis CK and yet up until last year continued to enjoy his standup, his FX show, Louie, and his appearances on Parks and Recreation – it was much easier to pretend that they were just rumours than to face up to the idea that a comedian I admired so much was a serial sexual abuser. Clearly Netflix, FX and the makers of Parks and Rec felt the same way – if I’d heard about these allegations they surely should have. What’s changed this week isn’t that the networks suddenly discovered these crimes: it’s that Louis CK is no longer known as a comedian with a sideline in sexual abuse, but a sexual abuser with a sideline in comedy.

And for his fans, that can be hard to take. Some have attempted to get around this by saying that it’s not really sexual abuse, that masturbating in front of women you have just met is a form of New York banter, like insulting the Mets or saying “Hey, I’m walking here”. In their eyes, Louis CK has a reputation of being a gross guy, and these allegations are just an extension of that: it’s his comic persona writ large.

This argument falls down for two reasons: clearly Louis CK knew what he was doing was wrong, otherwise he would have put it in his standup set instead of denying it for 15 years. And secondly, the amount of mental gymnastics you have to do to justify it is Republicanesque – you’re a couple of sexual abuse stories away from arguing that paedophilia is bad but a greater moral failure would be to not push through tax reform.

What’s more, this is how Louis CK got away with it for so long. His comic persona – in a nutshell, “I’m a gross dude but that’s OK because everyone else is too” – is the perfect hiding place in plain sight. Compare the glowing reviews of I Love You, Daddy in September (pre-Weinstein), with the condemnation and one-star reviews now: the film itself hasn’t changed at all, but it’s no longer a funny film about sexual politics by a comedian, but a film by a sexual pest who is clearly trying to justify his actions. I haven’t seen it, but I do know that one scene features a comedian miming masturbation in front of a cornered woman and hey, that feels awfully familiar.

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And this is why the makers of I Love You, Daddy can’t just do a Ridley Scott and photoshop Christopher Plummer’s head on to Louis CK’s body.

Comedian/actors like Louis CK aren’t playing characters, only exaggerated versions of themselves. They aren’t acting in stories: they are telling jokes that demonstrate their comedic worldview. The art and the artist can’t be separated, because the art is intrinsically his – it only exists through Louis CK’s lived experience. And that’s why it’s hard for fans to disavow him. They can’t say they love the jokes but hate the man, because the jokes are the man. By laughing at Louis CK, they’re tacitly accepting his worldview: it’s easier to pretend that this man is not a sexual abuser, or that his actions weren’t unacceptable, than it is to confront the idea that you empathise with a sexual abuser.

The year 2016 killed our favourite celebrities; 2017 reveals them as criminals and perverts. In a way, that’s crueller to the fans – at least in 2016 you could celebrate their life’s work, but in 2017 they have to be disavowed, quietly forgotten: your favourite jokes, movies and TV shows forever tainted by association, coated in an invisible film of grime.

It’s OK to be sad about Louis CK – he was a great comedian who told great jokes that will now never escape the shadow of his actions. But there are other comedians out there – female, black and minority ethnic comedians – who are very good despite never committing sexual abuse. Let’s support them instead. Let’s make 2018 the year we learned that you don’t need to be a sex abuser to create great art.