Lucky Louie, Season 1, Episode 7, “Discipline”
Written by Louis C.K.
Directed by Andrew D. Weyman
Aired on July 24th, 2006 on HBO
After all of the story arcs focusing on issues of gender, race, and sexuality, most of which haven’t been well handled, it’s refreshing to see Lucky Louie focus on an topic Louis C.K. understands better: parenting. While the attempts to tackle these other subjects have tended to reek of misplaced white male intentions, C.K. uses his experience as a parent to deliver a clever and touching take on parent-child power dynamics in the age of contemporary parenting techniques. This experience made for some of the best material in his stand-up work from the period (some of which is adapted directly into “Discipline”), and seeing it play out in the sitcom format makes it work even better.
Even with the improvement, “Discipline” isn’t entirely free from the retrograde politics which have plagued the other episodes of Lucky Louie. Although the dialogue about Louie’s disgust with anal sex (also adapted from a stand-up bit) makes for a humorous play on his conservatism, the way C.K. spins it after the opening credits makes the joke less appealing. Essentially, by linking Louie’s lack of sexual adventurousness to his impotency in the parenting triangle with Kim and Lucy, C.K. makes troublesome assertions about his character’s sexuality. Together, the two scenes make connections between his sexual preferences and his parenting abilities which feel dated by contemporary standards. They’re particularly troubling when viewed in conjunction with the “Pamela” storyline from season four Louie, in which C.K. glosses over his protagonist’s attempted rape of the episode’s title character. As gifted as C.K. is as a writer, sexual politics don’t appear to be his strong point.
Fortunately, this weakness doesn’t undermine the episode too much, since CK mostly stays away from it. Instead, he turns the episode into a satire of soft modern parental discipline, which is a much better target for him and makes for funnier TV. Kim’s tolerance of Lucy behaving like the child in The Exorcist is a hilarious exaggeration of modern correctives to the corporal punishment of the past. (I once worked at a summer camp where we weren’t allowed to tell the children “no,” just as Kim tries to bar Louie from doing.)
Even better, “Discipline” takes no sides in the situation, which makes for more comedic opportunities. As funny as it would be to demonize Lucy and make the joke simply about the contrast between her behavior and her cuteness, C.K. takes an extra step by equally pointing a finger at Louie and Kim’s reaction. When they refer to her as a “fucking asshole,” the show revels in the absurd glee of having two parents describe their child in such a manner, making for one of Lucky Louie’s comedic high points. Although the scene smacks of Lucky Louie’s uneven attempts to laugh at the misogyny and racism of its characters (particularly Rich’s), its utter ridiculousness makes it work much better than those jokes.
In light of Rich’s offensive comments, Lucy calling him “ugly” becomes funnier than anything she does to her parents. Whereas her telling Kim that her cake tastes like “poop” feels cringeworthy (and the live audience feels the same way, judging by their gasps), her insults to Rich seem earned. After six episodes of hearing him making nasty comments without any reciprocation, Lucy’s comments feel like what he deserves.
Although her insults towards him are satisfying, the conclusion of “Discipline” is not, as we get no closure regarding its plot. Louie and Lucy are eating dinner peacefully at the beginning of the tag, but everything appears to go back to where it started when she flips over the plate. It’s a somewhat surprising ending and one which denies us the closure we’re expecting, since the style of show C.K. is imitating involves its world resetting before the next episode and “Discipline” leaves its conflict unresolved. Then again, he’s never been afraid to put his own twist on the genre, so “Discipline” may just be another example of him attempting to bring the classic sitcom into the 21st century. As jarring as the decision feels, it does reflect the creative license and originality which has been consistent throughout C.K.’s work.