Louis CK’s name may be in the credits of her Amazon series One Mississippi, but comedian Tig Notaro remains firm that CK has nothing to do with the show in a new interview with The Daily Beast. “He’s never been involved,” she says. “His name is on it. But we are writing the show, the writers’ room. We’re sitting in editing. We’re acting. We’re on set. We’re doing press.”
CK and Notaro were friends at one point, with CK releasing Notaro’s famous stand-up set about her cancer diagnosis on his website. But their relationship has clearly cooled significantly since then, and Notaro recently accused CK of copying one of her short films in an SNL sketch. Notaro makes reference to “an incident” that occurred before the show’s launch, but dismisses it in favor of discussing the sexual-misconduct allegations that have been following CK around for years. First leveled publicly by comedian Jen Kirkman on a podcast in 2015 and supported by other women in the comedy world, the accusations basically state that CK has an alleged habit of locking women in rooms with him and forcing them to watch him masturbate. (Yeah, it’s pretty bad.)
CK dismissed the allegations in an interview with Vulture—the only time he’s discussed them publicly—but Notaro urges him to face it head on. “I think it’s important to take care of that, to handle that, because it’s serious to be assaulted,” she says. “It’s serious to be harassed. It’s serious, it’s serious, it’s serious.” Further complicating matters is the fact that One Mississippi deals with the topic directly in its second season, as Stephanie Allynne’s character is confronted with misconduct similar to the allegations against CK at her workplace.
“That’s what we want to do with this show,” Notaro continues. “We of course want to create comedy, but we also really, really feel like we have the opportunity to do something with One Mississippi, because it does not stop. And, you know, I walk around doing shows at comedy clubs and you just hear from people left and right of what some big-shot comedian or person has done. People just excuse it.”