Dad of Parkland shooting victim blasts Louis C.K. with chilling 'comedy' routine
Comedian Louis C.K. made fun of Parkland shooting victims, and now a grieving dad is having his say
The father of a 17-year-old boy who died in last year's horrific high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., is using his own brand of "comedy" to blast comedian Louis C.K. over jokes he made about Parkland victims.
Manuel Oliver lost his son Joaquin in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last February, and in a new video for Change The Ref, a group that Oliver and his wife founded to combat gun violence, he takes the comedy stage to make his point.
[Warning: contains strong language]
"Hey, everybody, how's it going tonight? Recently, I heard this great line from a comedian," Oliver says in the new video, referring to C.K. "He said, 'If you want people to forget that you were j--king off, just make a joke about kids getting shot.' And I thought, 'Jokes about kids getting shot? I can do that!'"
"You heard the one about the kid that walks into the school on Valentine's Day?" Oliver continues. "Skinny kid, wearing headphones, gets dropped by his dad. And he says, 'I love you,' and gets out of the car and walks into the school. And then gets shot to death a couple of hours later." Watch:
The video is referencing a recent routine by disgraced comedian Louis C.K. who admitted to stripping naked and masturbating in front of unsuspecting women, including fellow comedians. In recent months, C.K. has made several surprise appearances at comedy clubs, where the reception was mixed, with some cheering him on and others criticizing the clubs for allowing him to perform.
In at least one of the performances, C.K. mocked survivors of the Parkland mass shooting, where 17 people were killed and 17 more injured.
"You're not interesting because you went to a high school where kids got shot. Why does that mean I have to listen to you?" said C.K. about the kids who survived the shooting and later testified before Congress.
"How does that make you interesting? You didn't get shot. You pushed some fat kid in the way and now I got to listen to you talking."
C.K.'s jokes drew outrage across social media, and amongst Parkland survivors and their advocates. Now Oliver is turning that humour back on C.K. with the video and the hashtag #notajoke.
"You guys ever heard dead baby jokes?" continues Oliver in his biting video.
"I got a dead baby. His name was Joaquin Oliver. He was going to be 18. But now he's dead. And that's not a joke."