Tig Notaro isn't mincing words about her opinion of Louis C.K. The comedian appeared on The View Monday, and she called it "a huge relief" that the sexual harassment accusations about him are out in the open.
Last month, The New York Times published a report in which five women accused C.K. of sexual harassment. C.K. later admitted in a statement that the allegations leveled against him were true, and FX, Netflix, and HBO ended their relationships with him.
Before the Times' report, though, Notaro had addressed the rumors about C.K.'s sexual misconduct during an August interview with The Daily Beast.
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"I think it's important to take care of that, to handle that, because it's serious to be assaulted," Notaro told The Daily Beast at the time, referring to C.K. "It's serious to be harassed. It's serious, it's serious, it's serious."
During that interview, Notaro said that C.K. "has nothing to do with the show," referring to her Amazon series, One Mississippi, on which C.K. was listed as an executive producer. The two have a strained history together — C.K. helped Notaro gain widespread recognition in the comedy community after tweeting about her standup and selling one of her set recordings on his website. But their relationship grew more tense as time went on, especially after Notaro said that an SNL sketch from C.K.'s episode was plagiarized from one of her own sketches, "Clown Service."
On The View this week, Notaro said she found out about the allegations shortly after Amazon bought the series.
"I found this out right after we sold the show, that this was happening," Notaro said on the show. "I started publicly trying to distance myself from him for almost two years now. Even though I knew firsthand from people, it wasn't my place to call out names. It's somebody else's story. It's for them to directly speak about, but I knew, for myself, I wanted to make sure."
Notaro deserves respect for not calling out these women's stories; as she said, they aren't hers to share. Still, it's worth noting that she did try to draw attention to the issue months ago, before the floodgates were opened about sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry. There are always people trying to shine a light on injustice; it's up to us to hear what they're saying.
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C.K. is one of many Hollywood figures dealing with accusations of sexual misconduct in recent months. The allegations first gained national attention with the claims dozens of women made against producer Harvey Weinstein; since then, numerous other men, including Kevin Spacey and C.K., have also been accused of misconduct. C.K. is one of the few people to admit that the claims lodged against him are true.
Reps for Notaro and C.K. didn't immediately respond to Refinery29's request for comment.
If you have experienced sexual violence and are in need of crisis support, please call the RAINN Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
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