The owner of the Comedy Cellar Noam Dworman has been out and about defending both himself and Louis C.K. this week, following C.K.’s surprise return to the stage on Sunday night. In the New York Times story that broke the news, Dworman said that “there can’t be a permanent life sentence on someone who does something wrong.” He told the Hollywood Reporter that “I have other comedians work here who I’ve heard accusations of worse things than Louis—worse than sexual harassment.” He appeared on Wednesday on Fox News radio, where he said that he doesn’t think of comedy as a workplace or this as a “workplace issue.” He also hosted #MeToo critic Bari Weiss on this week’s episode of the Comedy Cellar podcast, Live From the Table, where she critiqued the reporting around C.K.’s being thrust upon the audience: “Everybody’s thrust upon the audience, that’s the point!”
But Dworman’s defense of his decision to allow C.K. back goes even further—it’s not just that it’s time to forgive C.K. for being a sexual harasser, but that C.K. isn’t a sexual harasser at all.
Rachel Rose Withers 