Louis C.K. on Why He Quit Twitter

Louis CK. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Louis C.K. offered a succinct and quintessentially Louie-ish explanation for why he gave up Twitter during an interview with SiriusXM’s Opie: “It didn’t make me feel good,” the comic said. “It made me feel bad instead. So I stopped doing it.”

C.K. was clear it wasn’t trolls or overwhelming negativity that drove him off the site, but rather his own contributions. “Any time I tweeted anything I was like, ‘Ugh don’t like the way that came out.’ And then four and a half million people saw it! It was the worst things I ever said, heard and seen by the most people. It’s the worst possible scenario.”

The comedian later pointed out that he primarily used Twitter as a promotional tool (to the chagrin of some fans, who pestered him for only plugging his material) and ultimately found the very nature of the social media site to be detrimental. “It’s too instant, I don’t think the speed helps dialogue,” C.K. said. “I think it’s why everything is kind of fucked up and polarizing, because people are going too fast, they’re trying to react too quickly.”

Elsewhere, C.K. talked about the ongoing fifth season of his hit FX show, Louie, and its sudden, high-minded origins. Initially, the comedian was planning on taking another year-long break ”” as he did between Seasons Three and Four ”” but changed his mind just before FX was set to announce the hiatus.

“One night I got high, I smoked pot, and I got excited about a whole idea for the next season,” C.K. said. “I started writing it, and I was like, ‘This is gonna be so great, I want to do this now.'”

C.K. was able to work out a last-minute deal with FX for an eight-episode season, then recalled: “I woke up and I looked at all the shit I wrote when I was high, and I was like, ‘This is terrible!’ I didn’t use a single idea. I had 10 pages written, 10 stoned pages.”

The abandoned story centered around the return of Eddie, a suicidal comedian played by Doug Stanhope in Season Two, who has gotten his life back on track. After running into each other, the he and Louie decide to open a comedy club, and C.K. said he envisioned plots about being a club owner and interacting with young comedians.

“It was just so stupid,” he admitted with a laugh. “I made a huge decision that had impacts on my, and a lot of peoples’ lives ”” cause a lot of people work for me ”” and I was stoned at the time!”

C.K. then opened up a bit about his own marijuana use, saying he smokes every few weeks or so, cracking later that he’s still working through a stash he picked up a decade ago. “I’m very paranoid about drug use, so if I get high twice a week, I’m like, ‘I have a problem,’ and I stop,” he said. “I don’t think it’s good for comics, getting high, it takes your will away and it makes you too comfortable. And I got kids ”” I can’t fuck around with that shit.”