Before watching this hour of comedy, I listened/watched an hour and a half interview that Louie did with Howard Stern. They touched on many subjects, one of which being the "Oh My God" comedy special on HBO, which is probably the whole reason Louie was on Howard in the first place - to promote it. I'm glad he did because I had forgotten about it and luckily I stumbled onto the interview on Youtube. In the interview, I was also surprised to hear that once Louie performs the jokes in the special, he will never do those same jokes again. He likened it to an author writing a book. I was taken aback by that. If something was really funny I'd hope to see him revisit it again, maybe in another special or maybe on his show on FX (of which he's taking a break and returning to it in 2014). This worry was taken away at the end of his performance.
When you title your show, "Oh My God", it carries with it a certain expectation. Lately, I've really gotten into Anthony Jeselnik and Nathan Fielder (Nathan For You) and their style is very smart, offensive, and perfectly delivered. The same can be said about Louie C.K., especially since he doesn't give a fuck about anyone else save for his daughters. He holds nothing back and tells it like it is. He DOES do this in "Oh My God", but I was expecting more shocking moments, maybe a little more offensive comments, but as I sat back and watched it, it felt pretty tame. It wasn't until the last 10 minutes where the began a routine where the topic was "legal murder". Up until that point, I did chuckle a few times, but it wasn't until the end that I was laughing out loud which is one of my determining factors of which I use to decide if I really liked something or not. The ratio of "LOL" moments to non "LOL" moments is the simple formula I use. If the LOL moments are greater than the non, then thumbs up, and if vice versa, then thumbs down.
At the time of this review and my first viewing, this special has earned a thumbs down. But due to the nature of the strong ending, I will probably revisit this special in the future and my opinion may change. (On a related note, the movie "Due Date" was on cable this weekend, a movie I haven't seen since I saw it in the theater. Back then, I thought it was just OK, and had no intention of seeing it again. Upon a second viewing, I really enjoyed it and even caught myself watching it a third time during a re-airing. While it's not a very strong movie, I'd recommend watching it while doing something else, maybe cruising the internet, doing homework, crocheting, balancing your check book, or any other task at hand.)
Oh My God?
Oh My Gosh...
Oh My...
Oh.
