After news of the Bill Cosby sexual assault scandal went public, several professional comics came forward to reveal that Cosby's perverted ways were something of an "open secret" in the comedy community.
Roseanne Barr claimed she'd known about Cosby for years. Comics like Kathy Griffin and Patton Oswalt tweeted support for the victims and stated that they weren't surprised to see the allegations come to light.
Now, it looks as though a much younger comic who's still beloved by most of his peers may be the latest subject of some very ugly accusations.
It all started when an unidentified young comic known only as "Jason" alerted Gawker to some shocking charges against Louis C.K.
Jason says he sent C.K. an email reading, "Hey could you please stop sexually assaulting female comics? It's really uncomfortable to have to ask your hero to stop taking his penis out in front of uninterested and frightened girls, but such is life."
Jason says C.K. responded in minutes and asked for his phone number so that the two of them could discuss the matter.
A self-described "former fan," Jason says he was disappointed when C.K. offered nothing in the way of defense or clarification. He says that their conversation consisted mainly of the comic "sizing [him] up" and trying to find out what he knew.
The incident went largely unreported at first, but earlier today, a podcast in which comedian Jen Kirkman describes the harassment she endured from a comic who sounds an awful lot like C.K. began to make the rounds online:
"And then I had another guy who is a very famous comic," Kirkman says "He is probably at Cosby level at this point. He is lauded as a genius. He is basically a French filmmaker at this point. You know, new material every year.
"He’s a known perv. And there’s a lockdown on talking about him. His guy friends are standing by him, and you cannot say a bad thing about him."
"If I say it, my career is over. My manager and my agent have told me that. They didn’t threaten it. They just said to me 'You know what Jen, it’s not worth it because you’ll be torn apart. Look at the Cosby women.'
"And this guy didn’t rape me, but he made a certain difficult decision to go on tour with him really hard. Because I knew if I did, I’d be getting more of the same weird treatment I’d been getting from him."
It's hard to think of a current comic aside from C.K. who matches the description provided by Kirkman. (The "new material every year" and "French filmmaker" comments likely refer to C.K.'s acclaimed, experimental sitcom.)
C.K. has yet to respond to the allegations against him, but several social media users who claim to be familiar with the situation say that they expect more victims to come forward.
