Mensch Louis C.K. Donates $280K From Comedy Special To Charity

Thumbs up!

Louis C.K.'s Beacon Theater comedy special/internet experiment turned out better than anyone could have expected: in the 12 days since the special was put online for $5, Louis has made more than a million dollars! And he announced on his website that he is donating $280,000 to five different charities: "The thing is still on sale. I hope folks keep buying it. If I make another million, I'll give more of it away. I'll let you know when that happens because I like you getting to know what happened to your 5 dollars and bringing awareness to the bla bla bla." Aww: come for the bag of dicks, stay for the benevolence.

Louis C. K. explained that he would use $250,000 to pay for the special, spend another $250,000 in bonuses to people who work for him, and keep $220,000 for himself: "Some of that will pay my rent and will care for my childen [sic]. The rest I will do terrible, horrible things with and none of that is any of your business. In any case, to me, 220k is enough out of a million." He further expanded on all this in an interview with Jimmy Fallon last night:

Our favorite part is when he describes the charities he is giving money in typical Louis C.K. form, including The Fistula Foundation ("It's a place for these women who get raped, and then I give them money"), Green Chimneys ("Where kids that nobody likes, they go to this place") and Charity Water ("They build water things when people are thirsty"). And he gives a substantial hint at a major overhaul toward which the rest of his money will be going.

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By Ben Yakas in Arts & Entertainment on December 22, 2011 3:57 PM

Comments [rss]

jisnotused

"The rest I will do terrible, horrible things with and none of that is any of your business"
CLASS

edgie168

THE WILLY WONKA FOR PERVERTS!

Colonel_Ingus

Fuckin 1%er

coolcat9944

Love him!

HughGass

f*cking love LCK. i was more than happy to spend my $5

SFNY

I didn't think I could dig him more than I already did, but then he goes and does this. Amazing.

Greg Froober

yet another reason why Louis CK is awesome.

One of the absolute greatest living comics

birdtird

now he can buy a bunch more "clifford" books for his kids;)

BrassMonkeyBallz

This is truly a beautiful thing he is doing. Awesome.

A lot of people in the 1% should take note.

HughGass

What makes you think they don't already? Unless they're all home lighting cigars with $100s and using poor children for footstools.

SFNY

Lower income folks give a greater % of income to charities than do the rich.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/...
While the wealthiest citizens give the most in sheer dollar amounts ... it's in fact low-income employed Americans who give the highest portion of their income, or 4.5%.

http://www.american.com/archiv...
Yet when we measure monetary giving as a percentage of income in order to ascertain the level of one’s “sacrifice,” we find a surprising result: it is low-income working families that are the most generous group in America, giving away about 4.5 percent of their income on average. This compares to about 2.5 percent among the middle class, and 3 percent among high-income families.

Detex

Interesting. Any idea how much is given to the church? Of the religious, Protestant, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Baptists come in at the bottom of the income spectrum but are also religions that have tithe standards...

Not to say that your info is incorrect but is it possible tha this cheratable "giving" is dictated by the church and NOT by the individual?

Remember the Poorest Town in America? Yeah, they make good money, they just donate it all back to themselves (saves on taxes and gives them Gov subsidies.) It is stuff like this that skews scales...

http://gothamist.com/2011/04/2...

Just wondering...

SFNY

Yes, amongst the poor there tends to be a higher likelihood for religious-based giving, which includes charitable groups (e.g., Save the Children) as well as tithes, and among the richest it's the foundations, libraries, etc. It's not a rule, though: a lot of ultra rich give money to religious groups, for example Domino's Pizza and Anthropologie/Urban Outfitters give handsomely to religious anti-choice "charities". Overall, religious charities (churches + organizations) represented about 35% of 2010's charitable giving.

In either case, it doesn't change the % of income donated, which is the most relevant detail. The poorest make the greatest personal sacrifice for the greater good. Marc & Lynn Benioff's $100 Million donation to UCSF isn't going to cramp their lifestyle as much as $100 would be missed by a paycheck-to-paycheck family.

I think Kiryas Joel is a unique, exceptional situation that can't really inform this discussion about charitable donations in average American society. But it's interesting as all hell.

Jen Chung

Green Chimneys is a nice organization—I've seen them bring animals down to the Animal Blessing at St. John the Divine, and the kids really love the animals http://greenchimneys.org/