Sarah Silverman revealed during a recent appearance on the Sirius XM program The Howard Stern Show that her friend Louis C.K. used to masturbate in front of her when they were younger with her consent.
"I know I’m going to regret saying this," Silverman said, perIndieWire. "I've known Louis forever, I'm not making excuses for him, so please don’t take this that way. We are peers. We are equals. When we were kids, and he asked if he could masturbate in front of me, sometimes I'd go, 'Fuck yeah I want to see that!'… It's not analogous to the other women that are talking about what he did to them. He could offer me nothing. We were only just friends. Sometimes, yeah, I wanted to see it, it was amazing. Sometimes I would say, 'Fucking no, gross,' and we got pizza."
Her revelation comes in light of Louis slowly making a return to the comedy scene following a nearly year-long hiatus stemming from numerous sexual misconduct allegations made against him. The misconduct, which the comedian later admitted to, led HBO, Netflix, and FX to cutting ties with him.
Silverman tried explaining how Louis's behavior during their younger years didn't translate as he gained wealth and popularity. "Once he became powerful, even within just his [comedy] community, he felt like he was the same person, but the dynamic was different and it was not OK," she said. Silverman mentions that C.K. tried righting his wrongs prior to the allegations surfacing, "Even in that article they talk about how he went on tried to connect with some of these women to say he fucked up and wronged them," she adds.
Silverman believes that Louis's return to stand-up should coincide with his willingness to discuss his transgressions onstage. "I’m not saying everyone should embrace Louis again," she said. "I believe he has remorse. I just want him to talk about it on stage. He’s going to have to find his way or not find his way."
Rebecca Corry, one comedian/writer/actress victimized by C.K., tweeted a response that started a brief back-and-forth with Silverman:
