Tig Notaro on mentor Louis CK's ousting: 'A huge relief'

Louis C.K. was executive producer of Notaro's show "One Mississippi."

ByABC News
December 11, 2017, 6:19 PM

— -- Comedian Tig Notaro, a protégé of Louis C.K., said "it's a huge relief ... to have him removed" as executive producer of her show "One Mississippi."

Notaro said on "The View" on Monday that she "started publicly trying to distance myself from him for about two years" after she said she got "firsthand confirmation" of alleged sexual misconduct by the acclaimed comedian.

Louis C.K., whose given name is Louis Szekely, is alleged to have masturbated in front of several female associates, according to a Nov. 9 report in The New York Times.

He responded to the allegations in a long statement that said "these stories are true" and that he had brought "pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother."

Notaro said on "The View" that her experiences with Louis C.K. were "nothing like" what has been alleged against him.

She also said she had not acted herself to remove Louis C.K. as executive producer of her show because "it wasn't my place to call out names."

"You know, it's somebody else's story," she said. "It's for them to directly speak about."

Notaro also spoke about an episode of her Amazon show, "One Mississippi," in which a love interest of her character is forced to watch her male boss masturbate at his desk.

She said the scene was written in January, ten months before allegations against Louis C.K. surfaced in the media.

"Every story on 'One Mississippi' is based in truth," Notaro said. "It's not necessarily my truth. It's somebody's truth and something that somebody experienced."

She added, "Our entire writer's room is female. Every person in the room has had an issue with assault, abuse or harassment in some way ... every single one."

Notaro said the show wanted to include a scene based on one of the allegations against Louis C.K. "because people seemed to feel like this was hard to believe."

"It's like, 'What is somebody's motivation there?' ... You know it's not somebody interested in somebody. It's not somebody flirting. It's something beyond that.

"It's about power. ... It's abuse," Notaro said. "It's disgusting."

Notaro's relationship with Louis C.K. dates back to when his production company, Pig Newton, released her 2012 comedy album.

But she was one of the few in the comedy world to speak out against him in the Times article detailing allegations by five women.

“Sadly, I’ve come to learn that Louis C.K.’s victims are not only real, but many are actual friends of mine within the comedy community," she told the Times.