Louis not hosting Washington dinner

Louis CK has pulled out of a major Washington political event after facing a barrage of criticism from a right-wing commentator.

The acclaimed comic was due to host of the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner in June.

But the booking prompted an angry blog from Fox News commentator Greta Van Susteren, who called CK a ‘pig’ and urged a boycott of the event.

She was particularly riled over jokes he made about Sarah Palin, saying ‘he denigrates all women’ in the comments.

On her blog, she wrote: ‘Another pig….and a media association has hired the pig, Louis CK, to be their headliner for the big media dinner? Really? I am not going. I refuse to go. Everyone in the media should join me in this boycott.

‘He uses filthy language about women…..yes, the C word…and yes, even to describe a woman candidate for Vice President of the United States. It isn’t just Governor Palin he denigrates. He denigrates all women and looks to the crowd to laugh.

‘I refuse to show any support for this guy or for the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner Committee who hired him. I think the organization that hired him is just as bad as he is. It is no secret that he denigrates women.’

She then quoted expletive-ridden commentst CK has made against Palin, such as talking about her ‘retard-making cunt’.

Van Susteren’s husband has previously worked as Palin’s adviser.

CK has confessed to regretting some of the things he has said about Palin’s son Trig, who has Down’s Syndrome, but added: ‘Honestly, I think she's a shit mother, I really do. I'm saying that as a parent. I think she's a horrible parent. To parade around with that Down-syndrome baby, to hold him up in front of the fucking Republican National Convention, it's just gross. I don't mean the kid's gross, it's just a gross thing to do. It's exploitative.’

And he added: ‘All that other shit, though, saying Palin had a Chinese family in her vagina and whatever, I don't regret that. It's comedy. I have said many indefensible things onstage. It's fucking comedy. Plus, I do believe if she got elected, she'd really Hitler up the place.’

The dinner is a less high-profile version of the White House Correspondents Dinner, last year hosted by Seth Meyers. The president and vice president have sometimes attended the function, but Obama has not appeared at it since 2009.

When CK’s booking was announced, organisers said it was supposed to ‘give the dinner a bit of an edge, shakes it up a little…. One of our goals was to make it not so stuffy an evening, as opposed to the more traditional, D.C. black-tie events’.

Louis CK has not commented on the current row, but here he is explaining his ‘drunken Tweets’ about Palin to Bill Maher:

Published: 10 Mar 2012