Not one to suffer silently, Louis C.K. went ahead and spread his financial burdens around on The Howard Stern Show today, revealing that making Horace and Pete left him several million dollars in debt. Basically, his debt is our bad, C.K. explained, because fewer people bought the show than C.K. was (literally) banking on.
Releasing Horace and Pete straight to his website, C.K.’s original plan was to outlay 2 million of his own dollars on Horace and Pete’s first four episodes, leaving him “with no cushion in life.” His hope was for these four episodes to make their money back, funding the rest of the season. Well, as the saying goes, “the best laid plans can cripple you financially.” Not enough people bit. To continue making the show, C.K. says, “I had to take out a line of credit.” Speaking with the incredible chill of someone who is presumably screaming molten fire on the inside, C.K. told Stern that he’s now “millions of dollars in debt.” Hence his appearance on the show, which comes in the midst of a publicity blitz — a sweaty, desperate attempt to drive sales, which will probably work and get C.K. out of the hole by the end of the summer. So why don’t you just calm down? It’s not even your debt anyways. Long story short: C.K. needs you to buy Horace and Pete to unburden him. Do that if you want the gauzy aura of debt to stop swarming the air; don’t if schadenfreude is more your je ne sais quoi, or if you generally do not care to be patron to this artiste. Capitalism: Have at it.