While we wait to see if Louie ever returns from its “extended hiatus,†Louis C.K. has been hard at work on a few new series.* The first, Horace and Pete, launched on C.K.’s site in January, the second, Baskets, starring Zach Galifianakis debuted on FX the same month, and the third is the forthcoming Better Things, co-created by C.K. and Pamela Adlon, whom we all remember as “Pamela†on Louie. In this semiautobiographical take on her own life, Adlon plays “Sam,†a working actress and single parent in Los Angeles. If that sounds like basically a West Coast–set Louie from a woman’s perspective, well, that’s kind of the point.
In this exclusive clip, Adlon’s Sam, in line for coffee, cracks a Cersei Lannister “Walk of Shame†joke and… crickets. Which raises the tree-in-the-woods question: If no one laughs at your pop-culture reference, is it still funny? (Of course it is, don’t let the humorless masses get you down, never stop cracking wise.) Better Things premieres on FX Thursday, September 8.
*This post originally stated that Louis C.K. created two new shows in 2016, Horace and Pete and Better Things, but has been changed to reflect that C.K. co-created a third show this year as well, FX’s Baskets.