TVSquad

FX has announced a couple of interesting new additions to its slate of comedies - The League, about a fantasy football league, and Louie, an autobiographical sitcom starring Louis C.K. (Variety broke the news Wednesday). The League features some talented comedians, namely Paul Scheer (from Human Giant), Nick Kroll, and Jon Lajoie. But it's Louie that I'm most interested in.

Louis C.K. is, hands down, the funniest and most productive comedian working in America today. He has taped his third stand-up special in three years, called Hilarious, which is set to come out later this year or early next year. I've seen him perform the material for it, and it's just as funny as the first two. And he's already dropped most of that material in favor of a new hour of material intended for another special. That's a tremendous pace for any stand-up comedian. George Carlin, the guy who inspired C.K. to do this, is the only other comic I can think of to keep to a schedule like that.

Louis C.K. just shot a new comedy pilot for FX. He plays a stand-up comic dealing with divorce and fatherhood. It's hard to imagine where they come up with this stuff when you consider that C.K. is a stand-up comic and a divorced father.

And, just to push the boundaries of creativity one level higher, FX is calling it Louis. (Strangely enough, rumor has it there's another pilot already called C.K. about an animated chicken working as a trauma nurse at a downtown hospital in a post apocalyptic future.)

One of the top stand-up comics working today and a former writer for Conan O'Brien and Dana Carvey, C.K. has yet to see his own TV projects take off. His 2006 HBO show Lucky Louie never got on the pop culture radar.

Since programming anything new is probably a waste on a holiday weekend, Comedy Central is programming roughly 4,000 previously aired stand-up specials (okay, just 40, but that's a lot) from some of the biggest names on its rosters, including Dane Cook, Jeff Dunham, Katt Williams, Louis C.K., Lewis Black, Brian Regan, Demetri Martin, Ron White, Lisa Lampanelli, and Jim Gaffigan. They'll also sprinkle in some of their Comedy Central Presents half-hour showcases. It's called the Stand-Up Blowout Weekend.

The first special is at 3 PM - Aisha Tyler is Lit: Live at the Fillmore and end, officially, with Drew Hastings: Irked and Miffed at 3 AM Monday morning. Sunday at 10PM is the network premiere of Dave Attell: Captain Miserable, which originally aired on HBO on December 8, 2007.

Louis C.K. has been challenging himself to do a new hour of comedy every year, for a new special every year. Chewed Up, which originally aired on Showtime last year and makes its Comedy Central debut tonight at 10 PM, is the result of that challenge, his second special in two years (he has already taped his third, which should be out sometime within the next six or seven months). It's also, to use the modern parlance, NSFW. Which means fans might shrink from watching it on a network like Comedy Central.

The strange thing about it, though, is that, looking at some clips of the special, a couple of things are clear. One, the language he uses is essential to the mood and attack of the comedy. And two, the ideas still come across when you bleep out the cursing.