Parkland father who slammed comedian Louis C.K. with his own standup video will attend State of the Union address
A grieving father who responded to Louis C.K.'s poorly received jokes about the Parkland school shooting with a standup routine of his own is planning to attend the State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Manuel Oliver accepted an invitation to attend the event at the U.S. Capitol as a guest of Rep. Ted Deutch, a Democrat who represents Florida's 22nd congressional district, which includes Parkland, CBS Miami reported.
Oliver's son, 17-year-old Joaquin Oliver, was among 17 students and staff killed in the massacre on Feb. 14, 2018.
Oliver recently launched a promotional campaign for Change the Ref, a nonprofit organization he set up with his wife, Patricia, to help young people fight for gun control. He produced a video to counter C.K.'s jokes about Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who had testified before Congress about gun control.
"You're not interesting because you went to a high school where kids got shot," C.K. is heard saying in audio leaked in December. "Why does that make you interesting? You didn't get shot. You pushed some fat kid in the way and now I gotta listen to you talking?"
Many saw it as a new low for the embattled comedian, who returned to the stage nine months after he admitted sexual misconduct allegations against him, including accusations of masturbating in front of women, "are true."
Last month, Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime Guttenberg was killed in the Parkland attack, was among those who lashed out at C.K. on Twitter. "To anyone who knows Louis CK, please deliver this message for me. My daughter was killed in the Parkland shooting. My son ran from the bullets. My wife and I deal with loss everyday," Guttenberg wrote. "Why don't you come to my house and try out your new pathetic jokes?"
Oliver found a more unconventional way to rebuke the comedian. His mock video, posted Jan. 28 on YouTube, begins with a shot of Oliver putting up posters to promote his "comedy" set.
"Murdering Innocent Children Comedy Night," one of the posters reads. "Shooting in a city near you." "It will be a gun barrel of laughs," reads another line on the poster.
Oliver takes the stage and begins what looks like a traditional standup comedy act — but is really anything but.
"Recently I heard this great line from a comedian. He said, 'If you want people to forget that you were jerking off, just make a joke about kids getting shot,'" Oliver begins, in a reference to Louis C.K. "And I thought, jokes about kids getting shot … I can do that."
He goes on to describe what happened to his son.
"Hear the one about the kid that walks into the school on Valentine's Day? Skinny kid, wearing headphones. Gets dropped by his dad. And he says, 'I love you,' and gets out of the car and walks into the school. And then gets shot to death a couple of hours later."
A drummer punctuates the line by playing the classic comedy riff.
"You guys ever heard dead baby jokes? I got a dead baby. His name was Joaquin Oliver. He was gonna be 18. But now he's dead. And that's not a joke," Oliver says before walking off the stage. The video ends with a call for viewers to stand up to gun violence.
Oliver is not the only one connected to Parkland expected to attend President Trump's State of the Union. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Cameron Kasky, a founder of the movement March For Our Lives, will be attending as the guest of U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California.