Patrick Coppolino of Ontario, Canada made some waves Thursday with a video he Tweeted to several news websites. The video appeared to be of Louis C.K. taking a punch thrown by a heckler at the Comedy Cellar in New York. The Comedy Cellar is the club where C. K.'s hit TV show Louie often portrays him doing stand-up. The attack video soon went viral and many people were swept into believing the hype. As more people watched, however, questions inevitably began to fly about whether or not the whole thing was fake and a prank.
At the start of the video, it almost looks like the heckler and Louis C. K. are just standing there. Nothing happens until "Louis" says something; "And, go," perhaps? Not many people commented on this particular part though, in spite of the obvious weirdness of it. Probably because they were caught up in C. K. getting slugged. Upon closer inspection, the punch looks weak to say the least and Louis doesn't even bother to defend himself or block the punch. That alone made viewers suspicious. Then he runs off the stage and you can clearly hear him say, "Cut."
A lot of people thought this was Louis' way of gearing up for a return to Louie. If that were the case, why are there not one, but two people filming the event with cellphones? The second video was released later that same night and made the punch look more realistic. That may have been because the video's beginning and end were not in this one. Even though the hit looked pretty weak, it still went a long way to convincing many people the charade was real.
As questions such as these started to circulate the Internet, people began to understandably doubt the authenticity of the heckler's motives. Even still, it came as a bit of a shock to find out the comedian in the video was not Louis C. K. at the Comedy Cellar. Instead, it was long-time trouble-maker and fellow comedian Patrick Coppolino at one of Ontario, Canada's Yuk Yuk clubs.
You might ask yourself, "Why would someone do such a thing?" That would simply mean you are not familiar with Coppolino's particular brand of comedy. Perhaps you missed out on the horrifying and controversial comedian stabbing he staged back in 2013? That video also went viral. While it did get the comedian some attention, many people thought the trick was in poor taste.
Coppolino's plan was put into motion after he showed off his Louis C. K. Halloween Costume. You have to admit, the likeness is pretty uncanny.
#Hamilton comic @PatCoppolino trolled the internet with #LouisCK prank https://t.co/ElwiIT40Hg #HamOnt @TheSpec pic.twitter.com/fz1W8xTNXm
— Yuk Yuks Hamilton (@Hamiltonyukyuks) October 30, 2015
