Come On, God

The episode was written and directed by series creator and lead actor Louis C.K., marking his 21st writing and directing credit for the series.[1]

The concept of the episode originally involved Louie getting in trouble for saying comments in a cable show. C.K. decided to change the concept, explaining "it's so much more interesting to write a real version about them and find out what I could learn about that mentality, instead of just making fun of it. And also, my life as a masturbator is a miserable life."[2] He further added, "There is something we can learn from each other: pulling back, making it mean something, and really aiming for ecstasy instead of just jacking off. That's where that came from."[2]

In its original American broadcast, "Come On, God" was seen by an estimated 0.73 million household viewers with a 0.4 in the 18-49 demographics. This means that 0.4 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.[3] This was a 22% decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 0.93 million viewers with a 0.4 in the 18-49 demographics.[4]

"Come On, God" received universal acclaim. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A" grade and wrote, "Louie views sex and masturbation as a matter of course. These are just things people do, and in the case of the latter, it's something people do often. To Ellen, they're something sacred, something to be saved for the special person and the time being right. The episode doesn't demonize her point of view; it just finds it almost incredibly alien."[5]

Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "What seemed like it was going to be a set-up for C.K. to attack the hypocrisy of religious fundamentalism – the direction virtually any other TV show would go with this material – instead did something very unexpected: it took the other side's viewpoint very, very seriously. The woman, while unswerving in her beliefs, never judged Louie, and seemed to enjoy his company, and when she explained her vision of what she thinks sex will be like with God’s approval, it sounded vastly better than what we know of Louie's desperate, sweaty, uncomfortable love life."[6]

James Poniewozik of TIME wrote, "It's one of the most mature discussions of these two attitudes toward sexuality I've seen on TV, and yes, I am saying that about an episode that concludes with a man masturbating and farting on a toilet."[7] Joshua Kurp of Vulture wrote, "One of the best things about the episode was it didn't paint Louie's side as right and Ellen's as wrong, or vice versa; I've written before about Louie's resistance to black-and-white thinking, and 'Come On, God' could have gone for the easy Christian jokes, but it never demonized Ellen, nor her beliefs."[8]