Can rape be funny?
Why Daniel Tosh’s ‘Rape Joke’ at the Laugh Factory Wasn’t Funny
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/11/why-daniel-tosh-s-rape-...
I edit a humor column called Funny Women on TheRumpus.net, and during my first and last radio interview about “funny women,” the host asked me if I thought rape jokes were funny. She said, “Rape jokes are never funny.” I said I thought anything could be funny. I went a step beyond and said jokes about tragedy could take on a fierce power. They could be cathartic and empowering, they could help you reclaim control when you’ve lost something you’ll never get back or have been damaged beyond repair.
On Friday night, during his set at the Laugh Factory, the hugely popular Comedy Central host Daniel Tosh made a rape joke, stripping the experience of its weight, of its tragedy, of its crime: “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl [referring to an audience member who “heckled” him about rape jokes not being funny earlier in his set] got raped by, like, five guys right now? Like right now?”
A friend of “that girl” wrote about the exchange on her Tumblr, and bless her for doing so. We must mark these verbal assaults to manage them. Tosh’s poorly capitalized retort, via Twitter: “the point i was making before i was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them.”
There are awful things in the world, and you can still make jokes about them. I have a rape joke myself. When I wrote about my sexual assault for a nonfiction workshop in my MFA program, I called the piece “rape-portage,” as in “reportage” as pronounced by arrogant MFAers as “re-por-taj” or “re-pər-ˈtäzh,” if you want to get fancy. I’d laugh at my own joke, which I said aloud only to myself and a few close friends, feeling as if the worst thing that happened to me was something I could now own and talk about without feeling it was the worst thing that had happened to me. I used humor to distance myself from pain, while never forgetting the pain or diminishing or devaluing it.
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Can rape be funny? Can murder be funny? Can genocide be funny? Torture? religion? political beliefs?
Where do you draw the line at funny?
rape used to be funny in france ( duration 1980's)
Where did I say things should be censored?
No
at the same time you are talking of censorship here. You were opposed to censorship I believe? Is there a change in goalpost here?
you need such jokes to enable you to laugh? why? did you have a sense of humor bypass?
Why one need to mock at others to have some fun?
Did you hear the one about the five militia men who walked into in a village . . . ? It just isn't funny.
Now the one about the priest, rabbi, imam, and George Bush walking into a bar with a duck under his arm is absolutely hysterical.
It wasn't a joke, a directed comment by someone losing it after being heckled.
There are two different aspects here.
What Daniel Tosh said was not funny, because it was not a joke, but a statement directed at an individual.
Having said that, humour is subjective and many find bad taste jokes, jokes about religion, gays, rape etc funny.
I recall reading a few jokes about "Maddie McCain" - some found them funny, others thought they were distasteful..
Can we open a racist jokes thread?
Really? If I was the woman I would be scared sh**less, regardless of whether or not the guy was laughing at the time.
MM, for a group of drunk guys it will be funny. Or for a group of whatever militia in whatever country it will be funny, too.
I'll fourth you LP. However, I do think saying "wouldn't it be funny if this woman was gang raped" to be a little crass.
can i try ?
Who's gonna fourth me now?
Really it's up to each individual. Personally though I find humor only in that which doesn't cause pain and anguish to another. I hate laughing at the expense of another really! So jokes about rape,murder,genocide,religion and torture can IMO never be funny.
Far too subjective a question but of course it can be funny.
Nyahahah>>What a funny questions. If I will rape you then it would be ok for you?
I second LP
Religion and political beliefs can be funny.. others, can't see how they can be funny.
Fun is in the eye of the beholder.
Religion and political beliefs can definitely be funny. Not so for the others.
Funny stuff