July 15, 2012
Anatomy of a Successful Rape Joke
Jessica Valenti in The Nation:
Believe it or not, jokes about rape can be funny. (Yes, even feminists think so.) But Daniel Tosh’s hotly debated “joke” aimed at a female heckler was far from humorous—in fact, it was a perfect example of hownot to joke about rape.
Tosh has come under fire this week after a woman blogged about her experience seeing Tosh at a comedy club. According to her, Tosh was talking about how rape jokes were always “hilarious.” She called out, “Actually, rape jokes are never funny!”
After I called out to him, Tosh paused for a moment. Then, he says, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…”
Her post has since gone viral, prompting Tosh to write a tepid apology on his Twitter account:
all the out of context misquotes aside, i’d like to sincerely apologize j.mp/PJ8bNs
— daniel tosh (@danieltosh) July 10, 2012
In the meantime, hordes of fans and other comedians have come to his defense, some in the most violently misogynist way possible.
Elissa Bassist at The Daily Beast gets to the heart of why what Tosh said wasn’t funny—in fact, why it wasn’t a joke at all.
Tosh says he was joking. Comedians make rape jokes every day, so why is this one getting so much attention? Because Tosh was more than “just kidding.” He was angry. His “joke” was reactive to the so-called heckler who called him out in front of an audience. He used humor to cut her down, to remind her of own vulnerability, to emphasize who was in control. The “joke” ignited a backlash because it was not a joke; it was vastly different from other jokes about rape.
Jokes about rape that work—those that subvert rather than terrify—do exist. Sarah Silverman has one about being raped by a doctor: “…so bittersweet for a Jewish girl,” she says.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 05:23 PM | Permalink
Comments
You know what's even less funny than rape jokes? Stand-up comedians. Talk about an over-saturated market.
Posted by: Ski | Jul 15, 2012 8:43:17 PM
I'm having the hard time seeing what the actual problem is with this flap.
Is the issues that Tosh makes rape jokes? That's his shtick and it's no secret.
Is the issue that some people feel that rape should never be joked about? There is a solution for that, just don't see comedians who trade in this type of humor.
Is the issue that Tosh responded harshly (and in an unfunny way) to this woman? She chose to speak up, to interrupt his act in some vain attempt to dialog about rape jokes. She could have just walked out (and probably gotten a refund.)
You run down the list, trying to figure out what all the fuss is about and you come to the inevitable:
Some people are mad at Tosh because they personally feel that rape should never be joked about. In their minds, making light of rape somehow lends cover to it, or provides a defense for the act, or for rapist.
I think that's baloney.
Rape is horrible. So was the Holocaust. So was 9-11. But if you think comedians should limit themselves to knock-knock jokes where no one gets hurt, then you really need to have your priorities calibrated.
Otherwise we're going to arrive at a situation where someone is worked up over a knock knock joke because they feel that hitting a door with your fist is never funny.
Posted by: mr_goodbar | Jul 16, 2012 1:50:56 AM
"The height of ambition"
"An ant crawling up an elephant's leg with rape on his mind."
This joke is at least 60+ years old.
Posted by: W.J.Abbe | Jul 16, 2012 1:12:06 PM
A rape joke that is deadly serious.
The gang rape of our precious Constitution, which many brave souls have fought and died for, by every branch of government at every level, executive, legislative and judicial.
Posted by: w.J.Abbe | Jul 16, 2012 1:24:12 PM
Tosh seems to be an unfunny misogynist jerk - and many rape jokes are offensive.
But not this -
Asked the judge of the prostitute: 'When did you realise you'd been raped?'
Prostitute (wiping the tear from her eye): 'When the cheque bounced ...'
Posted by: Vivek T | Jul 18, 2012 1:18:48 AM
An unintentional rape joke. It neither "subverts" nor "terrifies" to work. It's just funny.
Posted by: prasad | Jul 19, 2012 4:24:42 AM
Prasad, that's not a joke about rape but about grammar. If you substituted "robbing" for "raping" you would get the point of the joke just as easily. In a real joke about sexual violence to women, every word -- no, every syllable -- would count towards a certain effect, that of making the teller look regressive. The headline you cite and classify as an unintentional rape joke is not even that -- it's an intentional grammar joke, the teller being Language Log, in the form of an unintentionally ungrammatical headline that Language Log quotes and parses.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Jul 19, 2012 9:30:05 AM
Elatia, how much can you expect from an unintended meaning? I just thought it was hilarious.
Anyway, fwiw, in this debate I think the people making substitutions of crimes (why should rape jokes meet a higher threshold than those about killing etc) have mostly been defending Tosh!
Posted by: prasad | Jul 19, 2012 11:41:22 AM
Ah, the memories: 1 & 2.
Posted by: billy | Jul 19, 2012 12:15:36 PM
Prasad, it is funny, but funnier to people who enjoy not misusing language than to people who think rape jokes are funny.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Jul 19, 2012 5:16:21 PM
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