The Fast Food Connoisseur Reviews Wendy’s Strawberry Shortcake Frosty Parfait
I have a bit of a sweet tooth. Which is a nice way of saying I’m an undisciplined fuck when it comes to my eating and I get visible erections […]
Last Friday, Daniel Tosh of Tosh.0 fame uttered a line at Los Angeles’ Laugh Factory to the effect of “rape jokes are always funny”. (As an aside, I don’t see the point of Tosh.0. Would you watch a show where the host airs the top porn videos of the week, then makes comments about how sexy they are while you try to get off to them? So why let a comedian do that with funny clips?) Some lippy broad then took it upon herself to stand up and screech, “Actually, rape jokes are never funny!”
You see what she cleverly did there? She switched the “always” to “never” and threw it right back in Tosh’s face. I bet people in the audience were confused as to who they paid to watch perform comedy that night because they now had a two titans of laughter in their midst.
Except nobody was confused, because Daniel Tosh was the one on stage and the harpy in the audience, filled with misplaced righteous indignation as she was, still was nothing more than a disruptive heckler. So Daniel fired back, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her?” And you know what? That would be funny. I mean a woman who just screamed that rape is never funny proceeding to get raped? The irony is delicious.
The entire non-event has now become a thing because a friend of Loudmouth McBlurtycunt wrote about the incident on her Tumblr, which then went viral, leading every media outlet possible to declare that, “No, some topics are just not funny” and that Daniel had crossed a line. Tosh himself issued an apology via Twitter, to which the brilliant Doug Stanhope replied, “If you ever apologize to a heckler again I will rape you.”
I hate that I live in a world where things like this need explanation, and it makes me sound like the condescending twat that I am to declare that I’m one who can handle the explaining, but here goes: Anything said on stage, in writing or via broadcast that is an attempt at humor is not subject to standard societal mores and reactions. Daniel Tosh was not a random man whispering in a strange woman’s ear “Wouldn’t it be funny if you got raped?” He was on stage as an extremely well-paid entertainer whose purpose is to get laughs.
Some comedians do that with melons, others with steroid abuse. Many, like Daniel Tosh, try to be insightful and irreverent and explore the absurdities of everyday life. Sometimes, the results of those explorations don’t work as a joke for whatever reason. Maybe the wording was poor or the audience was misread. But a funny joke can be made about any topic. More importantly, if ae joke fails to be funny, it’s still protected, both as free speech and under the aegis of being an attempt at humor. And for some dimwitted individual to miss the entire point of that, much less every media outlet applauding this zilch like she’s a modern Rosa Parks, really makes me want to rape them.
Mike on July 12, 2012
“Anything said on stage, in writing or via broadcast that is an attempt at humor is not subject to standard societal mores and reactions.”
I’m with you that funny jokes can be made about any topic. Rape jokes have been taking a beating lately. It seems as though we’ve forgotten the concept that joking about something offensive or horrible like rape can assuage the awfulness of it and, in a way, make it easier to cope with and understand. I agree with the vast majority of your opinions but I feel that the one I quoted above is possibly misguided. Free speech is like all of the other freedoms we enjoy: it’s subject to limitations and those limitations can change over time. To say “anything” said on stage that’s meant to be humorous isn’t subject to large-scale scrutiny and, unfortunately, even some censorship is too broad a stroke. Hateful speech is an example. What Tosh was saying wasn’t hateful at all, and this certainly doesn’t apply to that. I suppose what I’m trying to say is there are sick fucks out there who do intend to cause harm to others. To give them unfettered license to say “anything” they want (which I believe some would use as a tool to incite wrongful behaviors) as long as they maintain it’s meant to be humorous isn’t in the spirit of what was intended when we established free speech.
I suppose the easiest solution to (unnecessary and irrelevant) dustups like this situation with Tosh would be if people could apply their common sense. Dare to dream.
Dee on July 12, 2012
To Mike,
So you’re one of those people who loudly proclaim how you wholeheartedly agree BUT then go on to expostulate on why you disagree. There is always one (or several) of you phonies in the crowd.
Papa made it clear that anything said in an ATTEMPT AT HUMOR doesn’t fall under the typical social scrutiny. To your point, any of these “sick fucks” engaging in hateful rhetoric are NOT attempting humor. To equate comedy with various groups who would seek to do harm through speech is absurd and dishonest. You need to admit that you had a problem with the content of the joke and stop pretending you believe in free speech. Say hi to Loudmouth McBlurtycunt for me next time you two go to a comedy show together.
Mike on July 12, 2012
The point I was trying to make – and utterly failed at making, apparently – was that when we make “anything” acceptable so long as it’s an attempt at humor, that opens the door for certain aspects of speech that have no place in civilized society. To assert that anything is okay if its intention is humorous potentially makes “humor” an unintended loophole; an avenue for people who would perhaps spew hate-speech under the guise of “I meant it to be funny”.
I’ll try to make an example. Imagine a man touring the country saying he was a comedian. All he talks about during his sets are how horrible he perceives all non-whites to be. At the end of his show, he implores the audience to hate all non-whites and do whatever they can to make those non-whites miserable in the hopes of driving them from their homes. It’s an extreme, barely plausible example, but that would obviously be very problematic, no? Any rational person would see that this hypothetical person’s hateful messages aren’t comedy in any sense of the word, but if he and his followers/supporters kept asserting it was intended as humor, what rationale could be used to stop him?
Comedy being a subjective form cuts both ways. What’s funny to some isn’t funny to others. But by saying anything/everything that someone could potentially say on a comedy stage should be protected, you’re potentially offering a haven for lunatics.
Do you see what I mean? I agree that things said in a legitimate and honest attempt at humor should be witheld from scrutiny. But because the only person who can honestly attest to a message’s intent is the person from whom the message originates, it would be imprudent to say, “Anything goes as long as it’s intended as funny”.
Mike on July 12, 2012
And just so you know, I haven’t talked to McBlurtycunt in ages and the last time we talked it got messy, so I’m not the best person to relay a “hi” for you.
KJ on July 12, 2012
@Mike the argument that “the only person who can honestly attest to a message’s intent is the person from whom the message originates” is ridiculous. If that were true all communication would fail. The truth is that communication requires a receiver and a sender, and at higher level is frequently made up of non-sequiturs, sarcasm, idioms, inferences, and other situations where the receiver understands the latent meaning. The receiver then gives feedback – in this case laughter- that aids the sender in knowing that the message was correctly communicated.
Beyond the technicalities of communication is another problem with your argument. “By saying anything/everything that someone could potentially say on a comedy stage should be protected, you’re potentially offering a haven for lunatics.” You frame this as a negative, but it is not. Yes… a comedy stage can be a haven for lunatics. So what? Any stage can be a haven for lunatics who OPENLY harbor malicious intent. And whether I agree with their message or not, they have a right to express it. A comedy stage even more so. As was said earlier, Tosh is a paid entertainer known for his gritty and risque humor.
If the female blogger (or you) see this attempt at humor being as a legitimate threat this speaks more of inadequate communication skills on the part of the receiver than on the sending. In fact one of the indicators of the Autism or Asperger’s is the inability to understand nuance, and other intricate forms of communication that often occur with in comedy.