A joke about rape or a veiled threat?

July 12, 2012 |
Valor

Last weekend at The Laugh Factory in Hollywood, CA, Comedy Central comedian Daniel Tosh’s efforts to highlight the “hilarity” of rape jokes during a stand-up routine received a pointed response from a female audience member.  “Actually, rape jokes are never funny!” was her reported comment.   According to some audience accounts, Mr. Tosh then responded to the woman’s remark as follows:  “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…”  Needless to say, the woman was horrified by Mr. Tosh’s response and left the show.  But this was just the beginning of what has now become a national outrage and, yes, another example of misogynistic and callous attitude and behavior aimed at silencing women and survivors of sexual assault and rape – not to mention making light of sexual violence overall.  While Mr. Tosh has publicly apologized for his comments over the past few days,  it has not quelled the furor – especially from people who interpreted his response as a veiled threat against the female audience member for disrupting his performance and challenging his comedic observation that “rape jokes are funny.”  His verbal response to the audience member illustrates the very real threat many women – here and around the world – must constantly face when speaking out against misogyny and domestic/sexual violence.
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