Rape is Hilarious

Part Eighteen in an evidently never-ending series. Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen.

Nothing makes for a better practical joke on your daughter—especially one on a televised prank show—than pretending you're being raped in your own kitchen! Ha ha ha! (Warning: Potentially triggering.)


Jessica: "When I saw this on The Soup, I was just speechless. This 'joke' is abuse, plain and simple. And her mother was in on it?! I'm just...done."

What a humorless feminazi! Obviously Jessica hasn't heard that rape is the hip-hop-happeningest topic in comedy these days.

Zuska excerpts an article "about the nice young men who recently competed in the New Jersey King of Campus Comedy contest."

The competition's most popular topic was, believe it or not, rape. The first comic told two rape jokes. Another said he could never be a rapist because he likes to sleep after sex. Yet another said he would call his victim the next morning because he's such a nice guy.

Er, ha.

Later one of the competitors began his act by promising the audience that he wouldn't tell any rape jokes. He broke that promise two minutes later with a one-liner about using "ropes and formaldehyde" to solve his romantic problems.

Ha again.

The author of the article was a dude. He must be one of those pees-sitting-down, mangina-sporting dudes like Jeff Fecke, though, if he doesn't find jokes about rape funny. What a pussy.

Let me just reiterate my utter perplexity that anyone wants to be the total asshole who blindsides someone by evoking her (or his) memories of being raped, in the guise of "humor." Rape jokes can be as triggering as a rape scene in a film—and sometimes even more so, if they fly unexpectedly out of left field.

As I've said before, my objection isn't even rooted in finding rape jokes personally triggering anymore; I generally just find them pathetic and inexplicable. I'm more bothered by the fact that the jokes normalize and effectively minimize the severity of rape and thusly perpetuate the rape culture.

And I'm bothered by the thought of a woman who's recently been raped, who's just experienced what may be the worst thing that will ever happen to her, who turns on the telly to watch her favorite comedian and have a much-needed laugh—only to hear him using that horrible, life-changing thing as the butt of a joke. I still don't understand—and I don't believe I ever will—why anyone wants to be the guy who sends that shiver down her spine, who makes her eyes burn hot with tears at an unwanted memory while everyone laughs and laughs.

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If anyone feels a particular need to defend this shit, I'd recommend you tell your story walking. But if you don't, acknowledge that you are someone who is defending making light of vicious and criminal sexual violence for entertainment, and you will undoubtedly be treated with the according contempt.