Heard any good rape jokes lately?

franklinveaux said:
He dealt with her by suggesting that she be gang-raped on the spot.
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We don't actually know that's what he said, do we? I mean, that's only what she says he said.

And, again, apparently the audience did find his response funny - so maybe Tosh did better than you think he did.
 
People are so weird about comedians that they don't like or are offended by, as if you're entitled.
 
Has anyone else actually done stand up? Not that it's necessary.

What you say and how you say it effect how funny something is, that's true. What you say and what a given audience member hears can be very different though. An audience is filled with varied experiences and perceptions and thus perceptual bias.

I did a set once all about how having a large penis sucks. It did rather well actually, but I won't do it again. There is one guy who now, ever time I'm on stage, will ask, "Hey, do you have a big dick?" I overheard another gentleman describe it as 'bragging', which his date dismissed with excellent sarcasm. Most people got the set, but the ones who didn't, didn't get it so much that its disrupted many of my other sets. For the setting I'm in now, it won't work.

The short of it is that what the woman heard and if it was 'funny' doesn't necessarily accurately reflect what was actually said and if it was actually funny.
 
Howie Felterbush said:
ETA: I used Norwegians instead of Poles because that's how I first heard it. In Wisconsin, all the Polack jokes are recycled as Norwegian jokes.
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My favorite Polack joke wouldn't work with Norwegians instead.

This polish farmer is plowing his field one day, and the plow strikes something hard in the ground. Expecting another stone, he digs it up only to find a lamp. As he's rubbing it clean, a genie pops out and says, "For rescuing me, I will grant you three wishes."

The farmer thinks about it for a moment and then says, "I wish that Mongol hordes would invade Poland and then go home." The genie waves his hand, and Mongol hordes stream into Poland, loot his house, and go home.

The genie asks, "what is your second wish?" Again, the farmer says, "I wish that Mongol hordes would invade Poland and then go home." The genie waves his hand again, and Mongol hordes stream into Poland, steal his livestock, and go home.

The genie asks, "what is your third wish?" And again, the farmer says, "I wish that Mongol hordes would invade Poland and then go home." The genie waves his hand one last time, and Mongol hordes stream into Poland, burn down his farm, and go home.

The genie then says to the farmer, "I have granted you your three wishes. But I must know, why did you wish for Mongol hordes to invade your country and then go home three times?" The farmer replies, "Because they had to go through Russia six times!"
 
sarge said:
I didn't say she was not entitled to an opinion, I said she is not entitled to offense. Opinion and offense are not synonymous.
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You are right about that at least. They are not synonymous. Offense is an involuntary emotion while an opinion is a conclusion. The fact that you think she is not entitled to her involuntary responses probably more disturbing than the idea she isn't entitled to her opinion. For the first time in my life I think a comparison to 1984 is appropriate. Wishing to control people's involuntary thought is akin to Newspeak...or the 10 commandments.

Just to make sure their hasn't be a miscommunication, I'm not discussing whether or not she should be offended. I'm discussing whether or not she should have the right to be offended.

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. I disapprove of what you feel, and I will assault to the death your right to feel it."

---Sarge
 
Just as people think food is about nutrition, clothes are about comfort and education is about learning, they assume that laughter is about jokes, or even a response to something that's funny. We laugh to release tension (e.g. your boss's "jokes") or to be polite or, worst of all, because other people are doing it. Critics seem to focus on what's being said at the expense of the who is saying it and where it's said. A grandmother or toddler cursing is inherently funnier than a middle-aged man or woman, especially if it's at a school recital or church.

Most of this stuff goes back to Michael Richards' comments, which I thought came off as hateful. I'm guessing Tosh had an impish grin while suggesting people rape this woman. Heckler responses can generate the biggest laughs, but also has the lowest quality "writing" -- because it's either pre-canned or extemporaneous. It's the sort of thing where you "had to be there."
 
IMST said:
Daniel Tosh's "joke"? I'm pretty disgusted with it.

The touchier the subject, the more a joke needs to take refuge in absurdity.
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So it's not absurd to think that the woman would actually be raped by 5 people in the middle of a comedy club during his set?
 
Dessi said:
Just the other day, I saw an old Sam Kinnison routine on what to do with homeless people: execute them. That's the punchline. Its a joke because its over-the-top, taboo, and offensive.

Last time I saw a Sarah Silverman, she spent a good amount of time making cracks about her vagina and abortion. That's why its a joke: its over-the-top, taboo, and offensive.

One of my favorite David Cross bits describes Catholic priests molesting young boys in lavish, absurd detail. Over-the-top, taboo, and offensive.

See just about everything ever written by Maddox, many sketches by the Whitest Kids U' Know, any episode of Drawn Together for jokes about child abuse, suicide, self-mutilation, the Holocaust, potty humor. Over-the-top, taboo, and offensive.

Long story short, I don't think there's a topic so off-limits you couldn't tell a joke about it, so I'm not exactly surprised that Tosh includes rape jokes in his routine. Whether he pulls it off well depends on the audience.
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Well said. I don't know why I've always been partial to vulgar and over the top humor, but it is what it is.

I do think when it comes to interacting with an audience member the situation is slightly different and acting maliciously (i.e. not for sake of humor) without provocation would be out of line for a comic. In my vague understanding of the Tosh event, I don't think that is what went down.
 
Ziggurat said:
My favorite Polack joke wouldn't work with Norwegians instead.

This polish farmer is plowing his field one day, and the plow strikes something hard in the ground. Expecting another stone, he digs it up only to find a lamp. As he's rubbing it clean, a genie pops out and says, "For rescuing me, I will grant you three wishes."

The farmer thinks about it for a moment and then says, "I wish that Mongol hordes would invade Poland and then go home." The genie waves his hand, and Mongol hordes stream into Poland, loot his house, and go home.

The genie asks, "what is your second wish?" Again, the farmer says, "I wish that Mongol hordes would invade Poland and then go home." The genie waves his hand again, and Mongol hordes stream into Poland, steal his livestock, and go home.

The genie asks, "what is your third wish?" And again, the farmer says, "I wish that Mongol hordes would invade Poland and then go home." The genie waves his hand one last time, and Mongol hordes stream into Poland, burn down his farm, and go home.

The genie then says to the farmer, "I have granted you your three wishes. But I must know, why did you wish for Mongol hordes to invade your country and then go home three times?" The farmer replies, "Because they had to go through Russia six times!"
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Sure it would! The Mongol hordes would have to go through Sweden six times! Totally worth it! :D
 
CynicalSkeptic said:
So it's not absurd to think that the woman would actually be raped by 5 people in the middle of a comedy club during his set?
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Of course it's absurd. That wouldn't make it funny. The line between absurdist insult comedy and a socially unacceptable public insult is pretty blurry.

Near as I can tell, Tosh said something she and I thought was unfunny and offensive. That's bad but not a huge deal. She heckled back. That's slightly worse...about equivalent to booing, which is part of the risk Tosh runs if he starts to suck. He hit back with the biggest insult he could think of to embarass/hurt her. I think he just dug himself deeper into unfunny jerk territory.

Obviously, I wasn't there so it is hard to judge context etc. and I only have my own personal sense of humor to go on. Feel free to disagree. Not the end of the world. Just move on. No need to question each other's morality.
 
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IMST said:
Daniel Tosh's "joke"? I'm pretty disgusted with it.

The touchier the subject, the more a joke needs to take refuge in absurdity.
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So it's not absurd to think that the woman would actually be raped by 5 people in the middle of a comedy club during his set?
 
I think they can be funny, but is like the difference between a "fat joke" and a joke about being fat. A good joke and use anything, even dead babies. But lets not pretend there is no social context.
 
Howie Felterbush said:
Twelve Norwegians are about to rape a German girl.

She screams, "Nein! Nein!"

So three of the Norwegians leave.



How's that?

ETA: I used Norwegians instead of Poles because that's how I first heard it. In Wisconsin, all the Polack jokes are recycled as Norwegian jokes.
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It works better with Norwegians, most of whom likely speak English; Poles, likely not so many.
 
KingMerv00 said:
Near as I can tell, Tosh said something she and I thought was unfunny and offensive. That's bad but not a huge deal. She heckled back. That's slightly worse...about equivalent to booing, which is part of the risk Tosh runs if he starts to suck. He hit back with the biggest insult he could think of to embarass/hurt her. I think he just dug himself deeper into unfunny jerk territory.
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Point of clarification. According to her own statements, it was an audience member who suggested rape as a topic, and it was that statement to which she heckled. So, first, she wasn't initially offended by anything Tosh said. Second, she wasn't heckling Tosh, but rather the other audience member. And it was to that that Tosh responded.

Of course, Tosh had to do something because it's not a roundtable. If he didn't intervene, the two audience members could have been shouting at each other, or worse, for much of his set. So he deflected the attention back to him by being more outrageous than either of them.

That's the risk you run when you solicit ideas from the audience. Having done improvisational comedy, I've seen that sort of thing happen from time to time. You ask for a suggestion for a location and someone yells "whorehouse" and then someone yells "Hey, there are kids here." (Improvisational theater happens in a theater not a night club, so you can bring kids, though it's not recommended.) And then someone else yells at the person for brigning kids ot an adult show and before you know it the whole thing is out of hand with the poor improvisers on stage saying "Um... I think I heard 'dentist office'."

So member A was offensive, member B took offense, and before Tosh lost complete control of his own act, he regained control by shocking both of them into a stunned silence.

Unfortunate, and Tosh apologized. But completely understandable.
 
Over the years, I've heard a bunch of rape jokes, and iirc very few have been funny - sick making yes, but funny? damn few.
 
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