Feminists already have a bad rap for taking things too seriously but I don't that's a bad thing. The problem lies with the rest of society not taking things seriously enough and then ostracizing those who speak out. How many times have you heard people refer to Feminists as too "uptight", or that they should just "lighten up"? Some of the most abhorrent rhetoric out there about Feminists is that they "need to get laid" or "stay in the kitchen". I'm not sorry that those things fail to amuse me.
Daniel Tosh- up until yesterday I knew of him very vaguely. The only thing I had heard about Tosh is that he doesn't discriminate against who he offends and that isn't rare when talking about stand up comedians. Recently a young women told her account about her experience while seeing Tosh at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood. A friend of the women posted the story on her blog. You can find the original post here.
"Tosh [started] making some very generalizing, declarative statements about rape jokes always being funny, how can a rape joke not be funny, rape is hilarious."
The women, feeling "provoked" stood up and shouted "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...' and I,
completely stunned and finding it hard to process what was happening but
knowing I needed to get out of there, immediately nudged my friend, who
was also completely stunned, and we high-tailed it out of there ..."
Later in the post she says "I should probably add that having to basically flee while Tosh was
enthusing about how hilarious it would be if I was gang-raped in that
small, claustrophobic room was pretty viscerally terrifying..."
The situation in and of itself is disturbing and the young women prefaces her story by saying she was rather apprehensive about attending the show to begin. She also says didn't know who Daniel Tosh was when she decided to see the show
I acknowledge that going to a comedy club is in a way an invitation to be offended. This goes above and beyond being offended however. If Tosh wanted to continue his show after being shouted at he should have asked security to remove the "heckler" and go on with his show. You can blame her for heckling/speaking up- but for all of those who may think she deserved the comments that followed because she interrupted his "performance" should realize that it's the performer who has the power and control over the audience. Tosh instead proceeded to make a spectacle out of her and turn her comment around to make her the subject of a never funny joke about getting raped.
One thing is certain- Rape jokes aren't funny, ever- I would have gotten up and left. More over I may have shouted a certain word or two on my way out.
Tosh doesn't get that it isn't about taking awful things and joking about them to make them less awful- his reasoning for where he was going with the words was,"the point i was making before i was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them."
Okay...that doesn't make them less awful at all. It trivializes violence against women and desensitizes us from reacting accordingly to gross violence. I also want to ask where the joke was in all of this- Tosh said what he said, it wasn't a waiting for the punchline but the punchline didn't come situation- he never even started a joke. He through out a scenario and stated that it would be funny if this girl was raped. You can't see a joke in there because there isn't one.
I don't understand how someone could think "wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? What kind of sick freak would sit there and laugh at a girl being gang raped in front of them? The people in that audience would not have been laughing if 5 guys stood up and attacked a women in front of them.
Here is the most frustrating part- I can hear the statement "it's a joke, it's not supposed to be taken seriously" coming from innumerable sources. I read the comments left by people after reading the story and they are repulsive. The scenario is repulsive. The comedian just isn't funny.
Okay...that doesn't make them less awful at all. It trivializes violence against women and desensitizes us from reacting accordingly to gross violence. I also want to ask where the joke was in all of this- Tosh said what he said, it wasn't a waiting for the punchline but the punchline didn't come situation- he never even started a joke. He through out a scenario and stated that it would be funny if this girl was raped. You can't see a joke in there because there isn't one.
I don't understand how someone could think "wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? What kind of sick freak would sit there and laugh at a girl being gang raped in front of them? The people in that audience would not have been laughing if 5 guys stood up and attacked a women in front of them.
Here is the most frustrating part- I can hear the statement "it's a joke, it's not supposed to be taken seriously" coming from innumerable sources. I read the comments left by people after reading the story and they are repulsive. The scenario is repulsive. The comedian just isn't funny.
Never ceases to
amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be
offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope
this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity
Never ceases to
amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be
offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope
this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity
Never ceases to
amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be
offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope
this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity
Never ceases to
amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be
offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope
this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity
Never ceases to
amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be
offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope
this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity
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