You Had To Be There: Rape Jokes

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With confidence in the Met faltering, the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said: “What has been revealed by these investigations will only further damage public trust and confidence in the police.” Amy Schumer’s show on Comedy Central has featured a Cosby skit or two – one in which she’s his defense attorney trying to convince the jurors they love “America’s dad” and pudding and the rest of it more than they love truth and justice. It ends with a twist: an offstage Cosby sends Schumer a drink in thanks and she looks at it in consternation – and then tosses it over her shoulder. I agree with comedian George Carlin, who said that ‘anything can be funny, it all depends on how you construct the joke’. Another comedian, Daniel Tosh, made an attempt at a joke at a gig in 2014, that scared the woman he targeted. This was his joke: “ 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…” He stunned her into silence, and into leaving. The crowd laughed at her departure. The intention of this ‘joke’ was to humiliate and intimidate her. It worked. But one day, a white baby was born to one of the women in the tribe. The chief immediately sent for the missionary and demanded to know why he had broken the commandments he had so lovingly taught to his people. They released a statement saying: "We have given careful thought to the recent criticism of the character Dapper Laughs, which has focused on his activities outside of the ITV2 programme, whose content was carefully considered and complied. We have taken the decision that we will not be considering this show for a second series."

Comedy has always pushed limits. That’s often the point – to question authority, shatter preconceptions, tell truth to power. He added "Oh I’ve raped someone once" and "killed her after," after the audience burst into laughter. During the same event, he made jokes about ancient Greeks having sex with children while they created mathematics, telling the audience: "They didn't mind it did they? They were clever weren't they." So within the context of rape jokes, what are we laughing at? – what we really believe about rape and rape victims? Or are we laughing about our own prejudices, or the myths that surround rape? Are we laughing at the victim? The rapist? Rape jokes are what an evolutionary biologist might call an indicator species. One small part of the ecosystem, such an organism can indicate the larger health or illness of the whole or a system in transition. The culture itself has changed, for the better, in the past three years, in regards to women and consciousness about sexual violence. The evolution of the rape joke marks that change. In 2015, the high-profile jokes are on rapists, the mindsets of rapists, and on rape culture.In the United States, an American is sexually assaulted every two minutes, yet people still seem to think that joking about rape and sexual assault is okay. IT’S NOT. In the 1960s, Lenny Bruce was arrested for his use of profanity. A decade later, George Carlin was hauled in for speaking the “Seven Dirty Words.” Sam Kinison ranted; Andrew Dice Clay told scatological nursery rhymes; Louis C.K. takes audiences into the darkest corners of his mind, and Anthony Jeselnik sounds calmly psychopathic. Magazines, television, movies and the Internet have followed the blazed trail. On the one hand, research has found that people who find rape jokes funny are more likely to have sexist attitudes towards women. In one study, for example, participants who found rape jokes funnier were also more likely to agree with statements such as “women perverse themselves by leading men on” and “rape results from a woman’s insensitivity to a man’s sexual needs.”

Now, at 37, he is wealthy, in a long-term relationship with a Canadian-born TV executive called Karoline (Any chance of children? I ask. "You can't have kids the way we do it") and lives in trendy Islington. Despite his non-PC stage persona, he calls himself an "uber-liberal", and when someone in the Margate audience asks him a dubious question about immigration, he avoids making a joke and says he thinks immigration is a good thing. Some comedians push the boundaries in the name of entertainment. That means taking risks," he said. "But I think it's important that if we overstep the mark and cause upset that we apologise. I would like to say sorry to those people who I have upset by my recent comments. I assure them that was not my intention." Sexual assault by women of men is often ridiculed because women aren’t seen as strong enough to physically overpower a man, and sexual assault of women by other women is fetishised. One of the most surprising names on this list is Schitt’s Creek, a show known for its progressive narrative. However, in the pilot, Sarah Levy’s character implies that her brother is raped frequently while in prison, which is supposed to be a joke. While the show never repeats such a joke, it is essential to see how deep patriarchy is ingrained even in the most liberal of circles.On the other hand, other research has found that people who laugh at rape jokes are not necessarily more likely to condone sexual violence. In one study, for example, participants who found rape jokes funnier were not more likely to agree with statements such as “rape is often excusable” or “a woman who goes home with a man on their first date deserves whatever happens to her.” Carr says he treats the audience which comes to his gigs as he would his friends. "There's no difference between the jokes I would tell out there on the stage and the jokes I would tell to my friends in the pub. There's no edit." Earlier this year, Dapper Laughs returned to stand-up comedy with a tour around England. He dropped his pseudonym and went by his real name. The disgraced star admitted he returned to stand-up comedy as he wanted to make a more positive impact "for his daughters." Channel 4 also removed content with Brand on their streaming services amid the allegations. A spokesman for Channel 4 told The Telegraph: "We’ve taken down all content featuring Russell Brand while we look into the matter. This includes episodes of the Great British Bake Off and the Big Brother box sets that he appeared on."

He forgot to wrap his Whopper. 50. After death, what is the only organ in the female body which remains warm? There’s no question that the world has changed in the decades since Henny Youngman said, “Take my wife – please.” Women now hold positions of power, and some men feel threatened by the changes in society. Of course, not everyone feels the same way about rape jokes. Some people find them to be incredibly offensive, and they may trigger difficult emotions. It’s important to be considerate of other people’s experiences and feelings.West has emphasized she’s not against rape jokes. In fact, she wrote a column called “How to Make a Rape Joke,” which explained that context was everything. As for the angry comments, she described them as “an occupational hazard” in an interview with CNN. Comedy ideally brings people together’ says PJ, ‘that’s where the magic is’. People go to comedy nights to escape their boring/awful/depressing/traumatic lives, not to be reminded of it. He told me about how jokes about the recession in 2008 fell flat due to the audience not wanting to hear about something they were trying to get away from for one night a week. It wasn’t funny for them. Targeting potentially vulnerable audience members does not bring people together. It isolates. Sound too strong for a discussion about jokes? Comedian and psychology instructor Wheeler has a routine in his act, drawing on his academic studies, that shows just how deeply comedy – and gender roles – can cut, while also making a point about rape jokes. Ain’s parents have been supportive of their daughter, but she says officials in her own school have tried to vilify her and intimidate her into silence. Stephen Isaac, a biology teacher at a boys school in Kuala Lumpur aims to teach his students to be ‘better humans’ [Courtesy of Stephen Isaac] It’s a system that has become more conservative, more divisive in nature and that is also very patriarchal,” Hartini told Al Jazeera.