Exactly. It wasn’t a joke about a rape; it was a joke about the fact that joking about rape being inappropriate. And not denying that it’s inappropriate, but affirming it. Otherwise the joke makes no sense.
It would not surprise me one bit if there were Family Guy jokes out there that did just simply joke about rape, and could not be defended this way. But it’s not this one.
(bolding mine)
Jokes can be “about” something, but can they be “against” something? How would that work?
Some people may not agree with this but I don’t consider what Stewie said to be a “rape joke”. To me, the offensiveness of a typical rape joke is that it dehumanizes women, makes light of rape culture, and takes a “boys will be boys” approach to the seriousness of the crime.
What Stewie did was only mention rape. In fact, if you look at the episode, he said it in an angry voice. He was trying to hurt Moe. Nowhere did he try to play off rape as cool or not serious, nor did he use it to attack a woman and dehumanize her. In fact, the way I read the joke was more like this “Rape is horrible and its happening to someone you love Moe, and you can’t do anything about it!”
What he said isn’t funny, what he was trying to do to Moe wasn’t funny, and the actual joke here is the juxtaposition between what is normally a harmless and annoying phone prank Bart does to Stewie’s wildly exaggerated psychopathy and taking things to the extreme. So it was a funny and it wasn’t a rape joke to me
Well I can. Someone speaking from a position of non authority who jokes about raping a supermodel can almost be acceptable. Probably not acceptable for prime time network television but not necessarily career destroying. Writer Frank Rich managed to get away with a good ole rape tweet without too much controversy earlier this year.
I know what you’re saying and I didn’t word that properly I guess.
I can’t wait for somebody to invent a Humor Computer that can calculate with pinpoint accuracy what is funny.
You know what’s funny? Me hitting Jennifer Lawrence, then holding her down while I force myself into her. It’s even better if she’s crying and/or bleeding.
It’s funny, 'cause, you know, she’s famous.
ETA: Oh, it’s also funny because it’s got a penis in it, and those are always good for a laugh!
I don’t see why the entire subject of rape should be considered verboten. It was quite funny when Jerry Seinfeld and Alec Baldwin argued about the pronunciation of the word “rapier” on Comedians in Cars. At 5:21: http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/alec-baldwin-just-a-lazy-shiftless-bastard
That was funny.
I agree. I think it’s also a good example of punching up vs punching down. Punching up, using jokes to go after the powerful can be funny and useful. Punching down, go after the less powerful is just more like bullying. This articleis discussing Rush Limbaugh specifically, but the general principle regarding targets of humor is relevant here:
Also it’s hard to treat rape as a good subject for jokes when rape is so often not taken seriously enough in the culture as it is. Many rape victims are not believed, or are accused of lying, or are accused of somehow bringing it on themselves. Some people seem to think that rape humor is “edgy”, but really it’s more like the status quo.
I don’t think that any topic of humor should be banned, just people making jokes about certain subjects should realize that it can be a lot trickier. An unfunny joke about some other random subject like McDonald’s or traffic or something will just be forgotten, but an unfunny joke about rape will offend and cause issue, so either work a lot harder on your rape joke and be sure that it’s really funny, or switch to another joke.
Yes. Rape jokes need to die the death.
Death… by Wonga!
Rape jokes are funny in the same way that dead baby and Nazi gas chamber jokes are funny (for 10yo boys), and making fun of the Church and such used to be. For the shock value. But only so long as there’s a taboo on them. The more of a taboo, the funnier. Perhaps rape, rather than the two thousand other things worse than rape, has been selected for special taboo status because women in general do not have a very evolved sense of humour. Rape of men are also still alright – cf. the standard don’t-drop-the-soap-prison-rape-joke, or the lucky guy who gets raped by hot chicks.
I still can’t imagine it. Can you give us an example that could almost be acceptable in even some circumstances? It doesn’t even have to be acceptable as humor here, you can just explain the context and it will be informative here.
I’ve heard and seen VERY few jokes about women being raped. One of the few movies I can think of in which a woman’s rape was played for laughs was Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, in which Madalyn Kahn learnes to love the monster.
Men getting raped, on the other hand, is used as comedy fodder all the time- the earliest example I can think of is Greg Marmalade in Animal House (“Nixon White House Aide- Raped in Prison 1974”).
Prison rape jokes (“Don’t drop the soap!”) abound.
None that I can think of offhand. All I know is that dark humour can be very funny, and that I dont believe rape as a concept is so far off limits. Such a joke aimed at a person in particular its more problematic. If its aimed at a person of status and authority and said by a person unlikely ever to be in a position to rape that person then it can be aceptable(ish). Being said by a testosterone induced twenty stone thug character or comedian is probably not acceptable.
If we can joke about pedophilia we can joke about rape. I have to admit to being pretty thick skinned about such humour. Virtually nothing is off limits. If its funny its funny.
Hell, we can and frequently do joke about murder, which is kind of the worst thing you can do. (I mean murdering, not joking about murder.)
I was raped by my doctor… which is so bittersweet for a Jewish girl. -Sarah Silverman
Just to use a political example:
Back in the late Eighties, Clayton Williams was leading in the race for governor of Texas. He lost, in LARGE measure because, when a rainstorm was spoiling a barbecue on his ranch, he quipped, “You know what they say- when rape is inevitable, just lie back and enjoy it.”
Now, I’m absolutely certain that Williams only MEANT to say, “Oh well, nothing we can do about the weather, so let’s just make the best of it.” But I knew he was dead meat as soon as he said it- even in Texas, rape jokes are verboten. You CAN’T get away with making rape jokes about women."
BUT… when crooked Enron exec Ken Lay was sent to prison, a LOT of liberal politicians (including California Attorney General Lockyer) made jokes about how great it would be when Lay’s new cellmate told him, “Hi, honey, my name’s Spike.” No one objected to such jokes, or deemed them inappropriate.
Look, nobody feels sorry for Ken Lay, but this illustrates a point: it’s okay to joke about homosexual rape, but not about women being raped.
How is the untouchable superstar actress in a position of authority?
You’re all condemned to death by snu snu.
See, it’s funny because men are slaves to their biological instinct.
I think that was more of a case of it’s okay to joke about rape happening to a specific individual who had done very bad things, but not about women in general being raped.