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I'm sure most of you don't follow the popular media or stay up-to-date on celebrity goings on, but this story caught my eye, and speaking as a Christian and a gentleman, I must say I am DISGUSTED:
Why Daniel Tosh's Raped Joke at the Laugh Factory wasn't Funny
Though I am outraged and dismayed by this incident, I can't say I'm even a little bit surprised. This is what happens when young ladies are permitted to cavort and carouse without supervision and attend "comedy clubs" that are little more than gussied up watering holes where people cruise for no-strings-attached sex.
I propose that we respond to this vile and unsafe phenomenon by opening a chain of Christ-Centered Comedy Clubs, which I will refer to as "C4" for short.
In order to protect the safety and virtue of our patrons, the C4 will have the following rules or characteristics:
* No improv. All comedians will be required to submit written copies of their monologues prior to being booked, and those will be faxed to the Department of Faith for review. The Department of Faith will, of course, be generously compensated for its time.
* All female patrons of reproductive age must be accompanied by a brother, husband, father, or other male relative of good character and standing in his community.
* To discourage female patrons from becoming impaired, no girly drinks or fruity cocktails will be served; only rye whiskey will be available.
* Female patrons will be cloistered in a protective, sound-proofed room, where they will watch the show on a close-circuit, big-screen TV and not be able to interact with the comedians or unmarried male patrons.
* All male patrons must submit to a credit check or give a credit card imprint to be kept on file or leave a 50 shekel deposit at the door.
Well there you have it, friends. I'm still fleshing out this C4 idea, so if you have any suggestions or know of anybody who might be interested in investing in this business opportunity (I'm looking at you, Free Market Fred and Gabriel Reproba), by all means, please do chime in!
Why Daniel Tosh's Raped Joke at the Laugh Factory wasn't Funny
On Friday night, during his set at the Laugh Factory, the hugely popular Comedy Central host Daniel Tosh made a rape joke, stripping the experience of its weight, of its tragedy, of its crime: “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl [referring to an audience member who “heckled” him about rape jokes not being funny earlier in his set] got raped by, like, five guys right now? Like right now?”
A friend of “that girl” wrote about the exchange on her Tumblr, and bless her for doing so. We must mark these verbal assaults to manage them. Tosh’s poorly capitalized retort, via Twitter: “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.”
There are awful things in the world, and you can still make jokes about them. I have a rape joke myself. When I wrote about my sexual assault for a nonfiction workshop in my MFA program, I called the piece “rape-portage,” as in “reportage” as pronounced by arrogant MFAers as “re-por-taj” or “re-pər-ˈtäzh,” if you want to get fancy. I’d laugh at my own joke, which I said aloud only to myself and a few close friends, feeling as if the worst thing that happened to me was something I could now own and talk about without feeling it was the worst thing that had happened to me. I used humor to distance myself from pain, while never forgetting the pain or diminishing or devaluing it.
But would it be funny if this girl got gang raped right this moment, like right now right now? That’s not a joke. It’s an invitation. It’s a celebration of a violent crime, which is itself another violation. It’s not a way to cope. It’s a “this is something we can do and then laugh about it, no big deal.” When you reiterate these half-truths (there are girls in the world getting raped by like five guys right now), they authenticate themselves, as if by magic. To promote the insidious—“rape is hilarious”—is to join the crime at its own filthy level...
A friend of “that girl” wrote about the exchange on her Tumblr, and bless her for doing so. We must mark these verbal assaults to manage them. Tosh’s poorly capitalized retort, via Twitter: “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.”
There are awful things in the world, and you can still make jokes about them. I have a rape joke myself. When I wrote about my sexual assault for a nonfiction workshop in my MFA program, I called the piece “rape-portage,” as in “reportage” as pronounced by arrogant MFAers as “re-por-taj” or “re-pər-ˈtäzh,” if you want to get fancy. I’d laugh at my own joke, which I said aloud only to myself and a few close friends, feeling as if the worst thing that happened to me was something I could now own and talk about without feeling it was the worst thing that had happened to me. I used humor to distance myself from pain, while never forgetting the pain or diminishing or devaluing it.
But would it be funny if this girl got gang raped right this moment, like right now right now? That’s not a joke. It’s an invitation. It’s a celebration of a violent crime, which is itself another violation. It’s not a way to cope. It’s a “this is something we can do and then laugh about it, no big deal.” When you reiterate these half-truths (there are girls in the world getting raped by like five guys right now), they authenticate themselves, as if by magic. To promote the insidious—“rape is hilarious”—is to join the crime at its own filthy level...
Though I am outraged and dismayed by this incident, I can't say I'm even a little bit surprised. This is what happens when young ladies are permitted to cavort and carouse without supervision and attend "comedy clubs" that are little more than gussied up watering holes where people cruise for no-strings-attached sex.
I propose that we respond to this vile and unsafe phenomenon by opening a chain of Christ-Centered Comedy Clubs, which I will refer to as "C4" for short.
In order to protect the safety and virtue of our patrons, the C4 will have the following rules or characteristics:
* No improv. All comedians will be required to submit written copies of their monologues prior to being booked, and those will be faxed to the Department of Faith for review. The Department of Faith will, of course, be generously compensated for its time.
* All female patrons of reproductive age must be accompanied by a brother, husband, father, or other male relative of good character and standing in his community.
* To discourage female patrons from becoming impaired, no girly drinks or fruity cocktails will be served; only rye whiskey will be available.
* Female patrons will be cloistered in a protective, sound-proofed room, where they will watch the show on a close-circuit, big-screen TV and not be able to interact with the comedians or unmarried male patrons.
* All male patrons must submit to a credit check or give a credit card imprint to be kept on file or leave a 50 shekel deposit at the door.
Well there you have it, friends. I'm still fleshing out this C4 idea, so if you have any suggestions or know of anybody who might be interested in investing in this business opportunity (I'm looking at you, Free Market Fred and Gabriel Reproba), by all means, please do chime in!
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