Ask yourself the same question with genocide, murder, dead babies, race, religion, profession, the military, or blondes instead of rape and see what the answer would be.
More often than not the answer comes down to your sense of humor and timing.
Don't tell a rape joke to a person who was just raped, just like i wouldn't tell a dead grandparent joke to some one that lost their grandpa, but just because you joke about it doesn't trivialize it.
Hell, some of the jokes that make me laugh the hardest are fucked up shock humor/ controversial humor about things that happened to me.
I had a cancer scare (that lead to an amputation) the day after the surgery my buddy came over and asked me how i was doing.
I answered "I feel a little bit lighter" and chuckled, then he continued to joke about it and we have constantly since then.
My brother is bi-polar, my family fell apart, my friend fell into heroine, my friend committed suicide, i was the first person to console a raped friend, i have many raped friends, and i have been physically and emotionally molested.
I joke about all of them. Humor is medicine. Hell if my dad died tomorrow i'd be joking about him by friday (with tears in my eyes).
If it's too serious to joke about, then it's already got you.
I never thought either of Carlin's rape jokes were terribly funny (although the routine is) but the Hand-banana episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force was hilarious. For those who haven't seen it, the central joke of the episode is a dog repeatedly raping a man.
Have you ever consider that its doesn't matter if its wrong or right since freedom of expression and speech kinda what country supposedly believes in ?
Yes, if looked on not in a serious manner, and the joke is funny (i.e good punchline and the likes) than a rape joke can very very funny, also it gains added humour through the risque element to it all, for example:
9/10 people enjoy a gang rape, and 1/10 are lying w****s.
However hearing of an autistic child blaming themselves for someone else molesting them because they were naughty? jesus christ, that's just not right.
And this is coming from a guy with Alex as his avatar.
People in the studio? they laughed at this joke. They came from a cross-section of the american public.
I'm not going to argue whether or not it's _right_ to find jokes like this funny, but clearly, it's normal, given the right setting.
Any minority can get upset all they want, they can shame the people who laugh, so on and on...But clearly, the statement "rape jokes aren't funny" is not always true.
The deeper issue is, _should_ rape jokes be considered bad taste to the point where noone ever makes them. Some people think so. And it's not really censorship if they influence what people find funny.
But here's the thing...Russian Roulette linked to tv tropes, which states:
"
The whole point of a certain type of comedy is to cross the lines, violate the boundaries, and be as offensive as possible.
"
This type commedy appears to be ingrained into the human condition. It can be observed almost as far back as the origin of humor in the written language; ancient greek comedy contains it.
In other words, right or wrong, the fight to make it so serious it's not funny will only magnify how funny it is.
As for the legality of having sex with a voluntarily drunk, conscious person, who appears to give consent...ah...honestly, I find using the word rape to describe sex in that situation tasteless. Doesn't matter if it's the law. Rape is, to me, an act of violence.
I think you presented your argument in a sensible intelligent manner and yes I would agree with you. However, the joke must be used somewhat tastefully. You brought up an excellent point because people make jokes about killing and murder all the time, but to draw the line at rape for no apparent reason than it offends people is extremely narrow minded. We live in an age where just about everything and everyone takes a ribbing every once in awhile, and when people make a fuss about a topic that offends them while ignoring jokes about equally offensive material those people make themselves out to be controlling assholes.
However hearing of an autistic child blaming themselves for someone else molesting them because they were naughty? jesus christ, that's just not right.
Anything can be funny, given the right context. There are some instances where things can be taken too far, and it happens a little too often in real life (one of the things a comedian must learn is how much is too much), but I don't think that applies to the PA case you are talking about. People make jokes about being raped on the internet all the time, I mean COME ON. It wasn't even really a serious thing.
As for you being molested, that sucks, I'm sorry about that. But I'm sure that if I was in a better mood, I could come up with something funny about it.
I can understand how that would at the moment make rape jokes not funny for you. However, I personally believe that if laughing about something doesn't heal that, than being able to laugh about it would show that it has healed. Just ask the man who grew up with a fear of heights and who looks down from the Empire State Building to say "Hell, the fall will probably kill ya."
Comedy, like many people pointed out, requires context. It also requires a good structure on that joke. One of the best ways to remember this is to remember the difference between the victim of the joke, and the victim in the joke. In other words, if the perpetrator then becomes the butt of the joke somehow, its funny again. Of course, there are other rules to this two. Consider, are jokes about child abandonment funny? Of course. Ask the guy left alone in a train station in 1920. Do you know what he tells his grandkids?
"Boy, you don't know how lucky you are. Back in my day, we didn't HAVE parents. We had to raise ourselves! I know your mother's a bear, but you'd better be damn-well thankful. Now finish your deer liver with gratitude!"
Now I do believe audience is important as well. Think about it this way. You don't joke about your boss's husband with your boss unless she jokes about him first. But you will definitely joke about him with your coworkers who have met him. For neo-feminists, they say rape jokes will never be funny, and for them, they're more than likely right. I'm sure for them, there are about a hundred different things that are funny, and a hundred different things that aren't funny. And that's ok. It really doesn't matter what they think is funny or not, because we all know that at the end of the day, they're going to go to their skull mountain cave mortared with crushed testicles so that they can finish perfecting their Human Y chromosome-destroying virus and their methods for woman cloning destined to make a race of super-women.
Of course, currency is also a good thing. Did you hear that mimes are allowed to talk freely now? Seriously, they can say whatever they want, whenever they want. Clowns just repealed DADT.
They used to be funny for me, until my closest loved one got raped, now I cringe whenever the subject is brought up in a relatively realistic manner (Family Guy's Aquaman Can't stop rape scene comes to mind). However "raped by dickwolves" is still hilarious to me.
Anything can be funny, given the right context. There are some instances where things can be taken too far, and it happens a little too often in real life (one of the things a comedian must learn is how much is too much), but I don't think that applies to the PA case you are talking about. People make jokes about being raped on the internet all the time, I mean COME ON. It wasn't even really a serious thing.
As for you being molested, that sucks, I'm sorry about that. But I'm sure that if I was in a better mood, I could come up with something funny about it.
Is it bad that when I see this picture, I keep imagining that there's one more line, and its either "By this guy" or "SURPRISE!!!"
RareDevil said:
Ask yourself the same question with genocide, murder, dead babies, race, religion, profession, the military, or blondes instead of rape and see what the answer would be.
More often than not the answer comes down to your sense of humor and timing.
Don't tell a rape joke to a person who was just raped, just like i wouldn't tell a dead grandparent joke to some one that lost their grandpa, but just because you joke about it doesn't trivialize it.
Hell, some of the jokes that make me laugh the hardest are fucked up shock humor/ controversial humor about things that happened to me.
I had a cancer scare (that lead to an amputation) the day after the surgery my buddy came over and asked me how i was doing.
I answered "I feel a little bit lighter" and chuckled, then he continued to joke about it and we have constantly since then.
My brother is bi-polar, my family fell apart, my friend fell into heroine, my friend committed suicide, i was the first person to console a raped friend, i have many raped friends, and i have been physically and emotionally molested.
I joke about all of them. Humor is medicine. Hell if my dad died tomorrow i'd be joking about him by friday (with tears in my eyes).
If it's too serious to joke about, then it's already got you.
I am sorry for what happened to you personally but if there is one thing I have learned for George Carlin: F*** being PC. Now of course because of forum rules and etc on this site I have to curb my language and behavior.
But, yes rape jokes should be allowed, in fact all jokes of all kinds should be allowed. If rape jokes arn't allowed, then say should rape scenes in books or movies be allowed or even implied (reference Shawshank Redemption, Last House of the Left, etc).
Creativity demands and needs the freedom to speak about, portray, and conceptualize about every topic. Censorship allows others with politically minded agenda's to blanket ban everything.
At least that is my opinion.
For instance if you've ever read the Berserk manga the main character as a child has to deal with basically his father figure selling him to another man who then raped him. This scene is not only dramatic and goes along way to shaping the psyche of the grown up version of the main character, it also effects his nightmares, his dreams, his relationships with other characters and of course his first love. Now I don't know what the author personally went through before writing berserk but I've often heard that writing reveals more about the writer then about the subject matter.
Not sure if it's been posted in this thread (I skimmed a little).
Gang rape
Rape is horrible crime that deserves to be punished to the fullest degree of the law, but to be unable to make jokes about it is some sort of thought police shit.
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