My take on Tosh

My editor’s column last week regarding comedian Daniel Tosh’s rape joke mishap — in which Tosh said it would be “hilarious” if an audience member were raped by five men, after said audience member had shouted out, “Rape jokes are never funny!” — moved me to share my own opinion about the incident.

First of all, let me make it clear that I agree with my editor and many others that anything — even and especially the most controversial and unpleasant of topics — is fair game for humor.

Not only is humor a way of mitigating the controversy and/or pain of a difficult subject (such as rape, death, 9/11, the Holocaust, etc.), it can illuminate how and why we feel a certain way about certain things, or highlight cultural prejudices and beliefs regarding a certain topic. That is what good humor does.

For example, comedian John Mulaney’s “subway station chase” standup routine mocks the societal prejudice that all men, even the innocent-looking Mulaney, are sexual predators.

His fear of being mistaken for a potential rapist is no less than the woman’s fear of being raped, and Mulaney’s audience can empathize with the awkwardness of the situation. It’s not an issue of Mulaney joking about rape because he’s doing it in a way that is tasteful, intelligent and funny.

When Mulaney jokes about rape, he makes it clear he doesn’t think rape itself is funny. The audience knows he actually thinks rape is horrific.

Similarly, Sarah Silverman is absurdly ironic in her routine about rape jokes; she quips, “... (rape) is like the safest area to talk about in comedy. ‘Cause who’s going to complain about a rape joke? Rape victims? They don’t even report rape. I mean, they’re traditionally not complainers.”

Although Silverman certainly doesn’t beat around the bush and isn’t afraid to shock, she speaks in a way that indicates she doesn’t think it’s OK that rape is the most underreported crime, and in her humor, she’s pointing out an important fact.

Tosh, on the other hand, doesn’t make it clear that he doesn’t think rape is
acceptable.

Tosh’s joke about the woman in the audience getting gang raped is akin to a comedian making a Holocaust joke consisting of, “Heh, wouldn’t it be hilarious if millions of Jews were methodically murdered, like, right now?”

That isn’t funny because the comic isn’t self-aware. The comic doesn’t make it clear he thinks the Holocaust is horrific; rather, his joke indicates he actually thinks the Holocaust was funny.

Likewise, Tosh’s jokes threatening an audience member with gang rape, his jokes about his sister getting raped after Tosh replaced her pepper spray with Silly String, and his “rape trap” routine don’t provide any indication Tosh doesn’t find rape to be humorous. His jokes target rape victims — not rapists or the culture at large that allows rape to continue.

His jokes are nothing new; they just regurgitate all the cultural B.S. we already hear on a regular basis about rape. Humor works best when it can reveal injustices — not legitimize them.

­— ccleahy@indiana.edu