Rape jokes, not made of comedy gold. The San Diego Reader – attempting, rather ineptly, to channel The Onion – recently ran a bit of “almost factual news” about the recent Slutwalks. The title: “Slut Walk Devolves into Rape Run.”
Here’s the lede (as they say in the biz):
It was supposed to be a triumph for women eager to reclaim their sexuality from the threat of sexual violence. But sadly, Slut Walk San Diego went horribly awry as some 50 men, many of whom claimed to be unable to control their animal urges when presented with such a plenitude of hot female flesh, plunged into the crowd of over 2000 sluts in a quest for sexual gratification, consensual or otherwise. Dozens of arrests have been made, and police say it may be weeks before all the snatched panties have been returned to their rightful owners.
See, it’s funny because they were being raped!
Amazingly, the one comment that this lovely article managed to inspire was even less hilarious than the article itself. According to someone calling himself a86d:
Its bs like this that is further going drive culture to FURTHER feminize men and go back to that process of thinking that a man needs to be controlled because hes just a beast. BS we’re not animals, We’ve evolved and people need consequences….in this case …. BURN em. The Dilbert comic writer seems to think that all men need to be castrated because we can’t control our urges, because society forces us men to be a round peg in a square hole…..if you want to live a certain life style….you can find it. Own up, be mature, respectful and if you cross the line EXPECT TO BURN!
I’m not quite sure if all that BURNing is supposed to be directed at rapists or sluts. I’m guessing the latter, but in either case I don’t think I’ll be inviting a86d to my next barbecue.
MRAL, here’s the thing – rape jokes have become more unacceptable because people have been speaking up about them being unacceptable! The same goes for racist jokes, misogynistic jokes, homophobic jokes, and so on. If you find murder jokes offensive, then it’s your responsibility to speak up about it and create awareness. But it’s important to remember that you have to do this without coming across as whining and petulant about those nasty feminists, because the way you’re going about it right now, I can’t take you seriously. You have to be able to make a case for why it’s offensive without complaining how other people have managed to be successful at making other offensive jokes unacceptable.
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd151/zhinxy/deviouslydapperdalek.jpg
A friend shared this w/ me so I will share it w/ you! 😀
Ami- When I was little i had a big picture book that was a bunch of silly paintings of anthropomorphous animals with alliterating rhymes about them. The one I remember best was “Giant Gorillas Growing Grapes in a Gorgeous Glass Greenhouse”. That’s that that reminded me of. Googling helped me find it. This: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animalia_(book)
“Would you like tea with your extermination, Madame?”
Ah, man! I loved Animalia! I still have my old copy. Alliteration is the shit.
Ami, I love the P.G. Wodehouse dalek!
“What ho, old chap! Care to be exterminated?”
And cute pup you’ve got there, FoSF!
Madeline used to drag giant sticks home from the park when she was about that age. It was especially comical because she weighs all of 25 pounds and has ridiculous tiny legs and she’d be trotting down the street with a 6-foot stick getting tangled in her leash. We stopped letting her do it because she insisted on chewing them indoors and leaving stick bits all over the place.
party rock is in the house tonight
So… quoting song lyrics…
What’s up with that?
Who is that guy in the picture that David doesn’t think is funny btw? o:
That would be Dane Cook (http://www.danecook.com/) a fairly popular comedian, who is also kind of popular to hate. I used to be a fan if him in high school, but I haven’t listened to him in years. And I had notoriously bad taste about a lot of things back then, so I can’t really say one way or the other about what’s wrong with him.
BTW, Sarah, no worries about the pit bull love — they are wonderful dogs.
Who, or what, is party house? And why is it not five so I can go home and go sleep?
FoSF, is that Lake Mendota? I seem to recognize the algae.
@Ami, I love it. I find the Dalek adorable, with their round little heads and their cute robot voices. It totally ruins the suspence when I am squeeing over the Daleks at crucial dramatic moments. They are evil, but I just can’t help loving them (oh, no! I am going after bad ones!).
Onto other, non-Dalek related discussion, I am not sure murder has a similar social position as rape. The thing about rape is that it is often not treated as serious as it is in every day, real circumstances. While there are exceptions to the rule (like military violence), we do as a society tend to think of murder as a really bad, horrible thing that only really bad people do. We have an understanding of hyper-violent action movies, like Kick Ass, as “not the way things are”. But, we have a very different attitude towards someone who finds the violence in Kick Ass amusing vs someone who finds Saving Private Ryan amusing in a similar way. We do not think the Friday 13th film franchise really says that being Jason is totally acceptable either. I suppose there is an argument there that the way that we dehumanize villains in western actions films is a problem and leads to violence, but we generally are not supposed to find more realistic murder settings in films funny. In fact, in comedies involving a murder in other than a fantastical action sense, the murder generally never takes place. Often, an accident will intervene, or the victim will be really alive, or the protagonist backs out. In dramas and comedies, the “good guy” does not murder, but there are plenty of dramas and comedies where the “good guy” sexually assaults and rapes.
@DSC I luff Daleks too! xD They’re so adorable! I’m always squeeing over them when they’re around and it ruins the evilness also xD
I actually HAD a friend in HS who loves violence like that and he thought the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan was like watching Star Wars and he was always excited and like YEAH! DID YOU SEE THAT! BOOM LOOK AT HIM DIE! and etc
and everybody always looked at him like O_O wtf
Oh cuz I was sharing this w/ Kirby
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g69/lost_angelwings/cam/IMG_0026.jpg
This is a picture of my giraffe! 😀 I always find he provokes interesting discussion, like.. what makes a giraffe? xD Some ppl identify him as a giraffe immediately, while others insist he CAN’T be b/c he lacks the neck which makes a giraffe xD and then it leads to a discussion of what makes something that something, and is a giraffe just it’s neck, etc etc xD
But mostly, I wanted to share him cuz he’s cute XD Also ppl speculate if he’s scaled down and he’d be a normal sized giraffe just RLY FAT or if he’s short and runs around under the feet of the other giraffes xD
So according to the HHGttG the neck of the giraffe wasn’t stretched until Ford Prefect got around to it… so maybe it’s a pre-evolved giraffe??
(back to lurking, and crossing fingers that the quotes will work…)
Darkside, but can you honestly name a rape scene, treated with utter seriousness, played for laughs? I sure can’t.
Romance novels once had the male lead rape the female lead to prove his “masculinity.”
In fact I think of one that was a huge hit-Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught.
MRAL: Could you clarify what you mean by ‘treated with utter seriousness’ and ‘played for laughs’? The way I interpret those statements when it comes to the portrayal of stuff like rape and murder makes them contradictory in my mind, so that request confused me.
@darksidecat and Ami, I love the part in the season 2 finale when the Daleks sass the Cybermen:
Cyber Leader: Daleks, be warned. You have declared war upon the Cybermen.
Dalek Sec: This is not war – this is pest control!
Cyber Leader: We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?
Dalek Sec: Four.
Cyber Leader: You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?
Dalek Sec: We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You superior in only one respect.
Cyber Leader: What is that?
Dalek Sec: You are better at dying.
I want to get a remote-control Dalek and use it to chase my dogs around!
Well, I think that “utter seriousness” is basically portraying the rape and/or murder realistically, with realistic consequences. For example, the latest Family Guy rape joke, while pretty hardcore IMO, was not “serious”. Peter is graphically assaulted by a cartoon bull. The bull is ripping his clothes off as he struggles to escape. But since it’s a fucking talking animal, and the next scene he’s fine, I found it fucking hilarious..
On the other hand, rape scenes in, say, Hounddog, Deliverance, Boys Don’t Cry, etc. are not funny. I can’t imagine them being funny or anybody trying to play those scenes for laughs on any level. Because it’s a realistic portrayal and a realistic aftermath.
“Observe and Report” is the first movie that pops into my head…
And of course here is a more comprehensive list.
They very pointedly demonstrated at the end of the “rape” scene that it was not in fact a rape scene. That was the whole point.