Prostate Cancer Foundation to Reddit "fappers": We don't want your tainted money

A prostate cancer charity has returned $6000 to donors from Reddit because it doesn’t want to be associated with their toxic money. Chalk this up as another proud day for Reddit.

So here’s the story: With Reddit emerging, over the past several days, as one of the central distribution hubs for a vast cache of stolen nude pictures of assorted celebrities – including not only an adult Jennifer Lawrence but at least two celebs who were underage when their photos were taken – one Redditor thought he saw a way for the newly created TheFappening subreddit to spin itself as a public-minded enterprise rather than as a large-scale enabler of criminal activity: why not take a few minutes off from frantic masturbation to raise a few bucks for charity?

The charity chosen for this PR stunt was the Prostate Cancer Foundation – the joke being that Jennifer Lawrence is already supporting prostate health as the unwitting supplier of nude pics of herself, because masturbation can help to reduce prostate cancer. Hilarious. So one Redditor set up a page on the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s website in the name of TheFappening, to raise money in her “honor.”

In less than a day, the subreddit had raised $6000, which might sound impressive at first glance, but which sounds decidedly less so when you consider that TheFappening has signed up more than 100,000 subscribers and generated millions of page views since being founded only a few days ago. This was enough to get TheFappening listed as the top fundraiser on the PCF’s home page.

At least until the Foundation, not wanting to be used for propaganda purposes by a bunch of skeezy assholes, shut down TheFappening’s fundraising page and returned the tainted cash, declaring that “[w]e would never condone raising funds for cancer research in this manner.”

Naturally, Redditor’s fappers were outraged.

Meanwhile, another Redditor put up a petition on Change.org begging the CEO of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to take their money:

Our donations were refused due that it was being raised in an inappropiate manner. Which is not the case. We wanted to give back and are willing to donate if you will let us. We want consent so we are not wasting our time. Even though the donations were first formed out of humor the number of donations kept coming in and were about to trend even more. This is due to us wanting to show the community that we care and will put our money where our mouths are. So please “TAKE OUR MONEY!!!”.

The top comment on the petition page:

Oh, Redditors, will you ever understand how terrible you are? There are things worth more than your $6000. Like, for example, not being associated with your bullshit. Indeed, had the Foundation taken the money, the resulting PR disaster of being connected with you assholes would have likely cost them a lot more than $6000 in donations. As it stands, the Foundation’s reputation remains intact, and it’s likely to get some extra donations for taking a principled stand.

Indeed, if you would like to donate to the foundation to help fund prostate cancer research and reward the charity for its stand, the donation page is here.

Over on TheFappening, some of the regulars decided to move on to a new charity, Water.org, which has also reportedly refused their money.

But before Water.org caught on to what the Redditors were doing, the “fappers” celebrated the fact that an anonymous Redditor was briefly honored as a “featured donor” on Water.org’s website. One Redditor posted this meme, with the comment “that’s right buddy.”

Naturally, other Redditors responded to the meme with masturbation jokes:

Elsewhere in the same thread, other TheFappening regulars joked about the fact that the pictures they were all “fapping” to together included actual child porn. After one “fapper” noted that the anonymous Redditor’s donation was bigger than the donation of another “featured donor,
” a “little girl,” this edifying discussion ensued:

Reddit: where the terrible meet to celebrate one another’s terribleness.

[EDIT: I updated several paragraphs about Water.org to acknowledge that the charity is now reportedly refusing money from Reddit’s fappers, and added a link to PCF’s donation page.]

[EDIT 2: I corrected the bit about the petition, which is directed at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, not the Prostate Cancer Foundation.]