Dudes, are you finding that your attempts at humor are falling flat? Are your clever quips getting you written up regularly by HR? Are they causing your friends to get fired when they drunkenly defend your “jokes” on live television?
It’s possible that what you think is humor is not actually humor. Consider the following list of things that are not humor:
- Embezzling
- Punching a random dude in the face for no reason
- Pushing elderly people off of train platforms
- Lighting an orphanage on fire
- Sexually harassing a woman on live television by yelling “F her right in the P,” except instead of “F” you say a certain word that starts with “f” and instead of “P” you say a word that starts with “p” and ends with “y.”
Seriously, dudes. Stop it with this whole “F her right in the P” shit. You’re making life crappy for women and giving all aspiring funny men a bad name.
If you, dear reader, don’t know what the “F her right in the P” thing is, it’s this: dudes yell “F her right in the P” at female TV reporters doing live shots on the street. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.
As someone who doesn’t watch a lot of local news, I only became aware of this whole “F her right in the P” thing yesterday, when a helpful reader alerted me to the story of Shauna Hunt, a Toronto CityNews reporter who’s gotten so sick of the whole thing that she confronted a group of men on live television after one of their friends shouted the phrase at her while she was interviewing soccer fans. The men defended their friend’s actions as “hilarious.” One, obviously a bit drunk, told her she was “lucky” they didn’t have a vibrator. You can watch the whole thing above.
This “meme” originated more than a year ago in a fake news blooper reel that went viral online. Since then, female news reporters — covering everything from sports events to anti-austerity protests — have been dealing with dudes yelling the phrase at them on a daily basis, sometimes several times in a day. The dudes think what they’re doing is hilarious. They feel no shame. And they don’t expect there to be any consequences from sexually harassing a woman on live television.
Maybe that will change: several of the men defending the harassment in Hunt’s video — which itself has gone viral — have been identified. They’ve all been banned for a year from sports events featuring teams owned by Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, and one (the guy who made the vibrator joke) has been fired from his job. Good.
To any dudes who feel their sacred man-right to generate “humor” by making people deeply uncomfortable is being abridged, might I suggest you follow the lead of the three gentlemen in the video below?
These three manage to make pain quite funny indeed. What makes them genuinely hilarious, so unlike the guys harassing Hunt in the video above? Their originality, for one thing; they demonstrate an ingenuity that would make Rube Goldberg proud. And, just as importantly: the only people they’re actually hurting are themselves.
So are you offended that you’re accused of trolling or admitting to trolling by calling arguing with us fun?
He’s not been labeled ‘forever a monster’. He’s been labeled an immature, entitled, misogynistic douchebag, and the label will stick until the behavior has changed. Is that not clear enough?
And it wasn’t just ‘a’ stupid comment. If he’d backed down when called out on it, he’d be little more than an internet punchline. Instead, he and his douchebro buds doubled down, not only insisting their conduct was acceptable but continuing the harassment.
As for getting fired? Yeah, it sucks. But you’re assuming a direct causality that likely isn’t there. It’s not, “You are horrible, be forever banished from the kingdom.” Rather, his employer was most likely in the position of, “Holy shit, if anyone ever complains about this guy’s conduct at work, I’m going to be asked why he was still working here when he’s such an obvious douche. We’ll lose our shirts in court.” In short, he is a liability to his company, and thus, they decided that he needed to be cut loose. (As a comparative example, a guy caught driving drunk on his day off may still end up being fired from his job, especially if it entails some amount of on-the-job driving–because ignoring that behavior would put his employer at risk.)
(In the Total Speculation Department, I wouldn’t be surprised if they first tried some form of reformation–public employers usually have a process that needs to be followed when firing people. So I suspect it’s at least likely that he was told he needed to complete sensitivity training, refused, and was then canned.)
I’ll just leave this for nellodee1010 when they get back. Notice that in the video, there is a man who had the phrase hurled at him. Notice how they talk about how that shit affects their ability to do their jobs, which would most certainly effect how companies hire and promote female reporters (who already have enough issues in their profession).
Over here it’s called “vicarious responsibility”. It makes an employer responsible (and sue-able ™) for conduct of their employees in work related contexts.
nellodee1010: In addition to everyone else’s points, you should have picked up on a key issue–as you note yourself, your one video was dominated by one guy (whom you were later informed was the original ‘prankster’). Just because he is sticking to a policy of doing this to male and female reporters alike does not mean that the general public of douchebros is doing the same.
Put that effort in your finals instead. Try not to fail at something.
Oh good, he’s a sock. Mr Al again? These douchemongers were all years before I delurked, so I don’t recognise their different tics…
If it is Mr Al, that’d make a bit of sense, since he was a couple years younger than me if I recall. He might even be graduating college this year, so that’s exciting. Also exciting would be that he apparently would have really mellowed out if he’s admitting the existence of misogyny as a real issue.
Thanks for that video, kirbywarp.
I’m appalled by the fact that multiple reporters had children say this to them. What kind of adult teaches a child obscenities and then tells them that it is hilarious to shout those obscenities at people doing their jobs? A lot of kids that age don’t fully understand what that phrase means, but they are being encouraged by adults and that is terrifying.
Children are being taught not only that this behavior is acceptable, but that is laudable. What are those kids going to be like in five years, in 10 years, as adults? They are probably going to be shouting the same sexist bullshit because that’s what they were taught.
It’s a little weird that this is the post that made me stop obsessively lurking and comment, but I just had to say how happy I am that the reporter didn’t cut away, didn’t brush it off, and directly confronted the no doubt piss-drunk-out-of-their-minds hecklers who interrupted her broadcast.
When I think about all the times I’ve fake-laughed off comments like this, I can’t help but get angry and wish I had the wherewithal of this newscaster. Humor is a weapon that has all too often been used to attack and defend said attacks. No one likes to be told that they aren’t funny or that they can’t take a joke, but while I can understand a certain level of defensiveness in someone who just got called out for being a completely un-funny dick, pretending like the reason your sexist “joke” didn’t land is because a woman can’t take a joke? Completely out of bounds. Also so incredibly TIRED, as excuses go.
Human beings are funny; it’s how we navigate a world that isn’t always pleasant or fair. Making people laugh makes us feel better about ourselves. It’s a survival mechanism that can be used to cement or push social roles. This outburst probably cements these guys roles as “King Douche” but does nothing else.
Yeah, sure, your mom is going to find this freaking hilarious. I have absolutely no doubt about that.
Is Mr Al the one who pretended to be a woman but gave it away after acting all giddy about seeing a bra in the dorm laundry room? Or was that someone else?
Break time! I know you’re all excited to see what else I have to say so let’s get to it!
My bad, didn’t realize I was supposed to suffer the indignity silently. It’s not like my OP was that important anyway, as I’ve been told over and over again as though I ever said any different.
No to both! I’m not offended at being accused of trolling because being accused of trolling is just the accuser saying “I disagree!” And having fun with ridiculous arguments that came up after an innocuous post isn’t trolling, since the actual definition of trolling requires prior intent. I’m just making lemonade out of these lemons.
I only saw him do it to women, actually. The subsequent dudebros are who made it gender neutral.
HELLA rude
People accusing me of being Mr al: awesome! I’m flattered! But no.
Kirbywarp, I’ll watch your video after I post this
So is the part of the video I’m supposed to disagree with the proportions of gender represented (one dude:multiple women)? If it’s a representative sample, then I retract my original statement, but my sample size is way larger and also not self selected, whereas the individuals in yours apparently volunteered to appear in a video calling FHRITP out as harassment, something I think women would be more likely to do (as it affects them more when it happens to them), so I’m not gonna assume your video is a more representative sample.
@nellodee1010:
No, the point of the video is to impress upon you how women are particularly affected by this “prank,” and how it has an effect on their jobs by hearing about it in their own words. And that even though the phrase was shouted to male reporters, the effect is completely different. And that it doesn’t matter if the phrase was being thrown around indiscriminately with regard to the gender of the reporter; it still had a gendered effect.
Which… gah, who knows. I don’t even know if you have any point anymore besides “there were totally men that were affected, and it’s very very important that you know this for some reason.”
“Fuck HER right in the PUSSY” is NOT gender neutral, no matter who it’s being shouted at.
This has been your clarification for the day.
You gotta be kidding me. Y’all are in like an irc laughing about how you’re driving me crazy by constantly insisting I’m saying the opposite of what I’m saying.
Actually, kirbywarp, your last guess there was almost right, if you take out the part where I think it was important. I didn’t start this shit storm, I just posted, like, a throwaway comment that I didn’t think anyone would even respond to, but they did, en masse, in a very fortuitously annoying way.
Bina, yeah, you tell em! For some reason I missed the post of whoever disagrees with that. Gosh, I wonder if y’all have been talking to someone else that I can’t even see this whole time. How embarrassing!
nellodee1010
Your original comment appears to have been mainly ‘but the practice itself is largely gender neutral regarding targets.’
This seems to indicate that you believe that the practice of people yelling the unoriginal phrase occurs equally to male and female TV reporters.
As has been pointed out to you, at least twice, the supporting video you posted mostly contains footage from the original ‘joke’ which weakens your conjecture.
Your point is made.
Anyone got a cute picture of a yawning kitten?
Further legal-splaining for those who are interested (I’m looking at you, @Alan Robertshaw): http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/05/13/does-hydro-one-have-the-right-to-fire-tfc-fan-shawn-simoes.html
For those who can’t be bothered with the tl:dr, the basic takeaway is that Simoes could lodge a complaint with his union, but the union isn’t obligated to take cases if they don’t feel like it, and they probably wouldn’t feel like taking this one. It’s also nice to note that one of the experts points out that Simoes’ specific job will weigh in the employer’s decision (is he in a management position, is he likely to work with people offended by his behaviour, etc.). It’s also interesting to note that no one can quite think of a precedent.
Also, a further Canadian case that is making me giggle: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/fhritp-calgary-police-charge-man-with-stunting-for-shouting-vulgar-phrase-1.3074905
Smith shadow
http://www.thatcutesite.com/uploads/2011/06/orange_kitten_yawning.jpg
Thank you fruitloopsie. I appreciate the picture.
Smithshadow
http://ih0.redbubble.net/image.57480545.4603/sticker,375×360.png
smithshadow
Here is another one for you. 😀
http://best-wallpaper.net/wallpaper/1920×1080/1202/Kitten-yawning-basket_1920x1080.jpg
It didn’t work. Oh well. ^^;
This is also a statement about sports fans.
Regarding the guy that got fired:
1. He was a government employee in a managerial position with Hydro One, government owned utilities.
2. He was on the sunshine list aka a list of government employees who make +100k.
3. He is a professional engineer who almost certainly had a contract which included some fine print about professional conduct in public.
4. Championing sexual harassment into a news camera was a poor life decision and now he has to face the consequences like an adult.
Basically dude was an adult and should have fucking known better.