Open Forum Friday: Did This is the End Cross the Line with Rape Jokes?

Posted by on June 21st, 2013   Filed under: Open Forum Friday

1170481 - This Is The End

It may seem hard to believe but Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s comedy This is the End is one of the best reviewed films currently playing in theatres. Unlike last year’s The Watch (which they also wrote), the movie has been a hit with both critics and moviegoers, and for once the juvenile male-oriented humour does not seem to be rubbing people the wrong way. Or at least, it initially seemed that way, but over the past week there has been a heated debate bubbling to the surface across Tumblr and the rest of the blogosphere. Specifically, it has to do with the subject of rape and how it is repeatedly treated as a punchline throughout the film.

The biggest scene where this issue presents itself involves several of the main actors questioning amongst themselves whether or not Emma Watson is truly safe in a house full of a guys. It is dealt with in a somewhat innocent way and pokes fun at the tropes of post-apocalyptic movies. However, there are several other scenes where it is brought up for throwaway laughs, including one where James Franco admits to having sex with Lindsay Lohan while she is too drunk or high to know who he is. Yes, this is also rape, and brings to mind the kerfuffle over the potential date rape in Jody Hill’s Observe & Report (also starring Seth Rogen). What do you think? Did any of the jokes in This is the End offend you? If not, should they? Can rape ever be funny or should it be considered off limits in comedy (particularly when coming from men)? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.



  • Dan

    I don’t think its offensive really. Surely anybody going into this movie knows what the humour will be like.

  • Deven Science

    I wasn’t offended, at all. Some very few might be, but some very few are with every joke, including seemingly innocent humor. I think that nothing should be off limits, or else we give too much power to those subjects that we fear to discuss.

  • DrewNugent

    This is a joke right? I hate when people start with this shit its a fucking movie.

  • Indianamcclain

    No

  • Theo

    Are rape jokes as bad as jokes about murder?

  • ProCynic

    Off topic slightly, but why has it always been acceptable for a under age boy to flirt or even have sex with an adult in movies, but never ever a girl with a adult man? It always bugs me..But on this subject, jokes like these are kind of what you get in this type of movie, no? Where do we ever draw the line in gross out stoner movies? When was it acceptable for drugs to to blase, Swearing also..little by little social behavior is affected without you even noticing.

  • Henrik

    Take legal action vs these rapists

  • Adam

    No topic should ever be off limits. It’s when you don’t talk about issues that they become dangerous.

  • Kasper F. Nielsen

    Good jokes usually are slightly offensive. It only makes it all the sweeter when there’s a bunch of whiny babies on the Internet complaining about it like it’s the end all be all.

  • Tim Otto

    Exactly, making jokes about these things do not play rape etc. down. What makes them funny is the knowledge of how offensive and unacceptable it is, and laughter is a reaction to that.

  • David Merryweather

    I suppose it’s no surprise whatsoever that the cosseted man-children that listen to Film Junk turn out to have completely misguided notions – as opposed to being callously outright pro-rape, racism, etc – to just how insensitive and utterly thick-headed it is to indulge in rape joke culture.
    Go back to alphabetising your Blu-ray collections, you barely-functioning nerds.

  • Gerry

    In ‘The Boat That Rocked’ there was a rape scene too. Someone sneaked in and had sex with a woman who was waiting in the dark for her boyfriend to have sex with her. (Rape being to have sex with a woman without her consent.)

    The Franco Lohan thing is clearly rape as, I’m pretty sure, defined by American law.

    Films seem to get a free pass when it comes to rape. If society really is that accepting then, it seems to me, these films should be R rated at the very least.

    Shame on Rogen and Goldberg and the wanker that wrote The Boat That Rocked.

  • PlanBFromOuterSpace

    I work at a theater, I’ve just seen bits and pieces of the film, and while this movie hasn’t done a ton of business, it’s done OK, but I haven’t heard anyone really talking about it one way or the other in the couple of weeks that we’ve had it, certainly not about the rape humor. I don’t think John Q. Moviegoer gives a shit. To say that Tumblr and the blogosphere is getting worked up about this is to say that this is a really, really, really slow week for things to complain about. Also, I think that a lot of people that get mad on the internet over a movie that’s doing pretty mediocre business have a very loose understanding of what terms like “everyone” means when it comes to talking about what people like, don’t like, or what they think is really controversial. A gag about taking advantage of Lindsay Lohan? That’s hardly edgy or anything to get worked up about, and I’m sure it’s been a punchline in many a late night talk show monologue since about 2005. It’s one of the easiest punchlines out there.

    I think a more interesting question would be something like this: In a movie where the protagonists are just being assholes and engaging in dick-headed behavior, at what point would they become TOO much of an asshole to where you just can’t support or sympathize with them anymore? Or, when does a villain become TOO villainous? Once in a while, there’s a movie that somehow creates a “they went too far” discussion about characters that you’re not supposed to sympathize with that do bad things that end up doing REALLY bad things.

  • ProCynic

    I’m a man-child! And open about it, unlike Jay’s cosseted love for Frank. :)

  • Matty

    Do people take this movie seriously? It is meant for entertainment purposes only. If you are offended in any way shape or form please do not watch, this is YOUR choice. Seth Rogan came out with Pineapple Express which was a stoner movie, breaking American laws. Now the guy comes out with a couple rape jokes (If you have used “rape” or “raped” as a verb describing a sports play or anything to that effect your argument is invalid.) This is the End is a controversial look at a very sensitive subject, religion as a whole. The Apocalypse! Though I am an Atheist, I find the idea of this movie comical, as is, I’m sure what the movie is meant for.

    As for the people that watch that have been the victims of rape, I am sure the artists that created this movie did not nor could they ever have your experience in mind. They did this based on their own sense of humor.

    Comparatively so, art is art. Would Van Gough apologize for the Mona Lisa if someone was offended by it?

  • Steve Ferraioli

    With all that hate, I have to wonder why you even made it to this site or listen to the podcast at all.

  • Steve Ferraioli

    Or Revenge of the Nerds for that matter?

  • Steve Kroodsma

    Patton Oswalt just wrote a really interesting “Closed Letter to Myself” (linked below), in which he mentions rape jokes. He mentions that an important part of touching on something like rape in comedy is ensuring that the victim isn’t the punchline (as with the Franco/Lohan thing).

    That said, the Emma Watson is the important flip side to this argument. The joke there is the well-meaning Jay Baruschel, intending to ensure the house is “safe” for a woman, ends up making it seem much less so. In this instance, the men (and how they think about rape) are the punchline, and Emma Watson is the most empowered person in the scene.

    It’s important to be conscious of this stuff not just in comedy, but media as a whole. Rape is a very real, very serious issue (a WHO study just came out which found that one in three women are assaulted in their life). Not talking about it won’t make it go away, nor will reserving it only for “serious” films like Precious. The idea behind rape jokes is to take something horrifying and finding a way to approach it. Anyone interested in seeing how a master does this should check out Anthony Jeselnik (linked below).

    Overall, the adage I’ve heard from comedians is “tell your rape jokes. Just don’t be surprised or angry if people get upset by them.” Hear hear.

    http://www.pattonoswalt.com/index.cfm?page=spew&id=167
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSXReKgIyo8

  • Rick Anderson

    i’m going to take a snippit from south park here, but either everything is ok to write about or nothing is. Once you draw a line the more the line will move untill you can’t write about anything. plus if you actually get offended then you probably have bigger issues then the joke being offensive.

  • Owozifa

    That’s a pretty good analysis. I think the thing I hate the most when this kind of stuff gets brought up is the gut level defensiveness it seems to strike in people. They don’t even want to talk about the reality of the situation.

    The reality is the perpetrator of rape is very rarely the subject of ridicule. Scorn, maybe. Probably not often enough. But where jokes are concerned it’s still probably more common on the whole for the victim to be made fun of. Something I still think flies in the face of any kind of logic.

  • Samanta Luna Moraga

    I think is strange that actually nobody seemed to cared about Jonah’s and Seth’s rape jokes.

  • Steve Kroodsma

    I agree, and the “gut level defensiveness” is something that always drives me nuts when this kind of stuff gets brought up, specifically to do with racist or sexist issues. People seem unwilling to consider a dissenting opinion if it means something they like might have sexist or racist undertones. The Alice Eve Star Trek Into Darkness underwear scene is a good example as well.

  • Jonny Ashley

    I’ve read this about “This is the End”, and it presumes that the entire movie is purely directed at belly laughs. The movie combines horror with comedy, and I felt it was appropriate to be taken out of my comfort zone several times over the course of the film. Not just when rape was included, but when characters were brutally killed, too. As for the Franco/Lohan joke, it really just wasn’t that funny, but a lot of the film is about these celebrities self deprecating themselves, and their despicable qualities that emerge in the fallout of a religious apocalypse. These are characters who are on trial for their sins, being judged by a purposely vague and inconsistent set of rules (I.e. Getting in to heaven has much less to do with being a good person, but whether or not you can squeeze in a genuine apology or sacrifice yourself to save someone else). The aesthetic of heaven at the end is even more of an indicator of this moral gray area: The reward for being a good person is an excessive hedonistic society with ferris wheels and Dubai builidings in the background.

  • KM

    Given Van Gogh was born several centuries after the Mona Lisa was painted, I very much doubt it. And you are making a completely fallacious argument, because there are valid reasons why people might be offended – or worse; some might be triggered, google the term if it’s new to you – by rape jokes. They are made because they are shocking. That’s the point. The potential to upset and offend is why they have power – and the people most likely to be upset by them are those most vulnerable to the subject. You are comparing someone choosing to be offended by something inoffensive with people offended by something intended to cause offense. That’s a daft argument.

    And I don’t know anyone who uses the term “raped” in the way you suggest. I don’t know anyone who uses the n word, either. They’re morally equivalent.

    Rape is something all women spend their lives terrified of. We know that if friends decided to rape us, we’d almost certainly not be believed. To impatiently dismiss women’s voices on this is not dissimilar to dismissing black people who don’t find blacking-up for comedy, or the n word, funny or acceptable.

    Incidentally, study after study shows that rapists think all men rape, and they were just unlucky enough to be caught. They cite rape jokes as evidence. So yes, it does contribute, it seems.

  • jen

    In The Boat That Rocked, the guy was pressured into doing it and he didn’t go through with it because he was caught. It is also set in the 70s when people weren’t completely informed about rape. That scene was used to show how willing the main character is to fit in and be pushed to doing things they don’t want to do (which didn’t end up happening anyway, he quickly escaped the scene).

  • real jonny ashley

    Shut up

  • Shalyxlamb

    Oh please, this is completely double standard!! So what there were rape jokes? I mean someone being murdered is worse than being raped yet its cool to have jokes about killing and actual killing in movies everywhere but any little hint at rape and people go berserk with the classic faux rage, just shut up people, if you want to get sentimental on rape then get sentimental on every single bad stuff that is being joked about everyday and everywhere. Bullshit!