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

By: Shalyxlamb

Shalyxlamb — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 07:00:00 +0000

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!

By: real jonny ashley

real jonny ashley — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 21:04:00 +0000

Shut up

By: jen

jen — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 23:06:00 +0000

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).

By: KM

KM — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 23:54:00 +0000

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.

By: Jonny Ashley

Jonny Ashley — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 17:35:00 +0000

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.

By: Steve Kroodsma

Steve Kroodsma — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 15:12:00 +0000

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.

By: Samanta Luna Moraga

Samanta Luna Moraga — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 22:36:00 +0000

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

By: Owozifa

Owozifa — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 21:36:00 +0000

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.

By: Rick Anderson

Rick Anderson — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 19:20:00 +0000

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.

By: Steve Kroodsma

Steve Kroodsma — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 14:32:00 +0000

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

By: Steve Ferraioli

Steve Ferraioli — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 12:57:00 +0000

Or Revenge of the Nerds for that matter?

By: Steve Ferraioli

Steve Ferraioli — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 12:56:00 +0000

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