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Daniel Tosh Makes Offensive Rape Joke, What Thinks NeoGAF?

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The joke isn't funny outside of the context, but maybe it was at the show. I'm not offended by it, but it could be me my bias against hecklers. Some of the most annoying people in the world.
 
Last night I told my best friend that I was going to kill him if he knocked over my bong. There wasn't going to a murder even if he had proceeded to pick up said bong and throw it through my television. There was no part of me that wanted to murder my friend.
 
daycru said:
Last night I told my best friend that I was going to kill him if he knocked over my bong. There wasn't going to a murder even if he had proceeded to pick up said bong and throw it through my television. There was no part of me that wanted to murder my friend.
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Then you shouldn't have "jokingly wished it upon him"

There are people that actually laugh at murders, you know!
 
daycru said:
Last night I told my best friend that I was going to kill him if he knocked over my bong. There wasn't going to a murder even if he had proceeded to pick up said bong and throw it through my television. There was no part of me that wanted to murder my friend.
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how fucking dare you threaten him like that, he should have called the police
 
shanshan310 said:
And you don't get to decide what's offensive.
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No, but is it ok to think getting offended by standup, which is more often than not full of edgy, offensive, humor, makes one seem entitled, self-important, and ultimately a little naive? Louis CK has a bit where he distinguishes between a "faggot" and a decent gay guy. Liza Lampanelli cracks on Jews and black dudes. A bunch of comedians make sexist jokes about their wives or how their girlfriends annoy them. Some comedians (a lot of comedians) have offensive jokes. Get over it or don't go to the shows. If you can't get over it then it's probably best to quietly leave when you're offended. Don't heckle.

I'll end this reply by posting this extremely offensive yet hilarious bit by the aforementioned Louis CK involving rape and Hitler.
 
He's always super inappropriate. That's the risk you take when you see Tosh. It's not the same as when Kramer went insane about black people that one time.
 
You guys should consider 310's point, and just leave it at that. Everyone has their opinion, and there is a reason that its zero tolerance for them. No one wins this one... don't wanna see any grey over it.

i7p0z06XuDYZ8.gif
 
daycru said:
Last night I told my best friend that I was going to kill him if he knocked over my bong. There wasn't going to a murder even if he had proceeded to pick up said bong and throw it through my television. There was no part of me that wanted to murder my friend.
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I think context is important here. A comedian suggesting some people murder a random person in the audience might draw some gasps.
 
shanshan310 said:
to what? your "no it isn't"s?
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No, my attempts to get you to quit evading my questions.

What about that joke expressed the intent that Daniel Tosh wanted her raped?

Edit: Actually, going to sleep. I've been arguing this for hours and the only counter-argument is that comedians should only joke about what people deem "safe"
 
As I said before, I think context really matters when doing these kind of jokes. The last thread about rape jokes, someone posted this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow7pwIDhl5c

That is hilarious.

Jimmy Carr makes offensive jokes, but he prepares his audience beforehand. Sometimes I find a joke so shocking I can't help but laugh. The coat hanger joke he says in this video I couldn't help but laugh at.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzb_p1mRW1M

He even made a joke about AIDS in Africa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgSfurLqnDc
 
shanshan310 said:
to what? your "no it isn't"s?
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Wouldn't it be funny if you saw Tosh.0 on your way home? Like you and 5 guys were walking down the street and someone randomly flashed you with their phone while it was showing videos of Tosh's show?

Get the joke? Taking the thing you're complaining about and saying it'd be funny if it happened to you. Does it mean I'm putting on a trench coat and downloading Tosh.0 videos to my phone as we speak?
 
don't heckle and you won't have rape jokes made about you. am I supposed to be outraged because it's a rape joke? I'm more outraged that someone would have the nerve to heckle because that's an actual action with consequences instead of some empty words.
 
After reading some of the responses I'm shocked at some people in this thread. Wow the world is turning off. You people do know this happened at a comedy show right? If you're up set about this you might as well just never listen to any comic from the last 15 years.
 
His show pushes the bar day in and day out, which is why it is funny.
NOW people are offended?
Racist jokes, people pooping, woman jokes gay jokes, but NOW people get offended?

People need thicker skins or things will just continue to be more pathetic.
So f'ing disgusted at how chic it is these days to get offended and make press for it.
 
I was prepared to see an entire thread of nothing but people bashing Tosh, and defending the heckler. Kinda surprised it didn't turn out that way.
 
Outrage247 said:
After reading some of the responses I'm shocked at some people in this thread. Wow the world is turning off. You people do know this happened at a comedy show right? If you're up set about this you might as well just never listen to any comic from the last 15 years.
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Appropriate user name there
 
Well, let's start by saying:

A comedy show IS NOT a debate forum, if you don't like something or you find something unfunny or whatever, you walk out (and meet the comedian outside, at the most), if everyone were entitled to interrupt the show everytime they felt a joke wsn't funny or went too far, we probably would not have Stand Up Comedy.
Furthermore, if you know the general runchiness and schtick(that disturb you) of a comedian, and still go to see him, you're an idiot.

Rape jokes are ok to make, in the controlled environment of a comedy show, they are heavy material, but so are many other things, that's not a reason to not do them.

In this particular instance, the quote was NOT the joke, but the comeback to a (stupid) heckling attempt, which comes off as unfunny and idiotic response, because it lacks a punchline-- either because it was a comeback, or because it's not reported, or because he's a shitty comedian (i don't know him).

Some people don't really like dark humor and that's fine, humor is a very selective kind of thing, if you laugh at a good rape joke, it doesn't mean you don't take rape seriously though, that must be clear.
It's also difficult to judge out of context - if you put into text, the Louis CK comeback to that girl heckling in one Louie episodes, it wouldn't sound much different, yet it was obviously just grinding her for interrupting and disturbing everyone, it had a comedic value and it wasn't meant to be taken literally.
On the other hand, stupid shit like Richards' infamous racist rant, was simply him losing his shit and sanity, no comedic value involved whatsoever.
So yes, context and delivery also matter.
 
dave is ok said:
In the vagina, most likely

Oh shit I made a joke
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You're just as funny as Daniel Tosh!

...

I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. That was too far.

Dali said:
Wouldn't it be funny if you saw Tosh.0 on your way home? Like you and 5 guys were walking down the street and someone randomly flashed you with their phone while it was showing videos of Tosh's show?

Get the joke? Taking the thing you're complaining about and saying it'd be funny if it happened to you. Does it mean I'm putting on a trench coat and downloading Tosh.0 videos to my phone as we speak?
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Dude what the fuck, now you're just trying to be offensive.
 
Comedians should never tell humor that's hurtful.

Be more like Bill Cosby or...um...Steve Harvey...or...Lucille...Ball...no, wait, she had some harsh stuff at times...
 
One of the best takes on offensive comedy by Doug Stanhope (that I absolutely agree with):

Doug Stanhope on offensive comedy
31 January 2011
sundayherald.com

RICKY Gervais doesn’t expect to be asked back to host the Golden Globes, after he annoyed Holywood A-listers by making jokes at the expense of Angelina Jolie, Robert Downey Jr and Bruce Willis, among others.

But who cares? For me personally, a tuxedo-clad circle of malignant egos patting each other on the ass for pretending to be other people couldn’t be offended enough. I am not against actors giving themselves awards any more than plumbers or dental hygienists, but I think such events should take place in some rented banquet hall of a Holiday Inn Express.

Accusations of “offensiveness” have also been levelled at Frankie Boyle, and those do interest me for many reasons, all of which are juvenile. Nothing makes me happier than to hear about a rift between comedians taken out on the internet for all the world to see. I scramble to my laptop to read every word in anticipation of choosing sides on something that has nothing to do with me. Boyle is currently being investigated by the media regulator Ofcom over a joke he made on his Channel 4 programme, Tramadol Nights, about Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey. The show also attracted complaints over quips about cancer victims running marathons, and supposed racial language in a gag about the Aghanistan conflict.

But Boyle is no stranger to controversy. Last April, he made some jokes at a show about the fine people afflicted with Down’s Syndrome only to find that a woman in the front row had a child with the same condition who made it known that she was none too pleased with the material.

Let me take a moment to say that any place where an audience member getting bent out of shape at a comedy gig can make national news is a fantastic place to be a comedian. Far more intriguing to me than the event in question would be to know how exactly it became a story. Did people rush into the streets calling 999? “Come quick! A woman’s been upset down at Ha Ha’s!” Were news crews dispatched to the scene? How did they find this woman? Were witnesses rounded up? I suppose we will never know.

But news it became, with people coming out of the sewers to berate or defend Frankie Boyle. Then another comedian – Mark Watson – became involved by suggesting on his blog that perhaps Mr Boyle did cross a line by picking on someone weaker than himself. He referred to Boyle as “rich, successful and physically healthy” to which Mr Boyle responded by calling Watson a “sellout” and a “c***”.

Any of these claims could be true as I don’t know either comic personally nor do I assume that either would want me named as sitting in their corner. I will try to remain neutral on this while clearly and loudly defending Frankie Boyle and not that other guy.

But honestly, the person who should be taking the brunt of all this is the woman who complained. All the while that I am getting vicarious thrills from the comedy infighting, it’s glaringly apparent and off-putting that nowhere in the reams of blog and news coverage did anyone take that woman to task.

Everyone instead questioned good taste versus bad or free speech against common decency, yet all of this responsibility is heaped on to the shoulders of the comedians and none on a random audience member who – for the price of a ticket – can wander into a dark room, stir up a ruckus and blend back into the sofa never to be heard from again.

How does the audience fall under the illusion that they have some right to not be offended? Certainly you have the right to not be harmed; but offended? Imagine the number of subjects that might offend any single individual and multiply that by the number of people in any given audience. Subtract all those topics from any given comic’s set list and what do you get? Mime. That’s what you get and possibly what you deserve. I’ve been booed for wearing the jersey of an offending sports team and then won the audience back with rape jokes. Who can tell?

The mother in this instance – Sharon Smith – was evidently having a fine time listening to Boyle’s show up until the point where he sat on her specific sandwich with the Down’s Syndrome jokes. Boyle is known for an extremely caustic brand of humour so it’s safe to say it wasn’t all bits about children’s television programmes and railway journeys up until that point.

People such as Mrs Smith like to wear their hardships like a crown of thorns. They define themselves by their misfortunes because they can get sympathy from them. I was a victim of this or a survivor of that. They use their trials and tribulations in place of unique personality traits. Sympathy is just another form of attention and everybody loves attention – so if you can’t get on Pop Idol, get cancer. And never go out in public without wearing the ribbon on your chest.

This is why humour is such a danger to them because if humour can diffuse the subject matter, it will diminish their sense of martyrdom. It threatens the very foundation of their identity. Media coverage like this only supports and fuels that delusion.

The fact is that really no comedian sets out to offend you. Some comics enjoy the challenge of taking a subject that is likely to be found offensive and trying to make it funny – but the object is still to make you laugh. Offence is only a calculated risk. It’s highly unlikely that a comedian whose only goal was to repulse you would ever make it past an open-mic stage, far less build a long career of touring theatres and television appearances. The jokes in question didn’t ruin the show – you did.

Like it or not, some audiences and audience members just plain suck. Theatre folks are keen on saying that there is no such thing as a bad audience, but theatre audiences have different expectations and actors are not held responsible for their own lines. If I went to see King Lear and yelled out “That’s not funny, my FATHER WAS BLIND!” – no newspaper headline would read: “Shakespeare ruins random man’s Friday night out.” Nor would any newspaper print: “Humourless mother of Down’s child spoils an evening of comedy.”

Worse still is that this Mrs Smith is quoted as saying that the material was “very childish, playground stuff, really”, and that she’d have more respect if the jokes were “clever or funny”.

So now we have a woman in the national spotlight who is upset, not at the fact that a comedian made jokes at the expense of the disabled, but at the quality of the jokes about the disabled. I’d like to hear some of the Down’s Syndrome jokes that Mrs Smith finds hilarious or high-brow.

A few years back I had a show in Edinburgh where – after I’d touched on everything from abortion to child molestation – an audience member flew into a teary rage when I casually mentioned the drug ecstasy. Her sister had died while taking the drug and the mere mention of the word had her screaming across the venue at me as though I was the one responsible for giving her sister that bad batch. I doubt very highly that if Mrs Smith had attended that show that she would have shared in the lady’s outrage. In fact, she probably would have been pissed off at this outburst screwing up my joke. So if Mrs Smith doesn’t feel compelled to take umbrage with everything that someone could find offensive, why should the comedian?

I’ve been in Frankie Boyle’s shoes more than enough times to share his odours. People get offended at a word without looking at its context. I had problems myself after being hustled out of a BBC 6 radio interview cut short after I’d made a joke about Sarah Palin having two retarded children – one with Down’s Syndrome and one who volunteered for duty in Iraq. Some Mrs Smith summarily called the word police and filed a complaint.

Does it matter that the word “retarded” isn’t offensive to me? Just down the road from me in Douglas, Arizona, you can still find the DARC – the Douglas Association for Retarded Citizens – open for business with a large, proud sign out on the highway. The NAACP – the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – is still the name for the largest civil rights organisation for ethnic minorities. Yet calling people retarded or coloured remains objectionable.

I’ve used the expression “Paki” on stage in the UK in an observation about words which are considered abusive abroad yet have little or no meaning whatsoever at home. A haemorrhoidal anguish blanketed the audience so heavily that it overrode the entire point and joke altogether. I was the only one who wasn’t squeamish, if only because I haven’t had a lifetime of people telling me that word was disparaging. Shortening Pakistani to “Paki” seems as normal to me as shortening “Timothy” to Tim” or Scientologist to “dipshit”.

People hear a buzzword or topic and start heading for the door before any context can be realised. If you say “f*** abortion” you’ll have a pro-lifer leave because you said “f***”. Whether the question is being too offensive or too banal, the answer is that playing to the audience rather than playing to your own instincts will always be a losing proposition.

There is no such thing as laughing at something you shouldn’t. You should laugh everywhere you can find even the slightest glimmer of humour. Life is a series of heartache, tragedy and injustice, punctuated by a few cocktails and that one trip to Reno. The more you can laugh at the ugliest parts, the better off you are.

It is embarrassing that it is necessary to continually point out that comedy is not only subjective but possibly the most subjective of all the “art forms”. Mrs Smith referred to what she considers “playground humour”. If there is no place for playground humour in this world, then you are saying that nobody born with a playground wit has a right to laugh. I hope that her Down’s Syndrome child can eventually learn to cultivate a taste for the layered, intellectual depths and sarcasm of a comic like Stewart Lee rather than the “pull-my-finger” fart jokes that now probably make her face light up like an angel.

(To be clear, this was no jab at Down’s Syndrome people. To date, nothing has repeatedly made me laugh – from my earliest recollections to this writing – like the sound of a turbulent, wet, angry fart. I double over in fits every time and I do so without any shame whatsoever.)

Some folks like to say “Well, that is simply not funny” about something, as though “funny” had some overlying barometer or science – like saying “that isn’t a martini” or “that isn’t water- soluble”. You may not find a comedian funny but if that comedian has the tenure, the audience and the success of someone like Frankie Boyle, it’s clear that enough people disagree with you that your opinion is really of no significance. Go out and find someone more to your liking. He won’t miss you when you’re gone.

What has always twisted my spine in hate and will seemingly continue to do so is the fact that one contentious piece of material from a comedian can cause such an uproar, yet the masses of tired, pedestrian comedy that is dumped regularly on the populace never causes any furore anywhere outside the green room door. If there is cause for outrage, it shouldn’t be when people are occasionally offended but when they are repeatedly bored. One comic getting into a heated altercation with an audience member will make every newspaper, yet 300 ticket sales every night for months at a suburban Jongleurs would barely make a Twitter post.

And that is what will be the eventual downfall of stand-up comedy as a respected artform, far less a lucrative business. Comedians, venues and media, all catering to the Mrs Smiths of the world. Just like back in the good ole US of A.
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Tosh apologizes

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/07/10/daniel-tosh-rape-jokes/

Daniel Tosh isn’t the sort of comedian who typically apologizes for anything. His hit Comedy Central series Tosh.0 frequently explores potentially offensive territory with jokes that some would consider misogynistic or racist, and that his fans find hilarious. But it seems Tosh firmly strayed over the line during a recent live appearance.

The comedian tweeted an apology and a link to a blogger’s account of his recent stand-up performance. “All the out of context misquotes aside, I’d like to sincerely apologize,” Tosh wrote.

The original anonymous “friend of a friend” account would be too sketchy to use for a source if not for Tosh’s tweet acknowledging there is some substance to it. So keeping in mind that Tosh says he was misquoted, the original account was by a female audience member who says she was unfamiliar with Tosh’s act when she caught his performance at the Hollywood Laugh Factory. She claims, “Tosh [started] making some very generalizing, declarative statements about rape jokes always being funny, how can a rape joke not be funny, rape is hilarious.”

The audience member felt “provoked” and says she yelled out, “Actually, rape jokes are never funny!”

Continues the account: “After I called out to him, Tosh paused for a moment. Then, he says, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…’ and I, completely stunned and finding it hard to process what was happening but knowing I needed to get out of there, immediately nudged my friend, who was also completely stunned, and we high-tailed it out of there … I should probably add that having to basically flee while Tosh was enthusing about how hilarious it would be if I was gang-raped in that small, claustrophobic room was pretty viscerally terrifying…”

Tosh tweeted: ”The point I was making before I was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them,” then added: “On a lighter note tonight’s new episode of Tosh.0 will be featuring clowns.”

Comedy Central had no comment.
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Tosh isn't even the first person to make the whole "rape can be funny" joke anyway. It's been around for years. I know Louis CK at the very least does it.

I don't know, my thing is freedom of speech.
 
I should probably add that having to basically flee while Tosh was enthusing about how hilarious it would be if I was gang-raped in that small, claustrophobic room was pretty viscerally terrifying…
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I can't even fucking imagine how horrifying that was.

That said, don't heckle.

That said, don't invoke gang rape as a response to heckling. Unless you're on X-Box Live... then it's perfectly acceptable, even expected.
 
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