Is Rape Funny?

Well, no, of course not. Rape is terrible. But George Carlin, one of the most revered American comedians of the 20th century, says that rape can be funny. So it's cool when Daniel Tosh makes fun of a heckler by saying how funny it would be if like five guys raped her, right?

Well, no. The difference is that George Carlin, along with Louis CK and other people who have wrought comedy from the sensitive subject of rape, are extremely sophisticated comedians to the point where you could call them social satirists, social commentators, or (almost) stand-up philosophers (to paraphrase Mel Brooks). Daniel Tosh was, is and always will be extremely unfunny, lazy, obnoxious, tasteless, artless, pandering, juvenile, anti-intellectual, and idiotic to the point of being submental. What happened in the recent incident at the Laugh Factory just highlighted these qualities in the starkest terms.

Like Michael Richards, and many others before him, Daniel Tosh has a right to say whatever he wants, but we have a right to call for a boycott of his endless dumbassery and try to excise his offensive tumor-like existence from the mainstream of our culture. This is not to say I approve of heckling at all, but his response to the heckling was over the line enough to reasonably prompt a petition/boycott type campaign.

In my mind, there's nothing wrong with the public holding comedians dealing with sensitive subjects to a higher standard. Censorship is bad, but losing popularity is not censorship. It's just what happens when you piss off too many people. If Daniel Tosh was actually funny, this never would have happened.

Thanks to Ben Stanton for inspiring me to write this. Also, read this if you're as interested in the 'controversy' as I am.