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Can A Rape Joke Be Funny (Redux)?
New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
Is A Rape Joke Ever Funny?

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Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
07/03/09

In reply to Can A Rape Joke Be Funny (Redux)?
I'm not surprised the Onion has more hits than misses. The key to making funny jokes about taboo subjects - genocides, pedos, rape, even race - is that the victim cannot be the punchline. You've got to poke fun at the ludicrous circumstances (and usually hypocrisy) that allowed something tragic to come about. It can't just be 'She was stupid so she got raped!' or 'He was Chinese so no one understood him hahaha!'

Also, as with many race-related jokes, it helps if you're not a skeevy man telling the joke.
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Jack_Burton
07/02/09

In reply to Can A Rape Joke Be Funny (Redux)?
Great list! A good joke makes you think about the issue portrayed! A bad joke makes you think about the (failure of the) joke.
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Mishegoss
07/02/09

In reply to Can A Rape Joke Be Funny (Redux)?
I think almost anything can be funny provided that you understand that what you're laughing about is horrible.
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meritxell: an erotic life
07/02/09

@Mishegoss: I totally fucking agree.
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Whitney's Black Best Friend
07/02/09

In reply to Can A Rape Joke Be Funny (Redux)?
I posted this in the first "can rape every be funny" and I'll post it again. I think it can be funny. I have a rape joke that I routinely tell. My husband just doesn't like music. And people are always incredulous about this and ask why. I say, "Music raped him when he was 12." I always get laughs.
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clevernamehere
07/02/09

@Whitney's Black Best Friend: See, I don't find that funny and it seems to be mocking victims.
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MsOrangePekoe
07/02/09

@clevernamehere: (I snickered at that, so don't y'all jump on me now)

Is it funny because there is a role reversal? That when men are raped, it is laughable because men are perceived as active and in control, that it is not as usual for men to get raped, and the logistics are questionable to some?

Whereas since women are perceived as passive, and getting raped is a much more common and dangerous situation, it would not be as funny if he said that about you?
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clevernamehere
07/02/09

@MsOrangePekoe: I think this is shock humor, but it has an element of "poor little baby was raped and he's sad now" which is kind of playing on the whole "its funny when guys are treated like women thing" but its also playing on rape victims.

Lots of people laugh when they are surprised/shocked, but I don't consider it to be a high form of humor.
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Alexis
07/03/09

@Whitney's Black Best Friend: Hmm, I think the issue is more "an inanimate/abstract thing is raping" than "a man being raped, therefor it is funny" sort of situation.

So, I'm calling "funny"
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cand86
07/03/09

@Whitney's Black Best Friend: I don't find it that funny, but it's not offensive to me. It's more like the absurdity comes from the fact that music can't rape anybody.
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clevernamehere
07/02/09

In reply to Can A Rape Joke Be Funny (Redux)?
I think it is pretty hard to do a good rape joke. Wanda Sykes's detachable vagina joke and Sarah Silverman's joke about the irony of a Jewish girl being raped by a doctor are the only two I can think of.

I think its a lot harder to do a good rape joke if you're male. The worst example to me is Woody Allen's joke about how his ex wife's rape wasn't a moving violation.

Bad rape jokes are the ones that are just trying to be edgy, shocking or like Woody Allen's, mean spirited. Good ones comment on society, not the victim. Rape is too much of an easier shocker for comedians, they usually suck.
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la.donna.pietra
07/02/09

@clevernamehere: Sarah Silverman's joke is more of a Jewish joke than it is a rape joke, and maybe that's why it works--it fits into a long tradition of Jewish comedians poking fun at stereotypes. I don't like most of her humor, but I'll admit that one cracked me up.
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TheUptightMidwesterner
07/02/09

In reply to Can A Rape Joke Be Funny (Redux)?
The Onion article about the enviroment being raped after "leading everyone on" is one of the all-time classics.
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whats_in_a_name
07/02/09

In reply to Can A Rape Joke Be Funny (Redux)?
In my experience no, but I'm sure that the right person in the right situation could probably come up with one that was.
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♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
07/02/09

In reply to Can A Rape Joke Be Funny (Redux)?
I wasn't expecting much, but the article makes good points - breaking down who is being made fun of in each joke. i never thought i'd say this EVER, but there may be instances in which a rape joke can be non-offensive... or even... funny...
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greengrey
07/02/09

In reply to Can A Rape Joke Be Funny (Redux)?
A rape joke can be funny if it's not mocking the victim. It's funny to mock the ass holes who say she was asking for it, as in the "raped environment just asking for it". That was funny.

Oh, and that picture is icky.
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IBleedGlitter: The High Priestess of Tinsel
07/02/09

@greengrey (raidersofthelostSTAR): Agreed. I'm all for edgy humor, but making fun of victims is just stupid, tacky, and not funny.
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cactuswren
07/02/09

@greengrey (raidersofthelostSTAR): Agreed. That list made very good points--worth reading before responding!
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MarissaExplainsItAll
07/02/09

@greengrey (raidersofthelostSTAR): @IBleedGlitter: The High Priestess of Tinsel: Exactly, those assholes should be humiliated, but a victim, hell no.
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BellaTricks
07/02/09

@greengrey (raidersofthelostSTAR): This is my thinking as well.

Are rape jokes tasteful? Never. Are they appropriate? Probably not. However, this doesn't mean that no rape jokes can be funny-- as long as certain boundaries aren't crossed, even in jest.
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LaComtesse
07/02/09

@greengrey (raidersofthelostSTAR): YES. Thank you. It's called irony.
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sybann
07/02/09

@cactuswren: I actually agreed with most of her assessments and why it worked or didn't - thanks for the reminder to READ the thing before going off on that dreadful picture and please tell me that movie did shit box office....
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ObtuseIntolerant
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
Oh I meant to say this earlier...thanks for the piece on this gorgeous, wonderful brown girl role model. I love her.
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LyleFelange
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
Wow. I find Smith's argument (well, what's presented of it here) and most of these comments to be pretty ludicrous. I'm was a first-generation college student, now a first-generation Ph.D. The idea that because your parents didn't go to college necessarily means they wouldn't understand Anna Karenina is laughable at best and deeply classist at worst. My Dad's a construction worker who reads about string theory in his spare time. Not to mention...who gives a shit if someone's READ Anna K., let alone understood it. I can think of far more useful barometers of intelligence. I've also known quite a few idiots who were big fans of that dreadful book.
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Dogtanian
12/15/08

@LyleFelange: Yes. I'm actually rather stunned by this, as I'm the only person in my family to have gone to university and my parents are still two of my favourite people to talk to, that's despite an education gap, being opposite ends of the political spectrum and different religions. Interesting people are interesting people.

Also, I don't know if it's a U.S thing , since university education is so expensive there, but there seems to be far more personal importance placed on what you studied and it's impact on you in the U.S then in the U.K
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Diziet_Sma
12/15/08

@LyleFelange: Exactly! What you said. I am first-gen college and my mother is way more intelligent and interesting to talk to than, well, most people.
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Cam/ron
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
My dad and I have the same sense of humor (he raised me on Monty Python and Jewish comedy) and share a few political views but there's a little class divide between us. He's from the white-collar middle class as a former office supervisor, and I'm in the white-collar working class as a community newspaper reporter and music writer. He could never understand the worlds of unpaid internships, freelance writing that usually gets paid chump change as well as how little money is in the pockets of independent media.
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nex0s
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
I loved "White Teeth" but really disliked "On Beauty". I found myself profoundly annoyed by her second novel - it felt.... juvenile, whereas her first novel was so marvelous, it was a real let down.

I don't know if I can read this. I don't want to have my heart broken again!
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nessalicious
12/15/08

@nex0s: On Beauty was her third novel.
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nex0s
12/15/08

@nessalicious: Whoops! What's her second then? Just curious because I loved "White Teeth" so much.
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nessalicious
12/15/08

@nex0s: Autograph Man got terrible reviews but I really enjoyed it, it was much more light hearted than either White Teeth or On Beauty though, bit fluffy.

Then again I am a Zadie fangirl so my opinion is super biased.
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sportz.star
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
It's true that the problem of talking to your parents once you've achieved the goal of gaining more education, better employment, and "social status" (for lack of a better way to describe it) is rarely addressed. Someone should write that book. I could provide stories. Clashes occur about mundane things. Sometimes it's not easy.
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AthertonMerriweather
12/15/08

In reply to New Yorker: Zadie Smith Writes About Comedy & Class Issues
I was the first in my family to go to college, but I feel like my mother resents me for it. She's constantly telling me how easy I have it compared to when she was my age because I have an education. She's openly said that she wishes I didn't go to college because I only make her feel dumb.
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thesciencegirl
12/15/08

@AthertonMerriweather: My mom sends mixed signals. She always told me to get an education and worry about marriage and kids later because she felt that she had no choices. So, I did that. But her insecurity about her intellect poisons our relationship sometimes. When she gets really upset with me, her favorite "insult" is to call me intellectual. "Don't be so intellectual," she'll say. It really hurts my feelings. It's not like I'm pretentious. But, okay, maybe my vocabulary and way of expressing myself is different from the rest of my family. It's tough.
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