But I also don't think that it was a real attempt at social commentary

This is a dubious statement. I mean, you can certainly think that, but do we really need more stricter definitions and more judgment on what is and what is not social commentary and therefore somehow acceptable.

Doesn't it suffice for you to say you thought there satire sucked without your having to add it really wasn't social commentary?

Giving these people press just encourages them. Better to let them stew in anonymity and/or be excoriated by their local peers. Between this and the Imus nonsense. Seriously, people need to stop being upset by every 2 bit hack with a keyboard who makes a stupid joke or a moronic comment.

If anything, an angry blog post joke encourages these kids. They get attention for their antics, and will keep pushing the button.

Isn't this why we have college newspaper advisors? Where were they on this one?

The article is without merit, and the advisors should have stepped in to teach a valuable journalism 101 lesson: If is offensive but well written and pointed, it's worth printing. If, instead, it is just giving vent to one person's lack-luster sense of humor, then it belongs on your Myspace, not the college paper.

If you're going to offend someone, do it on purpose and do it with style, kids!

Trust me, in this situation, there needs to be as much exposure and outrage as possible. The Gazette operates with almost absolute autonomy from any administration, including the student council, who, through student fees, fund it. None of the higher-ups want to ever be caught in a situation that could possibly be seen as them dictating content of the paper. This also means that the editors of the Gazette are not subject to the University's harrassment and discrimination policy when writing/publishing. Student complaints are usually from a small group and are generally either ignored or ridiculed. The campus has 30,000 students, but it's a pretty apathetic body politic and the University has a reputation for being a "party" school. Having lived in the city that Western occupies for my whole life, and having attended (though not finished), I can say that the reputation is justified.

This event is kind of a catalyst for the exposure of an environment of entitlement and elitism at the paper, and the more negative reaction these kids get, the more they're going to realize that they are genuinely responsible and accountable for everything that they write and publish.

Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure I should say that I submitted this story to Broadsheet.

I could care less about the specifics of this intramural strife, but I would like to take issue with the headline of the article.

Like any kind of jokes, rape jokes can be either not funny OR funny.

I'm not just being glib. When we start saying what we can and cannot joke about, that's censorship--generally a bad thing in my book. And I've heard some great rape jokes. How about Sarah Silverman's bit in The Aristocrats?

I am so tired of people saying "Grow a thicker skin" inresponse to ugly screeds like the Gazette's so-called spoof. Thinking and writing about women in these terms makes it easier for the reader to see women in these terms as well. And that makes it easier to treat women with less respect, to abuse women physically and sexually.

Clearly, this doesn't apply to jjust women. There are ample examples in history for derogatory speech leading to dehumanizing acts.Look at all the anti-Semitic doggeral produced by the Third Reich to help good Germans to think of Jews as less-than-human. Look at the tortured logic in our own nation's legal code that somehow made black people 2/3 human (or was it 4/5? I can't remember, thank goodness). Then there's Ann Coulter and her "faggot" remark, and Don Imus and his "ho's" and that nauseating attack that included death threats and sexual violation against a well-known female blogger.

This kind of verbal bullying is not something that overly-sensitive people are over-reacting to. It is the first step towards physical bullying. It persuades readers to see the object of derision as, well, an *object* instead of a human being. When that happens, we all become a little less human, and a little more bestial. This shouldn't be tolerated against anyone.

Language is a gift. Words change worlds. We should all use them wisely, and for the betterment of ourselves and our fellow human beings.

Reminds me of several of the 'Drawn Together' episodes.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0386180/

Sometimes I read too quickly, but I missed it. It said,

"To Ostrich's dismay, the vagina followed, giggling as it said, 'I love it when a man in uniform takes control.'"

I'm confused. Who/what was raped, exactly?

I'm not saying that this wasn't a terribly unfunny attempt at humor (which is a much more serious sin than being "offensive"), but how is it rape?

And I agree with the poster who said that rape jokes can be funny. Any kind of joke can be funny. It doesn't naturally follow that laughing at a rape joke makes one less sympathetic towards rape victims. Just like laughing at "Blazing Saddles" doesn't make one less sensitive to racism. Comedy and human nature are too complex to suggest that specific behavior naturally follows from specific language.

fart jokes.

Hogan's Heroes and The Producers made me realize that most Nazis were cute and lovable.

Even Pandagon had to (grudgingly) admit that Sarah Silverman's rape joke in the Aristocrats was funny. They got her back though by noting she sleeps with misogynist Jimmy Kimmel!

The following is from George Carlin's "Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics" show. This is track 4, appropriately titled "Rape Can Be Funny". I'm not trying to disrespect people with real views on the topic at hand I just wanted to present an authority's opinion on whether or not rape can be funny.

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Ohhh, some people don't like you to talk like that. Some people like to shut you up for saying those things. You know that. Lots of people. Lots of groups in this country want to tell you how to talk. Tell you what you can't talk about. Well, sometimes they'll say, you can talk about something but you can't joke about it. Say you can't joke about something because it's not funny. Comedians run into that shit all the time. Like rape. They'll say, "You can't joke about rape. Rape's not funny." I say, "fuck you, I think it's hilarious. How do you like that?" I can prove to you that rape is funny. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd. See, hey why do you think they call him "Porky," eh? I know what you're going to say. "Elmer was asking for it. Elmer was coming on to Porky. Porky couldn't help himself, he got a hard- on, he got horney, he lost control, he went out of his mind."

A lot of men talk like that. A lot of men think that way. They think it's the woman's fault. They like to blame the rape on the woman. Say, "she had it coming, she was wearing a short skirt." These guys think women ought to go to prison for being cock teasers. Don't seem fair to me. Don't seem right, but you can joke about it. I believe you can joke about anything. It all depends on how you construct the joke. What the exaggeration is. What the exaggeration is. Because every joke needs one exaggeration. Every joke needs one thing to be way out of proportion. Give you an example. Did you ever see a news story like this in the paper? Every now and then you run into a story, says, "some guy broke into a house, stole a lot of things, and while he was in there, he raped an 81 year old woman." And I'm thinking to myself, "WHY??? What the fuck kind of a social life does this guy have?" I want to say, "why did you do that?" "Well she was coming on to me. We were dancing and I got horney. Hey, she was asking for it, she had on a tight bathrobe." I'll say, "Jesus Christ, be a little fucking selective next time will you?"

Now, speaking of rape, do you know what I wonder? I wonder is there more rape at the equator or the north pole. These are the kind of things I think about when I'm sitting home alone and the power goes out. I wonder is there more rape at the equator or the north pole. I mean per capita, I know the populations are different. Most people think it's the equator, I think it's the north pole. People think it's the equator because it's hot down there, they don't wear a lot of clothing, guys can see women's tits, they get horney and there's a lot of fucking going on. That's exactly why there's less rape at the equator. Because there's a lot of fucking going on. You can tell there's a lot of fucking at the equator, take a look at the population figures. Billions of people live near the equator. How many Eskimos do we have? Thirty? Thirty five? No one's getting laid at the north pole, it's too fucking cold. Guys say to their wives, "hey tonight honey, huh, tonight, huh?" "Are you crazy? The wind chill factor is three hundred below." These guys are deprived. They're horney. They're pent up. Every now and then...p-pmm...they bust out, they got to rape somebody.

Now, the biggest problem an Eskimo rapist has, trying to get wet leather leggings off a woman who is kicking. Did you ever try to get leather pants off of someone who doesn't want to take them off? You would lose your hard-on in the process. Up at the north pole you dick would shrivel up like a stack of dimes. That's another thing I wonder. I wonder, does a rapist have a hard-on when he leaves the house in the morning, or does he develop it during the day while he's walking around looking for somebody. These are the kind of thoughts that kept me out of the really good schools.

Now I've probably got the feminists all pissed off at me because I'm joking about rape. ...

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I'll stop here but that's more due to space limitations than anything else. It's unfortunate because the next section is right on topic with this thought. Read the whole show here if you want (it's where I found it).

http://www.iceboxman.com/carlin/pael.php