Letters to the Editor
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NOT FUNNY!!!!
That skit was NOT FUNNY because it made fun of me!!! So what if I go around in a self-righteous snit all the time? Those three stooges have no right to laugh at ME!!! If I see Will Ferrell, I am going to give him such a talking to! Unless he's with John C. Reilly or Adam McKay, in that case I will wait until later.
I hope I haven't offended anyone.
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Ever Worry
about how much attention that skit has now gotten because of criticism of it?
It sucked. We should try to use good skits to quibble over.
How about, "Jane, you ignorant slut," on the SNL re-run? Or uncle Danny telling Gilda and Jane to "work the pants"?
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Now now don't go all bombhead Mohammed over it
Or do, and run down the street in one big flaming mob, smashing windows until we all bow down to your evolved tolerance.
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To answer the question
No.
Everything you said in the video was right-on. But can we get text transcripts? I'd much rather read than watch a talking head read to me.
The visual medium is fine if there is some point to it other than dictation. I fail to see what video is adding here.
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The perils of righteousness
I agree with T.C.F: the sketch didn't seem to me like a dumb excuse to represent rape and murder as funny or admirable. It pretty obviously seemed to be a sketch about how we easily become fanatic about things, then use that devotion as an excuse to let the worse angels of our nature have their fun. As such, the worse the protagonists act in nominal service to their cause, the better the point is made. You can have comedy or satire without exaggeration and transgression, but in that case they've got a metaphorical arm tied behind their collective back....
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TC-F
Always a voice of reason.
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Why the continued hate for the video blog?
I like being able to put a face to the name. It makes the author seem less abstract.
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rape
Um, I still hate the video blog.
(But at least the comments so far are about your message, not your looks! This comment doesn't count. Pretend I didn't mention it!)
My take is this:
1) Rape is never funny.
2) Rape jokes are rarely funny.
3) This skit was not funny.
On the other hand, I once had to work on a team with another writer who had been raped. She didn't claim to have been raped; she said she had strong feelings because of what happened to "a friend." But it was pretty obvious that the friend was her way of talking about something she wasn't yet able to talk about.
Anyway, the rape of a major character was a plot point in the story. This rape was definitely not being promoted; it was an act of villainy, which had happened off-screen and long ago, important primarily as a motivation driving this character. But this other writer wouldn't allow the word "rape" to be used in front of her, which was problematic since she was supposed to be working on the story, which we had inherited as part of the franchise, and which happened to include a rape.
I don't think she was faking her feelings; she really did have strong emotions triggered by the word "rape." The "friend" had been raped less than a year previously, so the trauma was obviously fresh in her mind.
The point I'm getting to is that this woman wanted a world where no one mentioned rape ever, for any reason. It really did hurt her to be around anyone mentioning rape. She wasn't able to be rational on the subject.
I have sympathy for her pain. But I also know that women who have just had miscarriages sometimes hate to hear that their friends are pregnant, and hate to see babies at the store. Yet no one is going to hide the baby until Myrna gets over her miscarriage. It's likely that some soap opera will mention miscarriage. The sufferer just has to suck it up and live in the hard, cruel world with the rest of us.
What about miscarriage jokes? Hmm.
Maybe the best approach is to be aware that this really is a painful subject to many people. Given that, it probably better be a really funny joke to justify existing at all.
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Yes I love censorship
Especially when it's driven by who ever screams the most.
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diagnosis
Okay, something was bugging me... the rape part of this skit really did seem jarring for some reason, more so than the dead babies (which struck me as more bizarre than offensive).
I think I figured out why. See if you agree with me:
I realized that it wouldn't have bothered me if the guys had done their lewd look-up-and-down of the cigarette girl, then come out from the back zipping up their pants. The girl running out screaming "Rape!" put it over the top.
Why? Looking at my reaction, it seemed dumb at first. The implication of the rape is there if you leave the women out, why does making it explicit cause a problem? Surely it's not just a matter of me squeamishly not wanting to see the victim?
Then I realized it wasn't the explicitness, it was the fact that the other victims in the skit were deliberately sort of funny. The guy on the ground - played for laughs. Fat lady, played for laughs. What's jarring is that in this skit, you feel you are being asked to laugh at the woman who has just been raped. I don't think this was done intentionally, it's just a bad skit. But it's there.
It doesn't bother me that much, but it did strike me as an out-of-place, jarring note, as I said. Does anyone agree with me?
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To Tracy
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP!!!
Still professional, and still Broadsheet's go-to-girl!!!
But "unfunny"? Wouldn't "laughless" have been a better selection of adjective?
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George Carlin said it best 20 years ago -
"Rape can be funny. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd - now isn't that funny?"
Maybe not anymore!
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rape jokes: a proud american tradition
Listen: there are a lot of terrific rape jokes out there. Let's not malign the entire rape joke industry because of one misfire. I come from a long line of rape jokers. I was the first in my family to go to college, but I still came back to work in the rape joke mill when I graduated. And I'm proud to report that our facility has had zero rapes in 2007, a first in its entire history of operations. Thank you, and God bless America.