In 2012, Daniel Tosh made a rape joke during a standup set in California. A woman in the audience stood up and had a problem with it, being a victim of sexual assault herself. Tosh saw a heckler, and reacted immediately. He said "Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now?"
Response to the episode was divisive, with many supporting the woman's blog post about her experience, and many comics arguing for the industry's freedom of speech (but also, freedom from heckling). It's interesting to wonder how the same scene would play out now – or if a comic would even go there in the first place.
"I don’t think all comics feel the same way about all topics," says Cameron Esposito, whose brilliant new special Rape Jokespremiered Monday. "There’s this presumed 'comics feel this way,' ‘women feel this way’ – as if those are two separate groups and as if all comics line up. We are not a uniform group of people and I think debate among people in the same profession is really positive."
In Rape Jokes, Esposito examines the culture that led us to 2017's #MeToo revolution, including hilarious anecdotes about her childhood at Catholic school and abstinence-only sex education. She shares the story of her own sexual assault in the same hour as a colorful poop emergency, and she makes it look easy.
SEE ALSO:Samantha Bee has always been Trump's toughest critic. She just never got the credit.Esposito worked on Rape Jokesfor six months, about half the time she'd usually have for a special. She woke up in the middle of the night with the title and worked from there.
"Humor is one of the greatest coping mechanisms that we have as people. We can take the power out of our pain."
"I’m not trying to make rape culture a pleasant experience, but I am trying to make education a pleasant experience," Esposito told Mashable via a phone interview. "For an audience I would want the folks to learn, and I would want folks to come away with maybe a slightly different perspective."
Comedy has a bit of a reputation for rejecting "PC culture," as Esposito notes in the special, and she questions why, since it really just means using different words than the ones we used to use.
Indeed, in the age of Trump, there is an epidemic of provocation for provocations' sake (and not limited to comedians). Nothing is supposed to be off-limits, which then creates a level playing field, but the issue with rape jokes has always been that they could potentially alienate a significant part of the audience.
"When you’re dealing with something that really affects and is a lived experience for so many people in your audience and so many comics...this is like such a common experience, so we shouldn’t act as if or joke about it as if it’s an abstract concept but more as if it’s a real thing," Esposito says.
When audiences reject a joke, Esposito says that's feedback, not censorship, and comics can challenge themselves to come at the joke differently – to, you know, learn and improve.
"If other comics feel attacked or trolled when they don’t take a topic seriously, I would just challenge comics to maybe be a little more serious about our craft," she said.
"I hope that stand up continues to evolve as a medium," Esposito says. "I wouldn’t ever want to commit so much time, energy and love to an art that I thought was not...evolving, or didn’t need to change every day."
The special is a master class, and one of those that pushes audiences to think critically (while also laughing a ton). Esposito also puts her money where her mouth is – there's a reason this isn't in Netflix's growing library of stand up comedy, and that's because it's only available on Esposito's website, where optional donations benefit RAINN.
"The point in the set is that we can talk about individuals who have done terrible things, and we should talk about that, and at the same time we have to talk about the way in which culture creates the perfect conditions for this to happen," Esposito says. "I think that working on those conditions is perhaps the way to create the most change."
Rape Jokesis now streaming (watch above).
TopicsActivismCelebrities
(责任编辑：休閑)
Olympics official on Rio's green diving pool: 'Chemistry is not an exact science'
The diving pool for the Summer Olympics mysteriously turned green this week in Rio de Janeiro, then
...[详细]
例假期間是不可以做激光手術的
，因為激光手術會影響到皮膚的健康，而例假的時候身體抵抗力是比較弱的 ，很容易會引起很多的不良反應，所以大家應該要了解激光手術的操作時間
。在例假期間 ，應該要多注意休息 ，而且要調
...[详细]
玉米粒因為其吃起來的味道非常好再加上對於人體有非常多的好處 ，比如提高人體免疫力
、調理腸胃 、降血脂 、降血壓、養顏美容等等好處而非常受人歡迎
。玉米粒的做法是有很多的 ，可以搭配其他食材炒著吃，可以用來煮湯、
...[详细]
胃病是人們最常見的疾病之一
。因為胃部沒有肌肉和脂肪物質纏繞 ，當溫度低時，很容易受“涼”
，引起收縮 ，導致胃痛 ，嘔吐
，消化不良等症狀 。因此 ，有胃病的朋友應特別注意胃的溫暖
，規律的飲食
，以及健康的“胃病”
。
...[详细]Teacher absolutely nails it with new homework policy
The war against homework has begun.
。A massive pile of homework after a long day at school is enough
...[详细]
牙髓炎是一種經常發生在人們身體上的牙齒疾病 ，但是在牙髓炎的發病早期，患者往往都沒有采取正確的治療方法
，以至於錯過了最佳治療時間 。牙髓炎主要是由於患者的牙髓感染到細菌引發的一種炎症
，所以牙髓炎和齲齒蛀牙
...[详细]
胳膊上長了個硬疙瘩有點疼是什麽原因呢?其實 ，這種情況是比較典型的毛囊炎
。當天氣轉熱或是運動之後
，許多人的油脂分泌更加旺盛 ，皮膚問題似乎越來越多
，毛囊炎患者越來越多。雖然毛囊炎不是一個嚴重的皮膚問題，但
...[详细]
一天的睡眠質量決定了我們的生活質量
，所以良好的睡眠對我們來說非常重要 ，但很多人在睡覺的時候
，會會有各種不適 。那麽睡覺呼吸不暢怎麽回事?睡眠期間呼吸困難很可能是由過敏性哮喘引起的。過敏性哮喘是一種比較頑
...[详细]Mom discovers security cameras hacked, kids' bedroom livestreamed
A mother in Houston, Texas woke up one morning to pretty much every parent's worst-case scenario.。 "
...[详细]
新生兒的胎發主要是指新生兒剛從媽媽肚子裏的時候腦袋上就有頭發
。而在老一輩的人的觀念裏認為新生兒的胎發非常重要，所以不管是剃胎發的時間還是胎發的保存都有講究 。在給新生兒剃胎發的時候 ，一定要深思熟慮，因為
...[详细]
There's a big piece of fake chicken stuck to this phone case
一到晚上胸悶氣短心慌
曼聯官方宣布C羅離隊（c羅葡萄牙隊）
Photos show the Blue Cut fire blazing a path of destruction in California