Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind unfunny, unoriginal comedians who for getting a giggle out of the audience rely on showing the left over scraps from material the free TV stations recycled for “Funniest Home Videos” in 1982, like Daniel Tosh does in his “comedy show” tosh.O. Pseudo-comedians like him are a dime a dozen, and we can just not watch them or go to their shows, that part is easy.
But what makes me really angry is when a guy like Tosh is not only unfunny, but also turns out to be a rape-trivializing misogynist asshole. Then I worry that some of the dollars I pay every month for my cable subscription with Foxtel may actually go to this person, and I would really hate that. So here’s what happened in one of Tosh’s live shows the other day :
So Tosh then starts making some very generalizing, declarative statements about rape jokes always being funny, how can a rape joke not be funny, rape is hilarious, etc. I don’t know why he was so repetitive about it but I felt provoked because I, for one, DON’T find them funny and never have. So I didnt appreciate Daniel Tosh (or anyone!) telling me I should find them funny. So I yelled out, “Actually, rape jokes are never funny!”
I did it because, even though being “disruptive” is against my nature, I felt that sitting there and saying nothing, or leaving quietly, would have been against my values as a person and as a woman. I don’t sit there while someone tells me how I should feel about something as profound and damaging as rape.
After I called out to him, Tosh paused for a moment. Then, he says, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…” and I, completely stunned and finding it hard to process what was happening but knowing i needed to get out of there, immediately nudged my friend, who was also completely stunned, and we high-tailed it out of there. It was humiliating, of course, especially as the audience guffawed in response to Tosh, their eyes following us as we made our way out of there. I didn’t hear the rest of what he said about me.
Listen, Foxtel, I do not want any of my subscription money to go to this asshole, and I suggest your management, and that of the Comedy channel, review their commitment to this particular show. It is a terribly unfunny piece of TV at the best of times, and even without Tosh insulting audience members and making inexcusable jokes about a topic that should not lend itself to joke-making, rape, this guy needs to disappear from the screen. These kinds of “jokes” are triggering for rape victims and -survivors, and they are completely unacceptable. Hiding behind “it’s just a joke” is not an excuse for disgusting things you say.
You can let Foxtel know what you think about tosh.O here, and the Comedy Channel here.
Probably not… but The Onion did.